Quentin Tarantino keeps hinting at what’s next as a follow-up to “Inglourious Basterds.”
One things for sure, he might have ideas brewing, but with all the Oscar promotion he’s been doing of late you can bet he hasn’t had a second to write.
Last we heard, the director claimed he’d be doing something, “smaller, less epic” and on a scale that is in a “different genre entirely” than his ‘Inglourious’ men-on-a-mission WWII film. These comments obviously suggest he knows exactly what’s coming next. However, the filmmaker keeps talking about projects much wider in scope.
He’s discussed a few potential projects in the last few months including, a 1930s gangster picture, a Spaghetti Western, a southern KKK revenge tale, a John Brown slavery picture, and a possible adaptation of some Len Deighton British spy novels (there’s also “Kill Bill 3” but it won’t be next).
Doing more ‘Inglourious’ press recently, Tarantino discussed what he’d like to do next, but it sounds like a composite of outlines that have been gestating for some time, and like we predicted a few months ago, perhaps another rewrite and melange of history.
“I’d like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let’s shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it ‘A Southern.'”
So does this mean this picture is next? Possibly not. It still sounds too epic and just two months ago Tarantino said the idea was “definitely in the garden” but only “one of my roses,” likely meaning it’s not quite ready to be picked yet.
So it appears that Tarantino is taking the kitchen-sink of his marinating concepts and throwing them into one, yes? Maybe not quite. Yes, he’s discussed these plans all as separate ideas during the last year, but as far back as 2007 he spoke about mixing genres again with this same similar topic. It seems like this idea has been percolating around in his head for a long time now.
“I want to do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they’re genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it’s ashamed of it, and other countries don’t really deal with because they don’t feel they have the right to.”
So whatever this project becomes ultimately, like “Inglourious Basterds” — which was an idea he toyed with for about more than a decade (at one point it was supposed to come before the “Kill Bill” films) — it sounds like this story will eventually come to the screen which is comforting to know because it does sound like one of his most interesting ideas (and in many ways, not dissimilar from ‘Basterds’ in that it that deals with history, but decides to be more apolitical and focuses on the action aspects instead).
As for those additional ‘Inglourious’ films (prequels/sequels) that Brad Pitt has seemingly been pushing for? You can almost guarantee by the time he wants to do these — like his “Pulp Fiction”/Vega Brothers prequel concept — everyone will be too old to be part of a prequel. A sequel on the other hand, could happen, but obviously there won’t be many characters left alive from the original to be part of it. That is of course unless, ‘Basterds’ wins the Best Picture at the Oscars this year and QT changes his mind, but that would probably be wishful thinking all around.
Though QT is still even on about it saying today to WSJ, “I could easily do a prequel. That could easily happen, though it’s not the next thing I’d do.” [Graphic courtesy of M. Morrison]