Quentin Tarantino is locked in a battle with studio chiefs over his World War II movie drama Inglourious Basterds.
The movie, which stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz (who steals the picture), had its world premiere at Cannes and while it boasts some memorable scenes, it seemed incomplete and was weighed down with verbosity rather than jam-packed with action and thrills.
By his own admission, Tarantino rushed to finish the film in time to compete in the Cannes Film Festival. He would have been better off screening it out of competition and designating it a work in progress.
In fact he told me, at a Soho House party, that he left hours of footage on the cutting room floor. He should go home, lock himself in an editing suite - attend no parties! - and re-shape the film.
Tarantino has already shot all the material he needs. I think he was trying to be too clever by half for a film-savvy Cannes audience - and didn't think enough about
regular cinemagoers who get what he's about but don't want to be smacked in the mouth with every filmic reference.
Top executives at Weinstein Co and Universal are going to have to persuade the film-maker to re- structure the movie ever so slightly, and subtract and add footage so we know more about the Basterds, a group of Jewish American soldiers charged with scalping Germans in Nazioccupied France.
And, crucially, it needs to be funnier - and there needs to be more kick-ass action. 'It doesn't need that much work really, and it's not as if he has to shoot any additional scenes because he has enough footage left for two movies. He's probably going to resist but I think he knows, deep down, that he can't release it as is,' a top studio boss told me.
The basic plot has the Basterds and a Frenchwoman, Shosanna (played by Melanie Laurent), who escaped the SS, involved in a scheme to take out the Fuhrer while he's watching a movie.
By the way, Christoph Waltz, who plays the baddie Colonel Hans Landa, is an Austrian actor who moved to Muswell Hill, London, 20 years ago and commutes between London, Berlin and Vienna for work.
Tarantino has say-so over the film's final length, which at present is two hours and 27 minutes. But by contract that could increase to two hours and 48 minutes.
It doesn't need to be any longer - but it is possible for it to be more glorious (or should that be 'glourious'?) than it is.
I just hope no one loses their scalp as Tarantino moves to achieve what's best for his film.
from dailymail.com
The movie, which stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender and Christoph Waltz (who steals the picture), had its world premiere at Cannes and while it boasts some memorable scenes, it seemed incomplete and was weighed down with verbosity rather than jam-packed with action and thrills.
By his own admission, Tarantino rushed to finish the film in time to compete in the Cannes Film Festival. He would have been better off screening it out of competition and designating it a work in progress.
In fact he told me, at a Soho House party, that he left hours of footage on the cutting room floor. He should go home, lock himself in an editing suite - attend no parties! - and re-shape the film.
Tarantino has already shot all the material he needs. I think he was trying to be too clever by half for a film-savvy Cannes audience - and didn't think enough about
regular cinemagoers who get what he's about but don't want to be smacked in the mouth with every filmic reference.
Top executives at Weinstein Co and Universal are going to have to persuade the film-maker to re- structure the movie ever so slightly, and subtract and add footage so we know more about the Basterds, a group of Jewish American soldiers charged with scalping Germans in Nazioccupied France.
And, crucially, it needs to be funnier - and there needs to be more kick-ass action. 'It doesn't need that much work really, and it's not as if he has to shoot any additional scenes because he has enough footage left for two movies. He's probably going to resist but I think he knows, deep down, that he can't release it as is,' a top studio boss told me.
The basic plot has the Basterds and a Frenchwoman, Shosanna (played by Melanie Laurent), who escaped the SS, involved in a scheme to take out the Fuhrer while he's watching a movie.
By the way, Christoph Waltz, who plays the baddie Colonel Hans Landa, is an Austrian actor who moved to Muswell Hill, London, 20 years ago and commutes between London, Berlin and Vienna for work.
Tarantino has say-so over the film's final length, which at present is two hours and 27 minutes. But by contract that could increase to two hours and 48 minutes.
It doesn't need to be any longer - but it is possible for it to be more glorious (or should that be 'glourious'?) than it is.
I just hope no one loses their scalp as Tarantino moves to achieve what's best for his film.
from dailymail.com
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