Harry talks to Quentin Tarantino about KILL BILL, GLORIOUS BASTARDS and QTV!!!

Hey folks, Harry here... Just got off the phone with Tarantino, where we had a multi-hour geek out about films, talked about his upcoming back to back original from the hand of Quentin epics and well.. just shot the shit so to say...

Ok, first off you should know that the phone that records conversations died on me, so I was left with paper and my memory, so this isn't as fully detailed as I hoped, but hey... I've got the skinny on what's going on...

First off, KILL BILL is Quentin's GRINDHOUSE movie... "It's 30 years of Grindhouse Movie Going Squeezed in A Duck Press!" Now what is a Grindhouse movie you ask? It is pure exploitation joy... Kung Fu, Sex, Revenge, Murder, Blood Gorged Frames, Fast Cars, Fast Women, and a pumping pulsing soundtrack that makes your dick or nipples hard. Grindhouse filmmaking was low budget HIGH THRILLS, and Quentin is aiming to make the EPIC of the Genre.

Now, is Quentin recasting? First off he's been delighted about the rumors online and in press. When that Lucy Liu rumor hit he nearly pissed himself laughing. He has written a small role for Lucy Liu, specifically for her in the film. He went to dinner with her, read her the scene, and he figures someone saw him and figured... Lucy Liu is replacing Uma... Wrong he says. He also said that Lucy hasn't accepted yet, hasn't signed yet, but hopes she will.

As for Uma? Well, KILL BILL was a project that Quentin came up with to work with Uma again, during PULP FICTION. He and Uma went out and hung out on the set and restaurants and would talk about the idea. It was to be the ultimate revenge flick, the ultimate Grindhouse film. And it was Uma's idea to make her character.... 'THE BRIDE' because she thought it would look best to see her bloodied up in a... well as Billy Idol would say, "A WHITE WEDDINNNNNGGG DRESSSSS!"

Now, Quentin told me that he was running about with PULP FICTION hitting festivals and such, and was tinkering with the ideas for KILL BILL... He went to Stockholm and wrote 30 pages, he was really really into the script, but it came time to shoot FOUR ROOMS... "Yet another reason to hate 4 ROOMS," he said laughing... He was very excited about the idea of making his GRINDHOUSE film... but that's when Robert Rodriguez read FROM DUSK TILL DAWN and wanted to make that, and sine that was a 'Grindhouse-type' of film, Quentin didn't want to make two in a row. So he did JACKIE BROWN... Setting KILL BILL down figuring that he'd get back to it, "It's not like I was going anywhere."

Well after JACKIE BROWN he got interested in the idea of doing Guys on a Mission War Flick (aka GLORIOUS BASTARDS). For 6 months after JACKIE BROWN he started doing research for the film... living in the war history books. He then spent nearly a year (I think that's what he said, may have been a year and a half) writing GLORIOUS BASTARDS when he bumped back into Uma and she got him fired up to do KILL BILL again. He felt that it was time to make one for the fans and, "KILL BILL is one for the fans!" He hatched the plan to do 2 films back to back. Back to Back epics. KILL BILL and GLORIOUS BASTARDS. So he set out to finish both scripts and then go at it... back to back. Folks want him making films... Well he'd give them 2 in a row.

Well, it looked like KILL BILL was getting finished first, so he decided it was time to shoot... when he learns UMA was pregnant at Cannes this year. Suddenly, "It was like God was saying, 'remember that idea of finishing two scripts and going back to back? That was my idea, and it was a good idea, and you're doing it!' So that's what we're going to do!"

Quentin finished KILL BILL 2 weeks ago, and a few of his friends have read it. He's taking August off... vacation, come down to Austin to do his festival... recharge the batteries. Then he'll finish the War Script around mid-November. Uma's gonna have her baby. By March of next year, his actresses (many of them) will begin major combat training... SAMURAI, KUNG FU and a whole slew of special stuff he has planned. They'll start shooting in June. Finish the film. He'll be taking the movie out to festivals like he did with PULP FICTION... meaning he'll probably be taking it to CANNES, VENICE, etc... the same places he took PULP most likely. While he's doing that Lawrence Bender will be prepping and location scouting and pre-production on GLORIOUS BASTARDS. By late that Summer/Beginning of the Fall… he’ll begin shooting GLORIOUS BASTARDS, during which he’ll have to take a week off to do talk shows and such to promote KILL BILL. And he’ll finish GLORIOUS BASTARDS by the end of 2003.

