-
Sunday, October 18
It's been two years since Eli Roth directed a feature, but he's kept busy on the side with writing, producing, and acting. After his recent appearance as Sgt. Donny Donowitz in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Roth is returning to horror, the genre that made him famous with his Cabin Fever and Hostel movies. He's also readying himself to take on science fiction.
At the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico, Roth announced that he is finishing a script for a new sci-fi movie called Endangered Species, which he also plans to direct. He also mentioned that he's writing and directing a feature-length version of his Thanksgiving mock-horror trailer that appeared in Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse double-feature. Roth said that he needed the time away from directing to revive his creativity.
I haven't been this excited since the first Hostel. I had to divorce myself from the [Hostel] project 100% to free up my brain for other things.
Posted 10/18/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Robert Rodriguez | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, September 14
Christoph Waltz, the evil Nazi from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, is getting another villainous role — in The Green Hornet, according to Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog.
Waltz's slimy, yet playful, performance in Basterds is likely what brought the 52-year-old into the limelight, and and it's perfect for director Michel Gondry's action-comedy aesthetic.
Recent reporting had pegged actor Nicolas Cage as the lead villain for the movie, only described as a "gangster villain." But it seems this latest news has put him out of the film for good.
Next Showing: Green Hornet releases December 17th, 2010
Posted 9/14/2009 by Jim
Related: Christoph Waltz | The Green Hornet | Inglourious Basterds
-
Sunday, August 23
Bomb of the Week: This week's winner is X Games 3D: The Movie. The 90-minute advertisement for ESPN's X-Games was hard-core avoided by moviegoers as it earned just $572/screen, one of the worst averages for any new release all year.
Posted 8/23/2009 by reelz
Related: Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, August 21
It's been a cruel summer — and spring — at the box office for Hollywood's biggest stars. The less-than-stellar success for A-Listers has many in Hollywood worried, according to The New York Times.
A-list movie stars have long been measured by their ability to fill theaters on opening weekend. But never have so many failed to deliver, resulting in some rare soul-searching by motion picture studios about why the old formula isn’t working — and a great deal of anxiety among stars (and agents) about the potential vaporization of their $20 million paychecks.
The under-delivering stars cited include Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell. At best their films had weak returns. Others close in on the bomb category. Even Johnny Depp's turn in Public Enemies didn't bring the hoped for audience.
The trend is especially clear when you look at the movies that have topped the box office this summer and their leading stars — Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Shia LaBoeuf), Up (Ed Asner), and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Daniel Radcliffe). Will Brad Pitt "stop the bleeding" with this weekend's Inglourious Basterds?
Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company built the marketing campaign for the film almost entirely around Mr. Pitt.
And the actor may pull it off — kind of. Mr. Weinstein contends that Mr. Pitt’s drawing power is not remotely in question. "Brad Pitt is a super-superstar at the apex of his popularity, and he's a large part of why people want to see this movie," he said.
However, box-office predictions for Inglourious Basterds this weekend range from $25 to $30 million — solid for a Tarantino movie but only midling for Pitt.
What or who is to blame? The instant peer feedback available from social networking, says Peter Guber, the former chairman of Sony Pictures.
You look around the theater and can see the glow, not on people’s faces from watching the movie, but on their chins — from the BlackBerrys and iPhones. They are immediately telling their friends whether it's worth their time. And the answer to that, more often than not, seems to be no.
To which we say, keep the reviews coming, movie lovers!
Posted 8/21/2009 by reelz
Related: Adam Sandler | Brad Pitt | Denzel Washington | Eddie Murphy | Harvey Weinstein | John Travolta | Johnny Depp | Julia Roberts | Tom Hanks | Will Ferrell | Russell Crowe | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, August 20
Despite having one of the most famous actors in the history of America cinema fronting the movie, a lot of the early buzz about Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds isn't about Brad Pitt's performance, but rather that of Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, who plays "Jew Hunter" to Pitt's "Nazi-scalping basterd."
Waltz, a veteran actor in Europe with a career spanning three decades, won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Col. Hans Landa of the SS in Basterds. He calls his character "one of the great villains in dramatic literature" and gives much of the credit to Tarantino.
It's what Quentin has written, and let me tell you, that's plenty. Because I could still be sitting there trying to figure out what else is in there. And it's bottomless.
Waltz said that Tarantino discouraged him from chumming around with the other cast members and that he insisted on numerous rehearsals, which helped Waltz delve even deeper into the mind of Hans Landa.
Films tend to break up scenes, but Quentin insisted that we rehearse and play them in real time. Without all that stop and start, you really get the opportunity to play, to really get things going, to establish the rhythm.
Quentin didn't want to establish a form of security. He didn't want us too comfortable. He wanted to keep everyone on our toes.
Posted 8/20/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Christoph Waltz | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, August 19
German actress Diane Kruger has appeared in dozens of movies, but other than the National Treasure flicks, few have been seen by American audiences. Her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's new film should expose her talents to a much wider audience.
In Inglourious Basterds, Kruger plays Bridget von Hammersmark, a popular film star in Nazi Germany who is secretly spying for the Allies. She admits to The Insider that she was not Tarantino's original choice for the role.
I fought for the part. I knocked down doors. I wasn't meant to be in this movie at all — Quentin had someone else in mind, and for whatever reason that didn't work out, and then I finally got to audition and that was it.
He doesn't care who you are or what you have done before — he totally resurrected Bruce Willis's career and John Travolta's career. So just being hired by him is the greatest compliment anyone can pay you.
