Bad news, Quentin: Universal Pictures - production and distribution partners on Inglorious Basterds - apparently are insisting Tarantino head back in to the editing room and trim the film down following the mixed reaction in Cannes. Harvey Weinstein - never a quiet man - aint sayin' nuthin', which tells me this report has got some legs to it. More as we hear it ...
to say correctly: Tarantino reminds the interviewer, his film is under the ususal lenght. He has to trim the movie, but may add another scene to it.
"Scissorhand-Harvey" will have a lot to do.
Wow ... so this will be third Tarantino film in a row that is (maybe) gonna hit a cinema near me in a tampered with version : Kill Bill cut into 2 parts/volumes (which wasn't so bad), Grindhouse cut into 2 longer pieces (kinda killed the experience, didn't it), and now Basterds ... in a shorter/longer/split version ... ? ! >:(
I am the one who sent the article of Anne Thompson to Todd. After Todd posted the news, Anne Thompson changed her article.
Therefore, Todd didn't make mistake; I'm the one who make mistake(I had better to wait longer before sent it to Todd) Sorry....
So it started as bad news now it looks like a good news. I hope Maggie Cheung will be back.
Peter K. - Just read your earlier response - so I'm assuming you've seen it. That sucks; I was hoping for QT's take on the Dirty Dozen or something along those lines; the trailer seemed to promise to deliver. Then I started hearing about various subplots and Mike Myers (wtf?) and Hitler and then this about the basterds being sort of dull. I'm wondering if editing will do the trick; Weinstein is probably getting pretty tired of QT by now (imagine having to negotiate budgets with that guy on a regular basis - actually, either of those guys?).
Anyway, big disappointment - I was really looking forward to this at the outset.
I'm glad yall read every bit of Variety so I don't have to. :D
"Maggie Cheung is not missed in the cut I saw. I only realized her absence after the film was over. Adding her wouldn’t help the story."
I doubt it would have as much to do with the story as it would have to do with bolstering the marketability in certain territories of a film that Universal is rapidly losing confidence in. I can't speak to the story as I don't really know it beyond Brad Pitt wanting his Nazi scalps, Eli Roth killing people with a bat, and Maggie Cheung running a movie theater that's the focal point of the whole thing. If anything I typed is wrong, good. More surprises for me.
can'tstop yawaning: That its not a straight take on Dirty Dozen is not really bad thing. The stuff with Melanie Laurent is really, really good and really satisfying. So much so you wish the film spent more time with her and less with the Basterds.
Oh and Myers is great. Completely appropriate too.
Rhythm X:
You'll be in for some surprises. Maggie Cheung running a movie theatre is not so much a focal point as Laurent's character is implied as the owner of the theatre in this cut - having inherited by an Aunt who adopted her (who I assume is the Maggie Cheung character).