Quentin Tarantino on his 'Basterds'
With its aura of faux humility, dense saturation of "for your consideration" ads and humble-yet-effusive nominee posturing, awards season can be a long (if gala-packed and celebrity-studded) slog for Hollywood watchers.
So it comes as a blast of fresh air when a front-runner allows himself to get into the competitive spirit. Cut to writer-director Quentin Tarantino mulling the Oscar possibilities for his spaghetti western-cum- World War II thriller " Inglourious Basterds." So far, the film has taken in more than $300 million worldwide, landed 10 Critics Choice Movie Awards nominations (as well as a Directors Guild of America nod for Tarantino) and was being handicapped by certain gurus of gold as a shoo-in among the best picture Oscar contenders even before the category doubled to 10 nominees.
"Do I want to win? I totally want to win," Tarantino exclaimed over a vodka and cranberry at a Beverly Hills hotel the day before "Basterds" snagged four Golden Globe nominations. "I've already won an Oscar. But if I did win, that would be one for every decade I've been in the business. And that would be awesome! Especially because everyone wrote me off in the first five years of my career as this rock star-y flash in the pan."
A genre-bending mash-up of the "men on a mission" war movie genre splintered into five "chapters," "Basterds" follows a Jewish terror squad that sets out to destabilize the Third Reich by killing and scalping German soldiers in occupied France. Some sections of the film spool out fueled by talk-y, monologue-driven drama, others with gritty shoot 'em up fantasy.
And while Brad Pitt may be the film's focal point as Aldo "the Apache" Raines, the scene-stealing Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, who portrays the polyglot Nazi colonel known as "the Jew hunter," is its heart and soul. Waltz is an odds-on favorite for the supporting actor Oscar (and so far has secured a Golden Globe nod).
But to hear it from Tarantino, casting the smooth-talking sadist Col. Hans Landa proved so difficult that until Waltz arrived, the writer-director considered scuttling the project.
"When I finished the script, I'm aware enough to know, this is one of the best roles I've ever written -- one of the best roles I'll ever write," Tarantino said. "It was so there on the page, if I couldn't get what was on the page onto the screen, I didn't want to make the movie."
Auditions began inauspiciously in Berlin. After seeing a number of German actors fluent in English, no one was nailing the essence of the character: a man who is, by turns, silky and bloodthirsty, debonair and extremely goofy -- in four different languages.
"Other German actors would come in, they'd do the German part fantastic, stumble through the French to one degree or another," Tarantino recalled. "But when it came to English, they couldn't make my dialogue sing."
He continued: "I pulled the producers together and said, 'Look, guys, I don't know if we are going to find Landa. I might have just written a role that's unplayable. And I don't want to make the movie without Landa. I'd rather just publish the script."
Waltz, 53, a journeyman stage and TV actor, became the 12th person to read for the part and iced it.
"Christoph came in, he sure looks like Landa. He carries himself in a certain way and that wasn't him trying -- Christoph is just very erudite," said Tarantino. "And halfway through the opening scene, I was like, 'This is the guy!' "
With his seemingly bottomless well of enthusiasm, eminent quip-worthiness and a born hustler's easy smile, Tarantino admitted that he has taken to the kind of Hollywood politicking that will result in Oscar votes like a duck to water. Having previously won an Oscar for best screenplay for 1994's "Pulp Fiction" (an award he shares with co-writer Roger Avary) and landed a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for "Pulp," he's no stranger to the drill.
So, what kind of statuette-grabbing plays is master Oscar campaigner Harvey Weinstein calling from the sideline? "It's just, 'Go to the parties. Everyone loves your movie so just keep reminding them. When they see you, they'll be reminded of how much.' "
And again, the Southern California-reared former video store clerk pondered what academy validation for "Basterds" would symbolize at this point in his career. "The movie flew in the face of conventional wisdom in almost every aspect. It's a movie made out of five chapters, some are like one-act plays -- and with all these different languages in there," Tarantino said. "And there's nothing better for an artist like myself than to prove conventional wisdom wrong.
"So, it actually means a lot to be in contention at the end of my second decade in business," he said in a voice barely below a shout. "My wine is aging very well!"
Johnny Cash's final studio album, 'American VI,' coming Feb. 26
“American VI: Ain’t No Grave,” the final studio album by Johnny Cash, will be released Feb. 26, timed to what would have been the Man in Black’s 78th birthday.
