Despite lukewarm reviews from Cannes and Brad Pitt's accent in the trailer, we continue to hold out hope that Inglourious Basterds might actually be good. Dampening our enthusiasm somewhat, though, is the fact that everyone involved seems to be so much more interested in promoting the hypothetical, not-yet-written Basterds prequel than the already-completed movie scheduled for release next month. Harvey Weinstein talked it up to GQ recently, making it sound exciting and mysterious ("Brad [Pitt] wants to do Inglourious II. We all want to do it ... But unfortunately I cannot give away the plot") and now, in an interview with Variety, Quentin Tarantino does pretty much the same thing.
Apparently even the film's actors sound like they were more excited about their characters' unseen backstories than in Basterds' actual plot. Says Tarantino:
All through the movie, Brad Pitt and Eli Roth just kept saying, "Prequel. Prequel." Brad would say, "Let's talk him into doing a prequel." The guys love the idea. I've got the storyline. Then again, I was going to do all these animated prequels to Kill Bill. I didn't end up doing any of those.
Also, during the editing process, several memorable scenes from Basterds' screenplay were trimmed, including one featuring Cloris Leachman ("There's shit on that cutting-room floor that'll blow your brains out," Harvey told GQ). So if you want to have your brains blown out, says Tarantino, wait for the prequel (if one ever happens):
"We shot that, it was a cool sequence ... This and other scenes I shot, I'll put in reserve. If I were to do a prequel, I can just use that stuff, it's ready to go."
Like we said, we're still looking forward to Basterds. We just wonder how much hyping its more-exciting prequel (which may never happen!) in every interview helps the chances of such a prequel actually existing someday. Probably not very much!
Quentin Tarantino Q&A [BFDealmemo/Variety]
Previously on Vulture...