So that’s the plan. KILL BILL will be shot in Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico, Texas, Los Angeles… all over. As apparently ‘The Bride’ will be going from place to place for some undisclosed reason, but I’m sure it has something to do with exacting revenge and kicking ass.

At this point I asked Quentin about the Universes that his films take place in. To which Quentin broke it down like so…

JACKIE BROWN takes place in Elmore Leonard’s Universe… not his.

TRUE ROMANCE, RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION take place in Quentin Universe #1. This universe is REALER THAN REAL.

Meanwhile: His original NATURAL BORN KILLERS script and FROM DUSK TILL DAWN take place in Quentin Universe #2 which is the MOVIE MOVIE universe.

Now according to Quentin, there are specific rules that govern these two Universes of his. For example… Characters from Universe #1 cannot venture into Universe #2, but say Mr Blonde can appear in Pulp Fiction, and Clarence could appear in Res Dogs, but Vincent Vega could never meet the Gecko Brothers or Mickey and Mallory. And in Universe #2 those characters can’t venture into Universe #1, but can go between the films in their universe. Why is this important?

Well, KILL BILL takes place in the MOVIE MOVIE universe… where it is possible that Mickey and Mallory could exist… or the Gecko Brothers. BUT, also in the Movie Movie universe, characters from other movies… folks like BILLY JACK or SHAFT… well they exist in the Movie Movie universe as well. So if Quentin wanted Bruce Lee’s Chen Zhen from FIST OF FURY to appear in KILL BILL… then Chen Zhen could appear, not that Chen Zhen will appear… but it is within the realm of possibility.

GLORIOUS BASTARDS is in Universe #1, the REALER THAN REAL universe, but due to it being set in World War 2, I’d bet money that we won’t see Mr White here. But perhaps his granddad… hehehe…

Quentin then states that there is only ONE character in his Universe that can disobey these rules and that is THE WOLF. THE WOLF can go between the universes because while he exists in the REALER THAN REAL universe… He’s a MOVIE MOVIE character that just exists in reality. And I do not know if he’s in KILL BILL, but I think it odd that he point this out… unless it is possible.

Now, the characters in Universe #1… if they were to go see a movie… They would see the movies of Universe #2.

Next Quentin and I talked about the films for QT5… a top secret list, that well… by god, it’s going to be quite something. The most interesting aspect of it all is that Quentin is going to show a couple of flicks that some would think uncharacteristic of him. In a way, the festival is a preview of KILL BILL… the underlying theme across all other themes is REVENGE.. Revenge in Westerns, Sci Fi, Kung Fu, Good Ol Boys, Sex-n-Violence, and Italian Crime… REVENGE is the order of business. And folks… this year’s fest also has a heavy Hong Kong flavor, both modern and of yesteryear…

I will say this… Quentin is quite giddy about these next two films. The first two films he’s written exclusively for the screen not from pre-existing material since PULP FICTION. He feels the scripts have been a long time coming but "They have been worth it!" He knows that the scripts will most likely leak out onto the Internet, but he feels… Like with Sam Hamm’s fantastic BATMAN script, "Everyone I knew had that script a year and a half before the film came out, and we all went to the film and were pissed that it wasn’t the movie we read. Well, KILL BILL is that movie that you wished you were going to see. It’s that cool script that stays a cool film!"

Folks… Uma’s pregnancy has delayed things a bit, but by the time 2003 hits, we’ll see one new Quentin film, and a second will be in the can, awaiting post-production for release 2004. He’s taken his time and feels he has something very special for film goers. And he wanted all of you to know it first!