Inglourious Basterds stars Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Julie Dreyfus, and Eli Roth.
Next Showing: Inglourious Basterds opens August 21
Posted 8/19/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Diane Kruger | Inglourious Basterds
-
Did you know about Quentin Tarantino's supposed foot fetish? Well, you can learn more in a report from MTV Movies in which cast members reflect upon the director's idiosyncrasies.
Regarding the foot fixation, the article cites Tarantino's many uses of foot close-ups in his movies, as well as his appearance on The Tyra Banks Show as a foot judge. Basterds cast member Diane Kruger recalled one conversation she had.
You know what? A journalist told me about the foot thing, and it's funny, I didn't know about it. And then he said, "You didn't know? Don't you have a foot scene in the movie?" And I said, "I actually do, that's so weird."
There's also a vague account of "Big Jerry," an "NC-17 toy" that Tarantino photographs with actors who fall asleep during production.
And Eli Roth, star in Basterds and director of the Hostel movies, talks about the director's "thoughtful precision."
Quentin — he's so careful about everything he does.... For Kill Bill, he spent ayear and a half writing one fight scene! And with Inglourious Basterds, he had written it over the course of eight years. He thinks about every character, and he thinks about every detail in the universe — there are very few directors that do that.
This Friday, we'll all be able to see Tarantino's nearly decade-long labor of love.
Posted 8/19/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Diane Kruger | Inglourious Basterds
-
Tuesday, August 18
With the opening of Inglourious Basterds only a few days away, Quentin Tarantino fans will once again be able to get their fix of excessive violence and snappy dialogue, this time in the form of Nazi-hunting Jewish "scalp hunters." While Tarantino recently said that he plans to retire at 60 to become "a man of letters," as of right now he's still a filmmaker and one of his own best promoters.
In a recent interview, Tarantino said that "revenge" is the essential ingredient that earns Inglourious Basterds a special place among WWII movies.
Revenge isn't usually an element of World War II films — there may be a hint of it, but it's not usually what they are about. I think that's what makes this movie rather unique.
It's the fun of the Jews getting revenge against Nazis — I've seen the other story ad nauseum.
Tarantino defended his extensive use of subtitles and dismissed other movies (Tom Cruise's WWII action movie, Valkyrie, comes to mind) in which foreign characters speak English.
I think the other style — with everybody either speaking English, or Germans speaking English with a German accent — those are the things that made World War II movies for the last couple of generations old-fashioned.
Often criticized in the past for the amount of excessive violence in his movies, Tarantino refused to apologize for it and said that he likes to "squirm" in movies.
I will never feel squeamish about my own movies, because I know them and I know how we achieved the effects.
As for the scalping — those guys are already dead, it's about taking mementoes.
When asked about working with Brad Pitt, who stars in the movie as Lt. Aldo Raine, the Nazi-hunter recruiter, Tarantino said, "It was kind of a love affair." Tarantino explained that Pitt remained in character there entire time he was on set, so it was like being around one of his own creations all day.
Posted 8/18/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Valkyrie | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, August 17
When the final credits roll on Inglourious Basterds, expect to see the name Eli Roth pop up more than once. That's because in addition to playing Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz, Roth directed the short movie-within-a-movie Nation's Pride that is a central feature of the Basterd's plot.
Roth said that he was Tarantino's de facto "Jewish fact-checker" on the film and that he invited his mentor to his house for Passover Seder in 2007, at which the two engaged in many philosophical questions about WWII. In one exchange, Roth told Tarantino that he could "never" forgive the Nazis for what they had done to his people.
It's not that we don't forgive; we don't forget. Being Jewish is to remember. If I had the chance, I would kill every one of those (Nazis).
In Inglourious Basterds, Adolf Hitler and many of his elite officers gather together to watch Nation's Pride, a propaganda movie about Germany's best sniper. Tarantino normally directs everything himself but he allowed Roth to shoot the short movie, giving him a much larger second unit than he had planned for himself. Roth said that he learned a lot by working with Tarantino, but barely survived the process.
I almost died shooting it. But it's one of the most satisfying, orgasmic things I've done in my life. It's kosher porn.
Posted 8/17/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Only days ago, it was reported that Brad Pitt would only bring his oldest child, Maddox, to the set of Inglourious Basterds because Pitt didn't "think it would be right" to bring the younger children. Despite this patriarchal dictum, Pitt apparently has no problem taking Inglourious Basterds home with him.
Pitt plays Lt. Aldo Rains, a hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee and the orchestrater of the revenge plan against the Nazis that serves as the spine of the movie's plot. In a recent interview, Pitt said that he often practiced his character's accent at home.
I did! I'd tell those little "basterds" to get out there and start scalpin'!
Inglorious Basterds also stars Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Julie Dreyfus, and Eli Roth.
Posted 8/17/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Brad Pitt | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, August 14
For cinephiles (pronounced “movie nerds”), the works of Quentin Tarantino aren’t just fun on their own terms: They’re packed with nods, winks, and say-no-mores to other movies, genre clichés, and Tarantino’s own conventions. His characters are no exception, though some of them may pop us for saying so.
When Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds rides a pile of Nazi corpses into a theater near you, it’s a pretty safe bet that some of the writer-director’s favorite stock characters will be along for the genoride. And yes, many of them will be movie buffs. Here are the ones to watch for with your one good eye through a hail of bullets, sleet of blood, and freezing rain of gore.
