Two final-ish words on Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” which did some impressive numbers this weekend and according to some, will completely salvage the Weinstein Company’s woes despite the fact that TWC is splitting the profits in half with Universal.
As IFC’s Matt Dentler said recently on Twitter, “At the end of the day, a Weinstein brothers comeback is good news for the specialty film business,” which is totally true, and hopefully the case, but those popping the champagne corks seem to be on some premature happiness.
We digress. “Inglourious Basterds.” Did you notice Harvey Keitel’s uncredited cameo as the American O.S.S. operator who agrees to Col. Hans Landa’s (Christoph Waltz) conditional terms of surrender to Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine character in the third act? We first noticed and noted this at Cannes, but then were 100% sure when we saw it a second time. Surprised no one has really mentioned it yet. We second-guessed ourselves for a second after screening two because Bo Svenson (from the original “Inglorious Bastards”) has a final credit as American soldier, and we thought possibly it was him (were our ears totally wrong?), but then we realized that Svenson played an American soldier that was killed in Eli Roth’s “Nation’s Pride.”
Speaking of Roth. Adam Sandler was once offered a role in ‘Basterds,’ last year, but had to turn it down because it conflicted with the “Funny People,” shooting schedule. At the time it didn’t really occur to us who he might play, but on further reflection it seems obvious. He was supposed to play Eli Roth’s Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz character; he fits the build and description and there’s no way Sandler would have played one of those lesser Basterd soldiers that get next to zero screen time.
“[Tarantino] said, originally, I’m thinking Adam Sandler would be great for this, and I thought it would be so great to see Sandler as a badass, beating Nazis to death,” Roth told Esquire. “And I know he can really do the Boston accent. And I said, ‘Quentin, did you know I had a baseball bat in my car growing up?’ I mean, that’s a real Boston thing. You have a baseball bat and most of the time you use it off the field. He said, ‘No, I just thought of it.’ It was just something that just came to him, something he was in tune with. Over the years, he had hung out with me enough and heard enough of my Boston stories, and he said, ‘Now when I’m writing Donowitz I’m starting to hear your voice.’ So he hinted that he was thinking about having me do it.’ “
Well, Eli, it sounds like Quentin put the offer out to Sandler first, and then you got the gig. Sadly, we [ed. or I] totally would have preferred anyone but an obvious non-actor in the role (and ditch that Omar Doom kid as well).
Also considered for roles were:
– Simon Pegg was supposed to play Michael Fassbender’s role of the British Lt. Archie Hicox, but had to drop out because of his “Star Trek” role (Fassbender originally auditioned for Col. Hans Landa, but Tarantino had already cast Christoph Waltz).
– Obviously Nastassja Kinski and David Krumholtz were said to be in talks for roles, but they never panned out. Update: Kinski was supposed to play Bridget von Hammersmark (it’s in our original reporting, we’re running too fast), which makes sense because Diane Kruger told the New York Times in a video interview that another actress was supposed to play the part. Who Krumholtz was supposed to play is just speculation, but our guess: PFC Hirschberg (that role eventually went to Samm Levine in a very downsized version of what it was on the original page, poor Levine).
– Catherine Deneuve apparently turned down the role of Madame Mimieux, as did Isabelle Huppert who was apparently up for the role and then quit-fired or something close to it, but the role went to Maggie Cheung and was cut out of the film regardless.
– We also heard from a very good source at Cannes that German actress Alexandra Maria Lara auditioned for Diane Kruger’s role, but didn’t get the part, obviously.
Most of our original casting picks are still our favorite (naturally), but we’ll admit people like Michael Madsen and Tim Roth don’t fit now with the younger age casting Quentin eventually went for, but obviously none of us knew that at the time.