• Quentin Tarantino assembles 'Basterds'

  Published on: February 9, 2010

  Director went to great lengths to find perfect cast
  By DENNIS HENSLEY

  For Quentin Tarantino, getting his Nazi-bashing epic "Inglourious Basterds" set up and financed wasn't the problem. "The movie was ridiculously easy to get going," he admits sheepishly. The make-or-break challenge was casting.
  
  The ensemble-friendly auteur knew that if he couldn't find the perfect lineup of multilingual actors to bring his revisionist thriller to life, he didn't have a movie. So instead of hiring one casting director, as is usually done, he set up offices in every country he needed to find native-language speaking actors. "If you were German but you wanted to read in Los Angeles, it was like, 'Sorry, my head ain't there right now. I'll see you in Germany,' " he explains.
  
  Tarantino also insisted he be the one to read with the actors. "If you're acting opposite me, I can maybe point you in the right direction," he explains, "because my dialogue can be tricky. It's like, 'Oh, Quentin's hitting the jokes harder. This is supposed to be funnier. OK, got it.' "
  
  Brad Pitt came easy, though chance played a part. "He's got a situation with his wife where she does one and he does one, and it could have easily not been the right time," he says. Considering the narrow time frame, "I couldn't have waited for anybody." Fortunately, it was Pitt's turn to act.
  
  But when it came to casting the right thesp to play his key character, the cunning Col. Hans Landa, Tarantino knew it would be a tricky part to fill, calling for someone who could speak German, French and English, while putting a charming face on Landa's lethal true nature.
  
  "So far in my career, I've been very lucky. That dude has always walked through the door, thank God," he says. But at one point, the candidates were so far from what Tarantino needed, he nearly lost hope and scrapped the project altogether. And then an Austrian named Christoph Waltz auditioned. "Frankly, if Christoph's mother had never met Christoph's father, I don't know if that dude would have walked through the door."
  
  Tarantino's unconventional methods paid off, not only at the box office, but with his filmmaking peers as well. "I bumped into Steven Spielberg, and he goes, 'Quentin, not only do I think it's one of the best-cast movies you've ever done, it's one of the best-cast movies I've ever seen," recalls Tarantino. "That was the best compliment ever."

  
  

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• Pick Up The ‘Quentin Tarantino Collection’ For The Tarantino Fan on Your Christmas List!

  Published on: November 2, 2009

  By Shannon Nystedt
  MovieSet.com
  
  On December 8th, 2009 pick up Alliance's Quentin Tarantino Collection for the movie fan on your Christmas list! 

  Re-live all the action with some of your favorite actors including John Travolta (The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3), Samuel L. Jackson (The Spirit), Bruce Willis (Surrogates), Tim Roth (The Incredible Hulk), Robert Forster (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), Uma Thurman (My Super Ex-Girlfriend), Lucy Liu (Kung Fu Panda), David Carradine (Crank: High Voltage), Kurt Russell (Stargate), Zoe Bell (Whip It), Rosario Dawson (Seven Pounds), Harvey Keitel (National Treasure: Book of Secrets) and Michael Madsen (Strength and Honour).

  The Quentin Tarantino Collection includes: Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Death Proof and Reservoir Dogs.  Get all six discs with new, original disc art and high gloss photos from each film as well as a National GWP of a mini plastic Kill Bill Samurai Sword, complete with stand.

  Better act quick, this collection is only available for a limited time while supplies last!

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• Just In Time for Christmas! Pick up Inglourious Basterds on DVD Dec 15th, 2009!

  Published on: October 20, 2009

  By Shannon Nystedt
  MovieSet.com
  
  On December 15th, pick up your copy of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds starting Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger. 
  
  Inglourious Basterds begins in the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa. Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, lieutenant Aldo Raine organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as "the basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.... Employing pulp and propaganda in equal measure, Quentin Inglourious Basterds weaves together infamous, oppressed, real and larger-than-life stories of WWII.
  
  Pick up the DVD for extended scenes, alternate scenes, the Nation’s Pride film, and domestic and international trailers

  Read more about Inglourious Basterds on DVD here.
  
  

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