Check out the Top 10 Tarantino Character Types.
Posted 8/14/2009 by reelz
Related: Brad Pitt | Christopher Walken | Harvey Keitel | John Travolta | Quentin Tarantino | Steve Buscemi | Uma Thurman | Reservoir Dogs | Four Rooms | From Dusk Till Dawn | Jackie Brown | Kill Bill: Vol. 2 | Pulp Fiction | Kill Bill: Vol. 1 | Samuel L. Jackson | Michael Madsen | Inglourious Basterds
-
Quentin Tarantino's fans are counting down the days to the opening of Inglourious Basterds, now just one week away, but the famous director has a different timeline on his mind: the countdown to his retirement from filmmaking . While in Toronto for the Canadian premiere of his newest feature, Tarantino mentioned that he wants to slow things down in his old age.
I don't really want to make "old men" movies. I don't want to be worried about making my day and getting up and going through all the stuff to make movies. This is my time to get into it now. When I'm 60 will be my time to be a man of letters. I would like to write novels, but you can't do that and make movies, too, not with the same passion.
However, just because Tarantino's planning his Hollywood exit strategy doesn't mean that he feels any less passionately about his current project, Inglourious Basterds, about a WWII "revenge squad" of Jewish soldiers looking to dish out some retribution to the Nazis.
I want it to be a big deal. I want to count down the days until it opens. I want you to be fighting for seats at that first screening and all that stuff.
Posted 8/14/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, August 13
Eli Roth is not as well known in front of the camera as he is behind it, but that will likely change once Quentin Tarantino's WWII revenge movie, Inglourious Basterds, opens next week. Roth wrote and directed the horror film Hostel, but steps into the spotlight in Basterds as Sgt. Donny Donowitz, a fierce Jewish Nazi hunter.
Roth's character, nicknamed "The Bear Jew" by the Nazis, specializes in bashing his enemies to a pulp with a baseball bat. To prepare to film such emotionally charged scenes, Roth said that he called on the memories of his deceased Jewish relatives and an unlikely source of inspiration: Miley Cyrus and the music of Hannah Montana.
I went back and forth thinking about my relatives being killed in concentration camps to listening to Hannah Montana.
You couldn't ever put me in a Hannah Montana concert with a baseball bat or I would wipe the place out.
Inglourious Basterds stars Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, and Julie Dreyfus.
Next Showing: Inglourious Basterds opens August 21
Posted 8/13/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Hostel | Miley Cyrus | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, August 12
According to actor Samm Levine, a World War II movie set is no place for children, especially if those children belong to co-star Brad Pitt. Levine told E! that Pitt brought his oldest son, Maddox, but refused to bring his other children to the set of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
He brought Maddox one or two times because he's the oldest. But everybody wanted him to bring the others, too. Everyone would always ask him, "Hey! When are you going to bring the kids?" And he said, "It's a World War II movie. What's a good day to bring my kids to this set? I don't think it would be right." So he had a point there. And we were all pretty bummed about that, but we respected his reasoning. He's a pretty responsible guy.
Inglorious Basterds also stars Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Julie Dreyfus and Eli Roth.
Next Showing: Inglorious Basterds debuts August 21
Posted 8/12/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Brad Pitt | Samm Levine | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, August 10
A huge new batch of clips from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds fills in the gaps around the scenes teased in the trailers and TV spots, and gives a better sense of pacing and atmosphere of the movie. Overall, not so much staccato action, but a lot more clever dialogue.
Two of the real standout scenes involve Christoph Waltz as SS Colonel Hans Landa, "The Jew Hunter." No big surprise here, since his performance in the movie won him plaudits as "the best villain ever" as well as the prize for best actor at Cannes.
Posted 8/10/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Christoph Waltz | Inglourious Basterds
-
Director Quentin Tarantino's latest film Inglourious Basterds, about a WWII "revenge squad" hell-bent on delivering some much-needed retribution to the Nazis for their many atrocities, has been long mired in rumor and speculation. Producer Harvey Weinstein and Tarantino have had enough. Following a showing of the film at Cannes that garnered mixed reviews, rumors started spreading that the 2:28 film was "too long for American audiences" and as much as 40 minutes might be cut for the theatrical release.
In response to the rumors, which only continued to germinate once the news hit the blogosphere, Weinstein told GQ a few weeks ago that the rumors were utterly fabricated. Now in an interview with Variety, Tarantino revealed the run-time for the final cut, stating:
I've heard these rumors that the studios told me to cut out 40 minutes. These are complete lies. The movie is actually a minute longer, in running time, than it was in Cannes. It was 2:28, without end credits, and now it's 2:29, or 2:32 with end credits.
It might sound weird that I added a minute, but you can add little things and actually quicken the pace, and we were very aware of keeping the pace up. To add the one scene, I reduced a couple scenes by a line here, a line there.
Inglorious Basterds stars Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Julie Dreyfus, and Eli Roth.
Posted 8/10/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Harvey Weinstein | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, August 7
Esquire talked about character and scalping in a series of interviews with various members of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. When it comes to revenge, the band of Jewish Nazi-hunters takes a page from the Apache. But this just isn't a skill that comes naturally. It takes practice, so of course Tarantino organized a contest. B.J. Novak, who plays Private First Class Smithson Utivitch, explains:
It all started when we were all having drinks at a bar in Berlin called Tarantino's, which, believe it or not, is actually a Quentin Tarantino — themed bar. Anyway, over drinks Quentin told us, "You guys are going to have scalping training tomorrow, and as motivation, I'm gonna give close-ups to the top three scalpers." I went home and stayed up late looking up "scalping" on Wikipedia, and the next day, I was one the best. I was the best, if I may say.
