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Thursday
14Aug2008

Inglorious 'Guru': Mike Myers May Join Tarantino's 'Bastards'

DateThursday, August 14, 2008 at 8:15PM
I'm not even going to pretend I understand the logic on this one, but Quentin Tarantino has asked Mike Myers to join his Inglorious Bastards cast, according to Variety. Both men are coming off the worst-received films of their careers, Tarantino with Death Proof and Myers with The Love Guru, so suddenly it's like two acquired tastes that probably don't go all that well together.

Myers is the latest and the weirdest name on QT's wish list for the epic World War II exploitation film. Brad Pitt is already in the cast, as is horror film director Eli Roth. On top of those names, the director hopes to land Simon Pegg, Nastassja Kinski, B.J. Novak from The Office and David Krumholtz, an actor you recognize anytime you see him, though you might not be able to place the name; he's currently on the CBS series Numbers.

Myers would play a British general in Bastards who helps hatch the plot to wipe out the damned Nazis.

It bears pointing out that even really good movies can be undone by shaky casting. Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, while still as good as any version of the story ever film, suffers when Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, and (surprisingly) Jack Lemmon are on screen. It's more noticeable in average movies, though, like Sofia Coppola in Godfather Part III or the collected works of Bubba Smith.

Can Myers pull off drama? He tried in 54...and failed. Oh, how he failed. And again, that was not a great movie so the performance looks that much worse.

The trouble with Inglorious Bastards is that only two of the casting decisions so far seem to be natural choices, Pitt and Kinski. You hope Tarantino knows what he's doing, but with the film blazing into production this October and eyeing a Cannes premiere in May, you'd think doing a high-wire walk with the actors might not be the most valuable way to go.

And what does Pitt think of all of this? He was the lead, he was the first one to sign on, and now they're grabbing three comedians and a director of bad horror movies? He's backed out of movies before. I'm just sayin'...

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment1 Comment |

Reader Comments (1)

Any word on Eddie Murphy making a cameo?

Friday, August 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWill

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