Quentin Tarantino is one of the most legendary filmmakers and is known for films such as Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction. Regarded as one of the best modern-day auteurs, Tarantino is currently working on his tenth and reportedly final film titled The Movie Critic, which will have Brad Pitt in it. The actor-director duo has already collaborated twice. They have worked together in 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 2009’s Inglorious Basterds.
Inglourious Basterds starring Brad Pitt is praised as Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus, as it has everything one could ask for, whether it is a star-studded cast, incredible acting, visuals, storyline and so much more. However, the film was originally planned as a miniseries due to its epic scale and lengthy narrative. Tarantino ended up changing that plan for one remark from a French film director.
Quentin Tarantino’s Initial Plans For Inglourious Basterds Was to Make It A Miniseries
Inglourious Basterds, the Brad Pitt starrer movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director. It ended up winning the Best Supporting Actor category.
However, it was originally planned to be made as a miniseries. The filmmaker had written so much that it had about 12 hrs of material, as per All The Right Movies on Twitter. In his two-part episode of Robert Rodriguez’s documentary series, The Director’s Chair on the El Rey Network, Tarantino explained:
“After Jackie Brown, I put Kill Bill off to the side, and I started writing Inglourious Basterds, and that became this never-ending process, because people thought I was going through writer’s block, you know, I was going through the opposite. I couldn’t stop writing. I’d have a 100-page script and no end in sight. So I was trying to keep taming it, and I couldn’t. […] My idea at the time, because it was just so big and so unwieldy, was to do it as a miniseries, and that really was what I was planning on doing.”
The film takes its title from Enzo G. Casterllari’s The Inglourious Bastards, a 1978 war film. Later, a piece of advice from a fellow director and friend changed his mind, and he was compelled to rethink how he wanted to portray the alternate history narrative to the audience.
French director Luc Besson Made Quentin Tarantino Change His Initial Plan
It was Luc Besson, The Fifth Element filmmaker, who, ultimately, during one fateful dinner meeting, said something that acted as the catalyst to make Tarantino change his mind.
“Luc Besson was in town,” Tarantino recalled on the El Rey Network.
“We went out to dinner, me, him, and his producer partner. I’m telling him about my big miniseries Inglourious Basterds I’m going to do. The producer guy is like, ‘Oh, yeah. Luc, that sounds awesome. That’s the way to do it, Quentin. That’s the way to do it.’ And Luc’s like, ‘Eh, I don’t know.’”
Tarantino continued:
“‘Well, what? What’s the matter?’ ‘I don’t know. You are one of the few filmmakers left out there that makes me want to leave my house and go to a cinema. Sit in a cinema and watch it on the screen. Anybody else, I can watch the DVD, I can see it on TV. It’ll be fine. I’m good. But, you make me want to leave the house to go see cinema. And now you tell me I’m going to have to wait four years, five years before I can do that again? I’m sorry. I’m not so excited.’”
And that pep-talk between them gave us a critically acclaimed feature film, not a miniseries. Inglourious Basterds is streaming on Prime Video in the US