Other than reading up about it online, how exactly do you go about honing your scalping skills? By working on live people, of course. It's just a matter of technique, Omar Doom (Private First Class Omar Ulmer) adds:
We all learned to scalp by working with live people who had some prostheses on top of their heads. Basically, if you insert the knife along the top of their head and cut along the edge, the rest of the skin peels off like a banana.
All in all, it was lot easier than learning to slit a throat, Gedeon Burkhard (Corporal Wilhelm Wicki) concludes.
Posted 8/7/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Gedeon Burkhard | Inglourious Basterds | B.J. Novak | Omar Doom
-
Wednesday, August 5
A new trailer has appeared for a movie that never really was. It's billed as a promo for the Nazi propaganda flick Stolz der Nation (The Nation's Pride). In actuality, though, it's Inglorious Basterds' movie-within-a-movie, which features a gala premiere that draws all the Nazi bigwigs into the theater for their final immolation. Ironically, Basterds director Quentin Tarantino handed responsibility for this project over to Jewish director and revved-up Nazi-killing Basterd Eli Roth, who was both pleased and appalled at how well it turned out.
The trailer is just as over-the-top as you would expect, and in English to boot. It purports to be the work of Reichsminister Dr. Joseph Goebbels, and recounts the story of the heroic Nazi soldier Fredrick Zoller, whose name, we are told, will be "crowned in gloury." Looks like the Nazis hired the same spell-checker as the Americans for this one.
Posted 8/5/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, July 17
The most striking thing about the two new TV spots for Quentin Tarantino's WWII-era revenge flick Inglourious Basterds is how fast paced they are. This could create the somewhat misleading impression that it will be a non-stop action movie. Early reviews suggest otherwise and Inglourious Basterds is, after all, set for a final run time of two hours and 29 minutes.
The pacing of the spots is likely an over-reaction to some criticism the movie received at Cannes for favoring narrative over action a bit too much. In any case, the spots are a lot of fun, providing a kind of kaleidoscopic tour of the Basterds' enthusiastic approach to the Nazi-killing business, and the comic aspects of grand plans gone awry.
Posted 7/17/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, July 13
The Weinstein Co. has released yet another poster for Quentin Tarantino's upcoming World War II revenge movie, Inglourious Basterds. This one marks the 14th poster released for the movie, which some might call unnecessary but has, frankly, been a pretty cool campaign. If all your posters are this good, you earn the right to do that — otherwise please refrain (we're looking in your direction, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra).
The image is similar to earlier posters and stills of Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, but composed in a manner stolen from reminiscent of works by master fantasy artist Frank Frazetta.
Inglorious Basterds also stars Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Julie Dreyfus, and Eli Roth.
Posted 7/13/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Tuesday, June 30
There's lots of new footage in the just-released international trailer for Inglourious Basterds. While earlier trailers have tended to be a bit Brad Pitt-centric, this one focuses more on rest of the cast.
Playing a German psychopath recruited into the professional league of the "Nazi-killing business," Til Schweiger is impressively minimalist, communicating his reactions by only the smallest of gestures. We also get to see more of Mike Myers as a very proper British general, introducing the Basterds and setting up the climactic attack on the cinema. And the trailer wraps up with a laugh, rather than a bang, as SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) fails to impress the Basterds with his command of American idioms.
Posted 6/30/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Mike Myers | Til Schweiger | Christoph Waltz | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, June 25
There was a rumor floating around the Internet a few weeks ago that the financially troubled Weinstein Company was going to cut as much as 40 minutes from the theatrical release of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in order to make it more marketable. Tarantino fans were up in arms, to put it mildly.
Now, Harvey Weinstein fires back, denying that any cuts were ever planned, in an entertaining and profanity-laced tirade against bloggers in GQ:
Those stories are all untrue. There's no ****king way. Here, read my lips: That is nuts. Please don't even write that, it's insanity. There's not even a question of that. Whatever you're reading, it's like some insane blogger... There's no truth to any of this. He's not gonna cut. What he's doing is just reorganizing some scenes.... Come on, there's s*** on that cutting-room floor that'll blow your brains out.... Listen — this movie will be between two hours and twenty minutes and two hours and twenty-seven minutes. I don't think it's going to be shorter — it's just a question of rearranging. I know he's putting footage back into the movie. I know he's got some cool s*** that he didn't get time to address.
In passing, he also address the possibility of a Basterds prequel. He won't talk plot details (unless you are a 27-year old Jacqueline Bisset), and It would obviously depend on how the original Basterds makes out at the box office. Still, he suggests that the ideas are in place, and Brad Pitt and others connected to project are interested in doing it.
Posted 6/25/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Harvey Weinstein | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, June 22
With all the ballyhoo about the Weinstein Company being in dire financial straits, we were starting to worry that Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds might not see the light of day. But thankfully, after several months, a second full-length trailer is out.
It includes more moments from a confrontational scene in which American officers Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) try to extract information from a Nazi captive, Sgt. Werner Rachtman (Richard Sammel). There are also some shots from the much talked-about movie premiere attended by several Nazi leaders. And of course, things wraps up with a rapid-fire montage of gun clips snapping, faces contorted in warcries, and fire ... lots and lots of fire.
