A teaser trailer of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which is still in production, has made its way to cyberspace. It’s being billed as his ensemble war flick/spaghetti western, and if the tone of this teaser is any indication, look for Basterds to lean toward the genre-pillaging frivolity of Death Proof and the Kill Bill films. (Personally, I was hoping for a return to Tarantino’s more emotionally satisfying heyday, especially the underrated Jackie Brown.)—-
The script, which Tarantino has been babbling about for more than a decade, reportedly follows two story lines: 1) a group of WWII soldiers, led by a mustachioed Brad Pitt, is sent to take down some of Hitler’s Nazis and 2) a young Jewish woman (Diane Kruger) seeks to avenge the death of her parents at the hands of the same Nazis.
The wide-ranging cast includes Pitt (who again employs a curious accent), Kruger, Hostel filmmaker Eli Roth (will he get a taste of his own medicine?), Mike Myers, Cloris Leachman, Maggie Cheung and a host of unknowns.
The film, which is again being distributed by longtime Tarantino benefactors The Weinstein Co., has a U.S. release date of Aug. 21. But word is that he intends to have Basterds ready for the Cannes Film Festival in May.
