Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” has gone to Universal Studios according to Nikki Finke and SlashFilm (Tarantino is currently in Germany doing scouting and is said to be extremely eager to have this thing ready for Cannes: we say, please don’t rush it).
Update: According to Variety, Universal is “eyeing” ‘Bastards,’ but says they’ve also “inked a deal.” This short report does seem like a quick, get-in-the-game shot so they don’t look like they’re behind what the previous two reports have already said. Update 2: Variety beefed-up their originally thin report late last night. They add that casting Brad Pitt will take some “mending of fences” as Universal is still pissed that he dropped out of “State of Play” at the 11th hour leaving them in the lurch.
The Hollywood Reporter has the most concrete info. The trade says Uni and Weinstein are in negotiations and the deal would see the studio co-finance the picture and handle international distribution. Lawrence Bender is producing, Weinstein Co. are overseeing the production. The film is still eyeing an October shoot start in Germany (say, two months of shooting and 5 1/2 months to have a rough cut ready for Cannes? Conservative guesses for all; c’mon no way!)
As previously reported Tarantino and producer Harvey Weinstein had met with a bunch of studios to see which would would be their patron saint and Slash says they chose Universal over Paramount. Finke says Universal took the picture despite their “hatred for Harvey.” No one has any updates on casting and we’re sitting on three pieces of potential casting news (people that are reading for parts) that we can’t say or we’ll get killed, agggh! Here’s a small hint, despite American names like Leo DiCaprio being thrown around, Tarantino wants to cast authentic heebs for the Bastards and there’s some “actors” who have worked with him in the past that fit this bill (though none are obvious) and some who’ve never been part of his oeuvre.
We still think all our casting ideas for ‘Bastards’ are pretty spot-on, but additional ideas we’ve been pitched – Audrey Tatou, another option for Shosanna, Marie-Josée Croze as Francesca, Emmanuelle Seigner for Madame Mimieux and Franka Potente as Bridget vonHammersmark – are strong suggestions as well (Croze for Francesca is the pièce de résistance, frankly. We shoulda thought of that).
Here’s our review of Tarantino’s script. It’s problematic in spots (near the end), but man, it does showcase his brilliance to be sure and illustrates the reasons why he became such a cultural cinematic force in the ’90s.