Posted 6/22/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Richard Sammel | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Sunday, June 21
Some critics at Cannes complained that there was too much talk and not enough action in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. While Tarantino brushed off the complaints, it is not too surprising that the latest new bit of footage puts the action front and center and offers a first look at the Basterds' ultimate target.
Posted 6/21/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, June 10
Over the past month, several sources -- including The New York Times -- have reported that the financial situation of The Weinstein Company, headed by Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, is in less-than-ideal shape.
Earlier today, Gawker reported on another possible sign of desperation from the Weinsteins: Bob Weinstein is apparently trying to sell his Central Park West duplex for $34 million.
Gawker also chronicled the events over the past year that indicate dire financial straits for the Weinsteins: The company laid off 11 percent of its staff, lost the rights to Sin City 2, possibly due to lack of capital, and may not even be able to afford the distribution and promotion costs for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
The company will likely put its hopes behind three movies this summer and fall, and it needs a hit soon to ease its troubles. Those three movies are Basterds, Rob Zombie's H2, and Rob Marshall's Nine.
Posted 6/10/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Harvey Weinstein | Quentin Tarantino | Rob Marshall | Rob Zombie | Nine | Inglourious Basterds | Halloween II
-
Last we heard, Quentin Tarantino was headed back to the editing room with Inglourious Basterds to do "an audience pruning cut" and possibly even add a scene. Now comes the rumor that The Weinstein Company, convinced that American audiences won't sit still for more than two hours, is demanding that Tarantino cut as much as 40 minutes from the movie.
Basterds premiered to mixed reactions at Cannes last month, and some critics suggested that the film contained too much talk and not enough action. Tarantino seemed pretty much mystified by that line of criticism. The fact that he is considering adding a scene suggests that he is unlikely to be happy about making such deep cuts.
On the other hand, the studio has been under severe financial pressure lately and desperately needs Basterds to succeed at the box office. Die-hard Tarantino fans, unmoved by such considerations, have already begun to weigh in on the matter, with one journalist firing off a response titled "Don't cut Inglourious Basterds, you basterds!"
Posted 6/10/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Tuesday, May 26
In a post-Cannes interview with Variety columnist Anne Thompson, Quentin Tarantino sizes up the early response to Inglourious Basterds and offers details about a scene he's considering adding to the theatrical release.
As a provocateur, he says he's used to criticism, but bristles at suggestions that he might have favored narrative over action a bit too much. "Who says a playwright has too much dialogue?" he muses. Undaunted, he predicts that Basterds "will be the biggest hit I have ever done."
Still, he's headed back to the edit room to do "an audience-pruning cut" and possibly add a scene. What's under consideration is a sequence that was shot but never assembled featuring Michael Fassbender as a British soldier and film-critic trying to pass as a Nazi officer.
In her blog, Thompson adds that "Fassbender pops in the movie," so this may well be an addition worth making.
Posted 5/26/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Michael Fassbender | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, May 25
Responding to the mixed feedback from the premiere showing of Inglourious Basterds at the Cannes Film Festival last week, Director Quentin Tarantino is reportedly headed back to the editing room. Despite the length of the movie, which at its current two hours and 28 minutes was a bit too long for some, the edits might include adding a scene.
One part of his "spaghetti war movie" that drew nearly universal praise, though, was the performance of Austrian soap star Christoph Waltz, who plays the multi-lingual Nazi, SS Colonel Hans Landa. Tarantino had already suggested that he was the lynchpin of the movie. And a Huffington Post review judged him "one of the most compelling villains ever," one "who can make offering a glass of milk seem dripping with menace." Apparently the jury at Cannes agreed, awarding him the prize for best actor.
Posted 5/25/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Christoph Waltz | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, May 22
Although Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt had never worked together before, it wasn't too hard for the bad boy director to get the actor to sign up to star in Ingourious Basterds. As Pitt explains it,
Quentin flew in to see me last summer.... In the morning there were five empty bottles of wine and a smoking apparatus of some sort on the floor and apparently I had agreed to do the movie.
No doubt it would have been a memorable evening.
Posted 5/22/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, May 21
In a new clip from Inglourious Basterds, introduced by Quentin Tarantino, we meet Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger), a Nazi officer and serial killer who has made quite a reputation for himself by murdering more than a dozen of his fellow officers. Setting the scene for the clip, Tarantino explains that after his capture, the Nazis have moved Stiglitz to Berlin to make a public example of him.
Here, we see the Basterds stage a jailbreak. Then the lead basterd makes the recruiting pitch: "We're a big fan of your work," Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), tells the impassive prisoner. "We came here to see if you want to go pro."
Posted 5/21/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Til Schweiger | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, May 20
It is still too early to get a complete handle on the overall reaction at Cannes, but there are some early indications that Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds just might live up to all the hype. Although most early reviews agree that this is no Pulp Fiction, it did really grab the audience's attention and feels like something new, "a spaghetti war movie," as one review calls it. Or perhaps, as cast member Eli Roth, who is featured beating down Nazis with baseball bats, put it at the post-screening press conference, "160 minutes of 'Kosher porn.'"
One surprise highlight appears to be the standout performance of Christoph Waltz, a German TV star who plays SS officer Colonel Hans Landa. Tarantino had given hints of just how important he was to the production earlier, saying in interviews that he had considered scrapping the whole movie if he couldn't find just the right actor for the part. One BBC review is already suggesting that he may well be a contender for this year's best actor prize.
