Quentin Tarantino has been talking about making Inglorious Bastards– his WWII guys-on-a-mission flick in the vein of The Dirty Dozen and, erm, Enzo G. Castellari’s Inglorious Bastards- for so long now that I thought we might have to borrow some money and start making the damn thing ourselves. But things have been moving rapidly on the project in the last couple of weeks, with QT first admitting that the script for the movie was at long last finished whilst in Cannes. Then, in an interview on the upcoming DVD release of the original Inglorious Bastards he hinted that he might make it a two-parter, a la Kill Bill (Not a good idea i’m thinking!)And today comes the news that not only has QT sent the script out to four major studios, but he’s also talking to one William Bradley Pitt to star. Nikki Finke over at deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting that the script (note: script, not scripts) has gone to interested executives over at Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount and Sony. Expect a bidding war to commence for the right to make the movie, which will be produced by QT’s old pal, Laurence Bender (with Harvey Weinstein also possibly attached).
I’ll be surprised if a deal isn’t in place to make the movie at one of those studios within a few days. But we are surprised by Finke’s claim that Tarantino is talking to Pitt for the starring role. The likes of Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy have been linked with Inglorious Bastards in the past (and who knows, they may be again – it will be an ensemble piece, after all), but not Pitt. But Tarantino has proved that he works well with A-listers, and a genuine movie star may be just what the movie needs, after the relative failure of Grindhouse (Plus, Pitt did pretty well the last time he delivered Tarantino dialogue, in True Romance)
Usually a Tarantino project wouldn’t fill me with excitement (due to his directorial skills being hugely over-rated and with only two truly good films to his name), but this is the dream project for Tarantino, the one that he’s taken ages to perfect. So my hopes are high. More news as I get it.
