Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
I can’t wait for GRINDHOUSE. I can’t wait for some of the trailers (that Danny Trejo one sounds extra-groovy), and for the Robert Rodriguez zombie flick with Michael Biehn and Tom Savini, and I really can’t wait to see what Quentin Tarantino’s got up his sleeve. This is the first concrete info we’ve had on what to expect, and even though this scooper wasn’t in love with it, I have every faith that by the time it’s gone through the process, what we get in the end is going to be outrageous and entertaining as shit. Check this out:
Hey Guys,
Long time reader, only second time submitting. Cruising around Beverly Hills last week I managed to get my hands on a little script called "Death Proof," which is Quentin Tarantino's half of the Grind House project. Figured you might be interested in hearing about it.
First, the bare bones- it clocks in at 127 pages, but is a fast read and does not fit the 1page=1minute formula. It'll fit the time constraint. Mickey Rourke's name was on the cover page, so he looks to be playing the antagonist "Stuntman Mike." Zoe Bell's name was also on it, she's a real life stunt woman who will be taking the protagonist roll of, get ready, "Zoe." She doubled for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, Lucy Lawless in Xena, and appearantly worked for"NZ Stunts," whose website is not currently active.
The cover page is retro styled and features a muscle car with huge twin exhausts and a skull on the hood with some lightning bolts. It's billed as "A White-Hot Juggernaut at 200 mph!" It's also identified as a "Weinstein Company Production" if anyones counting.
Spoiler Free Synopsis: Stuntman Mike is, obviously, a Stuntman. He drives a wicked muscle car that he's made "Death Proof" by re-inforcing it. It's his stunt car. Mike is a stalker and a killer.
That was boring. Minor Spoilers: Mike uses his bad-ass car to track down and kill his victims. We get to see him successfully pull off a kick-ass sequence to show his method. He then sets his sights on a new set of girls who are actually stunt women (Zoe) and the game is on.
Review: I was not overly impressed. The dialogue seemed flat. It was not very clever. All of the major characters, save Stuntman Mike, are women, and Tarantino struggles to give them a voice. The plot is kind of dumb. A guy uses his car to kill people. Well, its definatly retro. Things take awhile to get going and I definatly didn't care about any of the female characters. I was hoping for most of them to die brutually. Some red is spilled, obviously, and it is pretty cool. Tarantino's visual style will save this piece though. There is one sequence that sounds so amazing on paper that it will be worth the price of admission alone. I will definatly see this movie. I'm sure the visuals will be awesome and things will come together, but as a script, if this was not written by Tarantino, most studios probably would have passed.
Major Spoilers: The majority of the script is Mike stalking down "Jungle Julia," a radio personality, and her group of friends. After he tracks them through a few bars, he offers a girl a ride home and she accepts. However, his "death proof" ride only has one seat, the drivers seat. She's stuck in a "camera box" next to him. He follows Jungle Julia's car with his passenger in tow, who has realized something is wrong. He passes Jungle Julia, spins his car around and kills the headlights. He then proceedes to ram their car head on at full speed. Tarantino's script says the whole thing plays out in slow-motion with Stuntman Mike laughing and enjoying himself, while the girls scream like mad. The crash is brutal and descriptive. Words and phrases such as "horrible," "pushed through," "squashed," "ripping her face off,"pulverizing," and "destroying" are thrown about. It will be a horribly bloody mess. I'm really excited.
Then with less than half the script to go, Mike is back on the prowl, tracking down the Stuntwomen. Its a "harrowing" chase that didn't really thrill me. Mike's character suddenly becomes frightened when the tables are turned on him and it felt very out of character. Zoe vs Mike in two badass cars. Again, the visuals will probably make this very interesting, but on paper I wasn't too excited. The cars smash into each other and one girl is stuck on the roof, slipping and slidding. I won't throw away the ending, but it's not really a surprise.
End Spoilers.
In short, the script is mediocre, but the main crash is hella-exciting and worth admission. Tarantino's visuals will save the day and I'm sure this film will be very enjoyable. Now if I only I could get my hands on R.R.'s half of the project.
If you use this, I'm:
Run-and-Gun
It’s interesting that the scripts for the various segments are all floating around as individual pieces, and not as one big GRINDHOUSE script.
Thanks for the report, Run-and-Gun. Nice work.
"Moriarty" out.