In the clips released to coincide with the Cannes opening, there is a lot more dialogue than action, offering a spirited preview of the tone -- and accents -- of the movie. One clip even features a provocative voice-over narrative by Colonel Landa "The Jew Hunter," backed by a whistling tune in an obvious homage to Clint Eastwood's series of spaghetti westerns.
Next Showing: Inglourious Basterds releases Aug., 21, 009
Posted 5/20/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Christoph Waltz | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, May 18
To anyone who has taken a look at the trailer, it's evident that Inglourious Basterds is no historical period piece. Director Quentin Tarantino did say that, at various points, he'd considered turning the idea behind the film, which he researched intensively, into a lecture, or a 12-hour mini-series, or a documentary for the History Channel. But that plan was clearly abandoned quite a while ago.
The story, though, at least in its general outlines, does have a historical precedent. There really was a crack unit of the British Army almost entirely composed of German-speaking Jewish refugees that fought the Germans behind enemy lines. The Independent talked to some of the survivors of the team, and they insist that they're neither inglourious nor basterds, no matter how you choose to spell it. As one of the veterans explains it,
"It wasn't all violent gore and stabbing people and scalping them -- certainly not." Laughing, he adds: "I don't know how to scalp somebody."
Besides, he goes on, it wasn't about personal revenge. It was about trying to end the war as soon as possible and "an evil that had to be eradicated."
So with that position as a history lecturer out, it looks like Quentin Tarantino may just have to keep his day job. And Inglourious Basterds will just have to be taken in the spirit of good, old, over-the-top, blood-splattered fun that has always been the director's signature.
Posted 5/18/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Tuesday, May 12
Inglourious Basterds has not even made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, but that hasn't stopped Quentin Tarantino from thinking about the future. He already has further plans for Basterds' mythology, should it perform well critically and commercially. In an interview with the New York Times, Tarantino said:
I have a half-written prequel ready to go if this movie's a smash.
As is, Basterds is the story of a group of Jewish-American soldiers during World War II who traverse Europe in a fit of revenge against the Nazis. In the interview, Tarantino also spoke a little about other possible plot expansions:
Once the Basterds get through with Europe, they could go to the South and do it to the Kluxers in the '50s. That's another story you couldtell.
Posted 5/12/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, May 6
Yesterday, we posted Brad Pitt's new Inglourious Basterds poster . Today, Eli Roth has joined the Basterd child club as well. Check out this new poster from the Quentin Tarantino Archives.
Posted 5/6/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, May 4
Check out the new Inglourious Basterds poster. After looking at Brad Pitt's jutted chin and black mustache, we have one question: Isn't he supposed to be fighting against the Nazis in this movie?
Posted 5/4/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Brad Pitt | Inglourious Basterds
-
Sunday, May 3
As part of its summer women's fashion supplement, the New York Times has posted a video interview with Diane Kruger, who will play femme fatale Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. In this "screen test" she talks about her love of Mary Poppins, how dangerous she is when her German accent starts to come out, and her initial difficulties in landing a part in Inglourious Basterds. At first, she says, Tarantino was reluctant to cast her and didn't believe that she was really German, but was ultimately won over by her authenticity and enthusiasm for the part. We can see what other charms won over the notorious bad boy auteur in the accompanying photo spread featuring Tarintino with his newest find, suggestively titled The Call Back.
As for the less-socially-polished side of the production, a new poster for the movie has been released with the header "Brad Pitt Is a Basterd." In an effort to make the glamorous Pitt suitably unsavory and scruffy-looking, the poster plays up his nasty looking neck scar and the perfected look of a man who finds too much thinking difficult.
Posted 5/3/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Diane Kruger | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, April 30
In an interview with MTV, actor and filmmaker Eli Roth explains that Quentin Tarantino asked him to direct a short Nazi propaganda movie to fit into Inglourious Basterds like a film within a film. Stolz der Nation (The Nation's Pride) was supposed to be a spoof of real Nazi propaganda flicks like Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, but Roth worries that he might have gone a little too far. At one point during the filming, the Jewish filmmaker even found himself shouting "More swastikas! More swastikas!" And one key scene involves shooting 260 Americans. He expresses some concern (or is it glee?) that he may just have gotten even more offensive here than he did in making the gruesome horror flick Hostel 2.
These doubts were amplified when he screened the finished product for some of the other actors who, staying in character, started screaming "Heil Hitler," and "Kill the Jews" in response. "I turned to Quentin," Roth says, and exclaimed "What have I done?" Despite these doubts, he suspects he created something powerful, and his relish for the irony still continues to leak through:
I'm going to, like, resurrect the Nazi party. They are going to make me their Sarah Palin. They will be like, 'We love his movie. But he's a Jew! But it's such a good movie. But a Jew made it!'
All in all, it sounds like just the right over-the-top complement to a Quentin Tarantino production.
Posted 4/30/2009 by Bill
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, April 23
The Cannes Film Festival announced its 2009 lineup today, confirming Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds as an entrant. Also unveiling new movies are Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee and The Piano director Jane Campion. Pixar's Up will premiere on opening night, and Spiderman director Sam Raimi will show his upcoming film, Drag Me to Hell, at a midnight screening. You can get the full list of movies here.