The Rick Rubin-produced collection consists of recordings they made together after finishing “American IV: The Man Comes Around” in 2002 and before Cash died on Sept. 12, 2003, and features a characteristically genre- and era-hopping batch of songs by Kris Kristofferson, Sons of the Pioneers’ Bob Nolan, Tom Paxton, Sheryl Crow and others.
Throughout his career, Cash consistently was drawn to a wide variety of songs and songwriters, reflecting his relentless pursuit of quality and substance. "He loved talking about music," Rubin told me shortly before “American V” was released. "Since I met him, he was never particularly talkative. But if you drew him out, he knew about everything. He was a really wise man.”
The new collection also includes an original that Cash wrote during his final years, “I Corinthians: 15:55,” from the New Testament passage about the spirit ultimately triumphing over the physical body: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
The first of the posthumous releases in the “American” series, “American V: A Hundred Highways,” surfaced in 2006 and landed Cash another Grammy Award for the music video accompanying the song “God's Gonna Cut You Down.” It also gave Cash his first No. 1 album since "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" had topped the national sales chart 37 years earlier.
“American VI” is being described as the final installment in the series that rejuvenated Cash’s career, beginning in 1994 with “American Recordings.” The “American” albums yielded six of the 13 career Grammys awarded to the storied country singer and songwriter.
Cash’s deteriorating health, especially after the death of his wife, June Carter Cash, in May 2003 meant that in terms of the recordings he and Rubin continued to work on, “There was a lot of stopping and starting,” Rubin recalled in a statement issued today. “But he always wanted to work. The doctors in the hospital kind of lectured me, saying, ‘He’s not going to stop, so you have to make sure he doesn’t work too much...’
"Johnny said that recording was his main reason for being alive,” Rubin said. “I think it was the only thing that kept him going."
Bryan Adams lands Juno Awards humanitarian honour
Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, who already has a few Juno Awards under his belt, is set to add another this spring when organizers of the Canadian musical honours will present him with the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award.
The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced Adams as the latest recipient of the award in St. John's, N.L., on Wednesday.
The award pays tribute to fundraising and charitable efforts.
"I'm accepting this award in the hope that it will inspire and encourage others to contribute and/or also give back," Adams said in a statement.
The academy hailed the singer for being socially aware and taking part in charitable endeavours from early on in his career, including participating in Amnesty International concerts, Live Aid and Live 8, the annual Prince's Trust Rock Gala in the U.K. and similar events.
In 1985, Adams co-wrote and was among the host of singers who recorded Tears Are Not Enough, the Canadian charity single in support of Ethiopian famine relief. A past campaigner for Greenpeace and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Adams was also the first major Western artist to perform in Pakistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Adams's 2006 Karachi concert was held to raise money for victims of the massive October 2005 earthquake that roared through South Asia and devastated the Kashmir region.
Aside from his music, Adams has also established a namesake foundation that supports children's education and has sold his photography to raise money for cancer research.
"Without any fanfare, Bryan's foundation has quietly worked to enrich the lives of children and young people here at home and in the far-flung corners of the globe," said academy president and CEO Melanie Berry.
Academy honours one of its own
Officials also announced on Wednesday the 2010 winner of the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award: Ross Reynolds, longtime Universal Music Canada president as well as a founding board member and former chair of the academy.
In addition to being a music mogul who helped develop the careers of artists from Dan Hill to Lighthouse to The Tragically Hip, he has also served as an adviser, board member or executive at a host of organizations, including the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Audio Visual Preservation Trust Fund and Canada's Walk of Fame.
Elected chair of the academy in 2001, Reynolds was part of the group behind the popular idea to move the Juno Awards celebrations to a different Canadian city every year, with St. John's tapped as the inaugural host in 2002.
Adams and Reynolds will be feted during the Juno Awards festivities in St. John's this spring, beginning April 12 and ending with the live broadcast of the 39th annual Juno Awards gala from the Mile One Centre on April 18.
Ivan Reitman to Direct 'Ghostbusters 3'!
