About that untitled 2011 Quentin Tarantino project

It all happened rather quickly. First the news that his long-awaited Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair will finally premiere in LA’s New Beverly Cinema this month as part of a Tarantino-programmed exploitation and classic film month. A few days earlier, he accepted the Caesar award in France (Variety, ), implying in his acceptance speech (watch video) that he’s only getting started. By the way, you need to read this blog post on Quentin’s recent tour through awards and events. And the last few days now have been abuzz with rumors that Quentin Tarantino might be working – or be close to finishing – a spaghetti western script and be ready to yell action later this year.

I won’t walk you through all the events, but give you the skinny. Apparently, Franco Nero (Django, The Mercenary) talked at an event in LA about a spaghetti western that is in preparation starring himself, Treat Williams and Keith Carradine called The Angel, The Bad And The Wise. The internets spilled out additional information, such as that being the Tarantino project, Christoph Waltz being on board, and the script being finished. The film was supposed to be shot in Italy and Spain (making it a real spaghetti western), and located at the Weinstein Company. Now, AICN’s Beaks has been doing some digging and fact checking, and as it turns out – to cut a long story short – the Franco Nero project is not the Tarantino project. But there is a Tarantino script and (our own sources confirm this) Quentin is still working on it. Now it might be that drafts have made the round in some circles, but the last thing we’ve heard is that there is no final draft yet and we’re awaiting further news. Also, the Tarantino script – or movie, or project, whichever you want to call it – is not titled The Angel, The Bad and The Wise, which in turn sounds more like the long-planned Enzo G. Castellari (Inglorious Bastards) project. In terms of fact that seem to be fairly confirmed is that Tarantino’s movie will be a spaghetti western, or something in the vein of a spaghetti western at least, and Christoph Waltz seems to be attached. There is something in the bush, clearly, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more about it soon. If we remember how quickly Inglourious Basterds moved ahead eventually, that could develop into a Tarantino style as well: pull a hat trick, and then bring it to Cannes the same year, surprising everyone and their grandmother.

As a reminder, talk of Quentin doing a spaghetti western have been as old as this website (pretty much literally, and we just turned 10 without throwing a party). Many years ago, there was talk of him turning the Elmore Leonard novel 40 Lashes Less One (which I’ve read and dig the shit out of) into a movie, with Samuel L. Jackson starring. But as he told us in an interview once, that ship never sailed further than a few pages, and AICN says it is definitely not that, and a draft might’ve gone out to actors under the title of Lobo (which could be Spanish for Wolf. The Wolf?). Might it be back? He also talked about doing a “southern”, or a movie about slavery, John Brown or moonshining, a whole range of topics there that might come to mind. We don’t know yet. And knowing Quentin, it will be a genre bender. So, we’ll keep you posted of course, also make sure to follow us on Twitter and on Facebook, and you can be sure you won’t miss anything important. If it will indeed be a Spaghetti Western that will be upon us, make sure you know all about that genre by visiting The Spaghetti Western Database (it has a pretty good introduction, too, and Tarantino’s personal top 20).

Special thanks to obsessedwithfilm.com for the well written heads up, and all the other bloggers, like Rama’s Screen, that I use to stay updated, as well.

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Sebastian

Sebastian is the founder and owner of the Tarantino Archives and has been a fan and observer of QT for over two decades now, cherishing his work and the window in the the wider world of cinema his movies have opened up. Inspired as such, he runs the Spaghetti Western Database (SWDb), the Grindhouse Cinema Database (GCDb), Furious Cinema, its German sister Nischenkino and The Robert Rodriguez Archives. He lives in Berlin.

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6 Responses

  1. a nice overview and summary of the current rumors!

  2. Hey Now says:

    Great news, when I heard about The Angel, the bad and the Wise, I was like “what a shitty title” and “Franco who?” Glad to hear it’s all bullshit. Can’t wait to hear when something official has been announced.

  3. It’d be nice if this started production by the end of this year for a 2012 release :)

  4. Euph0ricDismay~ says:

    April fools?