Posted 4/23/2009 by Rich Z
Related: Drag Me to Hell | Up | Inglourious Basterds
-
A Jewish filmmaker with a serious taste for the horror genre, Eli Roth has his first major role in Inglourious Basterds -- and he does it with gusto, wielding a bloody baseball bat. The movie is basically a Jewish revenge fantasy with an Apache twist, Roth explains in an interview with MTV.
He plays Donnie Donowitz, a Red Sox fan whose plan is to "take a baseball bat and get all the Jews in the neighborhood to sign it, and then ... beat every Nazi to death with it." Originally he expected to be the littlest basterd, but instead, Roth says,
[Director Quentin Tarantino] basically cast my Hebrew school class. I looked around, and I was like, 'These are the kids who were in my bunk at Camp Cedar Lake.' It's them going on a killing spree -- and that's what makes it so much fun.
Roth goes on to explain how Basterds takes inspiration from the Apaches:
He's not going to skimp on the scalping, let me tell you. Quentin based what the Basterds do on what the Apache Indians did. They would do what's known now as the Apache Resistance, where they would capture people and horribly mutilate them, scalp them, torture them, cut them up, and leave one person alive. Then, [the survivor] would go back to the cavalry and describe what happened.
As the leader of the Basterds, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) drives this angle home with his orders to bring home hair and his nickname "Aldo the Apache."
Posted 4/23/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, April 3
Following up on the announcement that Quentin Tarantino's blood-splattered WWII epic Inglourious Basterds will have its world premiere at the Cannes film festival in May, Vanity Fair has posted a gallery of glam pics of Tarantino and the cast. The shots underline the noir look of the film with the femmes -- Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent, looking very much fatale, and Brad Pitt sporting a rakish squint and looking every inch the educationally-challenged "inglourious basterd" the title makes him out to be. As VF sums it up: "Shindler's List it ain't."
Next Showing: Inglourious Basterds opens August 21, 2009
Posted 4/3/2009 by Bill
Related: Brad Pitt | Diane Kruger | Melanie Laurent | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, February 25
Earlier today, wanting it to be summer already, I ventured out into the freezing New York wind without mittens or hat, wearing only a t-shirt beneath my coat. This was a bad idea, I later realized. A far smarter, saner way to get in the summer mood is to start thinking about summer movies, and, thankfully, just as winter refuses to quit, we've got your Summer 2009 Movie Preview. Continue to dress warmly, use your heater, etc...and just click on over for a rundown -- with links to trailers for Up, Inglourious Basterds (yeah, that's how it's spelled) and many others -- of the most anticipated movies of the warm season. It's only a few months, and many degrees Fahrenheit, away.
Next Showing: UP opens May 29; Inglourious Basterds opens August 21
Posted 2/25/2009 by Hailey
Related: Up | Inglourious Basterds
-
Sunday, February 22
There are three new posters making the rounds for Quentin's Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, one of the most anticipated film's of the summer (at least for us). The IMPA site says the posters are "apparently international," though all the type is in English (maybe for Britain?). Whatever they are, they're probably a bit bloody to make it in U.S. movie theatres; they definitely have a (pseudo) guerilla marketing/horror porn thing happening. They make you hungry for blood, if not the film's release.
Next Showing: Inglourious Basterds opens August 21
Posted 2/22/2009 by Hailey
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, February 12
Yesterday we linked to a bootleg trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and it came down quicker than the Dow Jones. Let's try this one:
What do you think? Looks different and very Tarantino. In any case, the trailer explains why Brad Pitt has been sporting the pornstache.
Next Showing: Basterds opens August 21, 2009
Posted 2/12/2009 by reelz
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, February 11
The trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds premiered on Entertainment Tonight last night, and is now available via YouTube and some guy who videotaped his television. Even in this digital age, that's the best we can do right now.
The Basterds trailer will be available this weekend, playing before showings of Friday the 13th, proving that fans of Jason also love World War II movies. Let's just hope a better version turns up then.
Posted 2/11/2009 by Ryan
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, December 31
Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino's creatively-spelled World War II epic, has finally gotten a release date. According to a press release issued today by the Weinstein Company, Basterds will debut in the U.S. on August 21, 2009 -- the same weekend as the horror sequel Final Destination 4 and Chappelle's Show co-creator Neil Brennan's comedy The Goods: The Don Ready Story are set to open.
Tarantino had previously stated that he hoped to finish the long-awaited film, which stars Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger, in time for the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Posted 12/31/2008 by reelz
Related: Inglourious Basterds
-
Tuesday, October 14
Quentin Tarantino's war epic Inglourious Basterds (yep, that's the correct spelling) recently started production in Germany. The pic features a gigantic cast that now officially includes Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall, Omar Doom, Sylvester Groth, Julie Dreyfus, Jacky Ido, August Diehl, Martin Wuttke, Richard Sammel, Christian Berkel, Sonke Mohring, Michael Fassbender, Rod Taylor, Denis Menochet, and Cloris Leachman.
According to the release from Weinstein, Basterds starts out in a German-occupied France. Shosanna Dreyfus (Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family by Nazis. She manages to escape to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner of a cinema.
Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raines (Pitt) organizes a series of retribution attacks by Jewish soldiers known as "The Basterds." They join German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.
A specific release on Inglourious Basterds has not been set, but Weinstein confirms that it will release in 2009.