Good news, everybody! Whilst doing the press line at the National Board of Review's red carpet event, MTV's Josh Horowitz volleyed a series of Ghostbusters 3 questions off of producer Ivan Reitman and ended up getting a nice chunk of actual news instead of further conjecture. When asked about the script, Ivan confirmed that Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky have already turned in a completed draft for part 3 and that a new draft is currently being worked through, much to the delight of all involved. When asked about a potential start date, Ivan revealed that he hopes to start shooting it within the next year.
With this news it looks like what was once assumed to be Ghostbusters for a new generation is instead a reunion for the principals involved with the first two films. Reitman, of course, produced and directed both the 1984 original and it's 1989 sequel, so it's comforting to know that he is now returning over twenty years later for the new film. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Sigourney Weaver are all, barring some kind of cataclysmic, joy-hating turn of events, returning as well (I haven't seen confirmation on Ernie Hudson). And if that's not good enough news, even Rick Moranis is said to be willing to leave retirement to reprise his role as their accountant, Louis Tully!
Given that it has been twenty years since the last Ghostbusters motion picture (the characters have transferred to a handful of other mediums since then, most notably the recent video game made by Atari), I'm sure that Columbia pictures would like the new film to function as a possible gateway for further films, but with Reitman and friends all coming back for it, we can at least rest assured that it won't solely be a passing of the torch.
Oh, and as far as the Bill Murray as a ghost rumor that Sigourney Weaver started is concerned, Ivan Reitman wouldn't comment other than to say that there are some "very cool things in the new draft."
Piscopo aims to launch Chicago-based late-night show
Former "Saturday Night Live" star and Frank Sinatra impersonator Joe Piscopo will be in town Tuesday talking up the Chicago-based talk show he's trying to launch at The Joynt nightclub in River North.
Called "After Dark With Joe Piscopo," the show is being modeled after the old "Playboy After Dark" series, which featured Hugh Hefner chatting with guests in a party setting.
Piscopo won't be in his pj's, but, producer Jimmy Haimann said, "You have celebrities, sports people, musicians hanging out in a nightclub-lounge atmosphere. Cocktails and martinis will be flowing."
Haimann said the show is in negotiations with a few unnamed celebrities for the pilot, scheduled to shoot next month at a local studio dressed up to resemble The Joynt. (Joynt owner Stan Wozniak, who worked with Sinatra on the road and befriended Piscopo through that connection, is another producer.)
Beyond the pilot, Haimann said, "a major network is interested. There is no deal signed."
Courtney Love defends using 'Hole' name for new album
Courtney Love has defended using the band name Hole for her forthcoming album 'Nobody's Daughter'.
The singer/guitarist recorded the LP with former Larrikin Love guitarist Micko Larkin, but without any of the former Hole members.
Founding member Eric Erlandson said last year that Hole would not be able to exist without his involvement. However, Love said she was persevering with using the moniker.
The last album to come out under the Hole name was 1998's 'Celebrity Skin'. In 2004, Love released the lbum 'America's Sweetheart' under her own name.
"It is Hole, yes of course," she said. "How do I do this? It is just because it is, and it is because we just negotiated our thing and it'll be fine. Everyone has good lawyers."
Love hinted that she and Erlandson may have come to a financial arrangement with regards to the name. "I don't want to slam him Erlandson," she said. "I'm a big sharer. Inside the business I am not known for being a stinge, for sure. I'm not stingy in any way, I give a lot of publishing to everyone."
To read the full interview with Love, make sure you pick up a copy of NME's Albums Of 2010 issue, which hits newsstands across the UK today (January 13).
The special issue features exclusive in-the-studio interviews with the likes of Radiohead, MGMT, MIA, LCD Soundsystem, Vampire Weekend, Klaxons, Babyshambles and much more on this year's essential albums.
Broderick okays 'Bueller' remake
Matthew Broderick has given Hollywood bosses the green light to remake his classic movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but doesn't want any involvement in it.
Rumours have swirled for months suggesting studio chiefs are nursing plans to bring the cult 1980s comedy back to the big screen in either a sequel or a remake.
Broderick has now commented on the reports, insisting he would be "happy" with plans to bring back rebellious teen Ferris, as long as the project is handed to a completely new cast.
He tells Cinematical, "(A remake) would be fine. I would be perfectly happy for somebody to do that. I probably wouldn't enjoy (having a role in the film). I would rather leave what we did as our thing."