"Inglorious Bastards" News - Script Reviews, Casting, and Studio Searching

Source: Cinematical, ComingSoon.net, /Film

I’ve been holding off reporting this event for two reasons – one, because I was waiting for the final bit of news, and two, I’m still having orgasms from the Cannes Film Festival announcement. The greatest director of all-time, Quentin Tarantino, has been shopping around his script for “Inglorious Bastards.” Nikki Finke over at Deadline Hollywood reports something strange out of all of the film studios he sent the script around to (which were Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, and Sony) – it doesn’t say anything about The Weinstein Company. Surely something must be wrong. Quentin has worked with the Weinsteins since the beginning of his career, since “Reservoir Dogs” launched at the Cannes, even after the “Grindhouse” disaster at the box office. It still turns out that Harvey Weinstein, also known to some as Darth Weinstein, would rather stop working on “Fanboys” and produce the film… and in some ways, I can’t blame him. “Fanboys” stars Dan Fogler. But the film will not be distributed from Miramax/The Weinsteins.

Our friends over at Latino Review have received a look at the script of “Inglorious Bastards,” which is spelled “Inglorious Basterds” by QT himself. The 165 page script, according to El Mayimbe, was the most enjoyable read that he has read this year. In addition, he said that there was killer dialogue and master craftsmanship. Uhh… dude… it’s Tarantino. OF COURSE THERE IS! According to Vulture, Tarantino’s script is about…

“… A squad of American soldiers called the Bastards — a guerrillalike force who travel behind German lines in 1944, striking terror into the hearts of Nazi soldiers. The Bastards are headed by Lieutenant Aldo Raine… described by the script as a "hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee," who has around his neck a scar from where he survived a lynching. ("The scar will never once be mentioned," Tarantino writes.) In a parallel story, Inglorious Bastards follows a French Jewish teenager named Shosanna who survives the massacre of her family and flees to Paris, where she winds up running a movie house during the Nazi occupation. The Bastards' and Shosanna's stories intersect when a gala premiere of a Goebbels-produced propaganda film is put on in Shosanna's theater, with Hitler and most of the German High Command scheduled to attend. Both the Bastards and Shosanna launch plots intending to end the war a little earlier than anyone expected.”

And this is just the beginning of it. Vulture also reports that there are five chapters to the script: 1. Once Upon a Time… Nazi Occupied France, 2. Inglorious Basterds, 3. German Night in Paris, 4. Operation Kino, and 5. Revenge of the Giant Face. They also write, “The first chapter, set in 1941, introduces Shosanna and the film's antagonist, a Nazi officer named Landa who's known as the "Jew Hunter." The second chapter introduces the Bastards and their tactics: They kill Nazis on sight, take their scalps, and — when they let one go — carve a swastika into his forehead. The third chapter, set in 1944, reintroduces Shosanna in Paris ("This whole Chapter will be filmed in French New Wave Black and White"). The fourth sets up the Bastards' attack on the theater. And it all comes together in Chapter Five, which plays fast and loose with history, to say the least.” Both sites also compare it to his previous movies and favorite films of Tarantino.

Finally, I got a few more things to report about. Quentin Tarantino will be shooting this film in October, and still plans on bringing it to the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2009 – so that means that they will be working fast as hell. Also, QT has been looking at Brad Pitt to play the main role of Lieutenant Aldo Raine. I think I just might go all the way to France for this one. This WILL be awesome.