Posted 10/14/2008 by reelz
Related: Brad Pitt | Mike Myers | Quentin Tarantino | Diane Kruger | Inglourious Basterds
-
Tuesday, September 2
Casting news continues to surface on Quentin Tarantino's war epic Inglorious Bastards. Today The Hollywood Reporter announced Diane Kruger has been cast in the role of Bridget Von Hammersmark, a role for which Nastassja Kinski had originally been rumored. Kruger will portray a German actress who aids the Nazis in their infiltration of a movie premiere.
Also joining the cast is German star Til Schweiger as a member of the Nazi killer team under Brad Pitt's Lt. Aldo Raine.
Shooting of Inglorious Bastards kicks off October 13th in Germany.
Posted 9/2/2008 by reelz
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Diane Kruger | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, August 15
Variety reports that Mike Myers has joined the cast of Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards as British General Ed Fenech.
Myers has to hope the role will lend a bit of credibility to his live action acting after this summer's Love Guru debacle.
Myers joins fellow castmates Brad Pitt and Eli Roth. Simon Pegg, Nastassja Kinski, David Krumholtz and B.J. Novak are also in talks with Tarantino.
Shooting begins October 13th in Germany.
Source: Variety
Posted 8/15/2008 by reelz
Related: Mike Myers | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Friday, August 8
Ok, the title of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming World War II flick hasn't actually been changed, but the Kill Bill director is assembling such an odd and seemingly incongruous collection of actors for Inglorious Bastards that his remake of Enzo Castellari's cult classic is starting to look a little more like The Bad News Bears than The Dirty Dozen (Castellari's original inspiration). Today, the trades are reporting that Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), B.J. Novak (TV's The Office), David Krumholtz (TV's Numb3rs) and Nastassja Kinski (a bunch of German flicks) are all in talks to join confirmed castmembers Eli Roth and Brad Pitt -- thus giving us a few more head-scratchers to ponder.
Of course, Tarantino is known for audacious casting choices (Pulp Fiction's John Travolta being the most famous -- and most successful -- example) and certainly no one is expecting Saving Private Ryan from the guy, but this is a period flick set against the backdrop of a war that actually took place. Getting a little too ridiculous with the cast risks stretching the bounds of believability beyond even his own admittedly loose standards.
Can't wait to see how this one turns out.
Posted 8/8/2008 by reelz
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Simon Pegg | Inglourious Basterds
-
Thursday, August 7
Quentin Tarantino has been telling anyone who would listen about Inglorious Bastards for more than a decade. Well, it seems that the project is finally coming to fruition. He's got a start date for shooting (Oct. 13) and now he's got dreamy Brad Pitt.
The project will be a join venture for Weinstein Co. and Universal. Shooting will start in Germany and Tarantino hopes to have a cut ready for next year's Cannes Film Festival.
After yesterday's announcement of Hostel director and noted Hollywood cheeseball Eli Roth joining the project as an "actor" in Bastards, Tarantino fans should feel a bit of relief at the Pitt casting news. Let's just hope Brad can give Eli a crash course in acting before Oct. 13.
Source: Variety
Posted 8/7/2008 by reelz
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, August 6
Leonardo DiCaprio may not be starring in Inglorious Bastards, but don't weep for director Quentin Tarantino, because he went out and got someone even better. Variety reports today that none other than Hostel director Eli Roth has signed on to play a "baseball bat-swinging Nazi hunter" in Tarantino's remake of Enzo Castellari's cult World War II flick. Casting an actor of Roth's caliber will no doubt come as welcome news to Brad Pitt, who's reportedly in negotiations to star in the flick. This bit of news should almost certainly seal the deal for the Assassination of Jesse James star.
Posted 8/6/2008 by reelz
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Eli Roth | Inglourious Basterds
-
Wednesday, July 9
Buried in the fourth paragraph of The Hollywood Reporter's update on Quentin Tarantino's long-delayed Inglorious Bastards is the news that "Brad Pitt's name has surfaced" in talks regarding the World War II flick's ensemble cast. Decide for yourself just exactly what that means; I imagine that it indicates the globe-trotting serial adopter is interested in joining the project. Sounds cool -- let's just hope he doesn't invite pals George Clooney and Matt Damon along and turn it into Ocean's Seventeen.
According to DeadlineHollywoodDaily, Tarantino is shopping the project, a remake of Enzo Castellari's 1978 cult hit of the same name (re-releasing on DVD on July 29th) around to several major studios, much to the chagrin of longtime backer Harvey Weinstein. Stay tuned -- this one could get interesting.
Posted 7/9/2008 by reelz
Related: Brad Pitt | Quentin Tarantino | Inglourious Basterds
-
Monday, July 7
Rarely is it considered newsworthy when a writer finishes a draft of a screenplay, but when the writer is perpetually distracted Quentin Tarantino and the screenplay is for his long planned Inglorious Bastards, ears instantly perk up. Last week Tarantino triumphantly declared to the BBC that he'd put the finishing touches on the script for the World War II flick, a remake of Italian director Enzo Castellari's 1978 cult favorite (which itself was inspired by The Dirty Dozen). He's now working at casting for the project, which he calls a "modern, in-your-face movie," and "not a TV movie period piece that you can put in a box." He's hoping to have Inglorious Bastards ready in time for next year's Cannes Film Festival. Good luck with that one, Quentin.
Tarantino talks in greater depth about his remake plans on the upcoming DVD re-release of Castellari's original Inglorious Bastards. The special three-disc set arrives in stores on July 29th.
Posted 7/7/2008 by reelz
Related: Quentin Tarantino | Counterfeit Commandos | Inglourious Basterds