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Sure he may have starlets on his arms, hang with the Hollywood elite and take home the Oscar, but QT, will always be a big fanboy at heart. How else would you explain his casting of drive-in and b movie heroes Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Fred Williamson Michael Parks and Dick Miller in his previous films? Or releasing cult staples such as The Beyond and Mighty Peking Man via his Rolling Thunder label?
With Kill Bill, the writer/director has fashioned what may be the crowning achievement in retro 70s schlock cinema, combining elements of kung fu, samurai swordplay, Sergio Leone style westerns, Japanese anime and even Italian Giallios. A package unlike anything ever seen before. Its a package so huge hes dividing it into separate films Vol 1 (October) Vol 2 (Feb 2004).
Kill Bill for those just like him. The day after he delivered his picture, Tarantino spoke with Fango. As he describes Kill Bill in frenzied tones, he frequently has to gulp for air. His excited desriptions remind one of the old huckster voiceover guys like Adolph Caesar, narrating the trailer for Dawn of the Dead or Master of the Flying Guillotine. His grueling, globe-spanning production has not worn Tarantino down a bit, and hes ready for Kill Bill to be discovered at a fleapit near you.
FANG: I was surprised that Miramax called me asking if wed want to interview for Kill Bill. They dont even come to us with their horror films. Was this your idea?
QT: I totally mentioned it to them. I said "This is a genre movie extraordinaire, so we have to hit the genre mags". Other filmmakers were reading American Cinematographer and American GFilm growing up, I was reading FANGORIA (laughs). I was reading Frangoria and Film Comment because that has always been my thing- art films, horror movies and genre flicks.
FANG: Tell me about the story.
QT: The Bride, Uma Thurman wirks for Bill, played by David Carradione. Bill is the worlds greatest assassin, this Fu Manchu character, a great evil corrupter with all the money and power. He has a team made up of six, The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. The Bride splits, gets pregnant and is getting married. But they track her down on her wedding day, kill everyone in the chapel and shoot The Bride in the head, putting her in a coma for 4 years. Then she wakes up and she makes those bastards wish they never did what they did. She goes down the list killing them all.
FANG: How will Kill Bill appeal to Fango readers?
QT: Well, its kinda cool, let me give you an example. When I did Reservoir Dogs, they sent me to all the horror film festivals, like Sitges and I said "im happy to go, but why are they inviting me?" They said "well because the movie is pretty horrible and it drives people crazy in the same way a horror film does". (Laughs) People were watching Peter Jacksons Dead Alive and not leaving, just laughing and having a good time. Then we showed Reservoir Dogs and 30 people left (laughs) because they cant handle it. So I guess thats considered the same audience base.
FANG: Is Kill Bill the ultimate QT fanboy project?
QT: Oh very much so! This is my full on, all out tribute to Grindhouse Cinema! The NY 42nd St stuff. Fans on the Internet say ive only seen Grindhouse movies on DVD and video. Ive never had the theatrical grindhouse experience. I cant wait for Kill Bill to come out to actually see one of the big screen". And Im reading and and I go "your not gonna quite get that, you need to be in a theater that smells like cat piss, be a little scared for your life, there should be a few rats in there, graffiti on the screen and three or four speakers should be blown out. (laughs) Thats the grindhouse experience. But yeah, Kill Bill is totally that in every way. with all the different genres we're blending together and the different styles we're working with. And then to top it off, with all the cool actors I grew up with, to have them o in a Hollywood movie! Its the three kings of 70s martial artts from all three different countries. Gordoon Liu from Hong Kong,, Davbid Carradione from America and Sonny Chiba from Japan. And it just doesnt get better than that! Sonny is fantastic in Kill Bill. Just directing him its like "My God, Im directing Sonny Chiba!" And this is MY movie. Im directing Gordon Liu in his Pai Mei get up the evil white haired priest, and Im like "Oh My God, thats THE MAN, and hes in MY movie!" We've got a scene where David Carradine is playing the Silflute and Im like "oh my god thats MY movie!"
FANG: So the film combines your passion for both The Shaw Brothers HK flicks and Japanese samurai films?
QT: Well its even more than that; its a total mix between the 2 movies, Volumes 1 and 2. My joke is: Uma is out for revenge and she has this list called the deathlist five, and its the five people shes gonna kill, workling her way down to Bill. And every name on that list represents a different subgenre of grindhouse movies. So shes fighting her way througfh 42nd Sts grindhouse cinemas to get to everybody. So this just hits all my passions. Youve got Shaw Brothers kung fu films, Japanese samurai movies, anime, a spaghetti western aspect and theres even Italian giallo in there.
FANG: Tell me about the giallo scene.
QT: heres this cool sequence that takes place in the hospital when Umas in a coma. The Daryl Hannah character dresses up as a nutse and comes in to kill her by giving her a fatal injection. Later, Umas character is buried alive and I was totally thinking of Lucio Fulci the entire time we were doing that. She gets put in a coffin and buried alive. I thought of The Psychic when Jennifer O Neill is bricked up in that wall or when Catriona MacColl is in the grave in Gates of Hell. Even the script reads "Graveyard straight out of a Lucio Fulci horror film". Also Im using RZA of the Wu Tang Clan to help me come up with a soundtrack that will include a few new pieces of music, but mostly a lot of bits of old soundtrack albums. Im just taking cuts from different albums and movies that I like and using their pieces of music in Kill Bill.. So its this Greatest Hits of all these fantastic composers. Youve got Bernard Herrmann next to Quicy Jones, next to Isaac Hayes next to Ennio Morricone next to Riz Ortolani all the way down the line. And for instance my Italian giallo scene has Bernard Herrmanns ytheme from Twisted Nerve in there right alongside that tune they play all throughout The Psychic.We also have about eight minutes or so of Japanese anime in Vol 1. Its the whole origin of Lucy Lius character O Ren Ishii, when she was a little girl. We did it with Productyion IG, the company that did Ghost in the Shell and Blood The Last Vampire. It wasnt like I just turned it over to them either. I wrote out a detailed script, shot for shot and then I walked them through it, acted it all out. There is anime in Vol 2 as well.
FANG: You were one of the first people to champion Asian action cinema. Now Hollywood has co opted the HK aesthetic, from choreography to hiring the top Asian directors. Was it difficult to make Kill Bill fresh and exciting?
QT: Oh no, my take is that Im not doing it the way anyone else is doing it. My take is is always my own thing, and noones done my thing before. Also when these American directors hire Asian choreographers, most of them sit in chairs by the monitor while these guys are directing stuff. I was directing the movie, shooting it. I dont watch monitors. Yuen Woo Ping and I choreographed all the fight scenes together. It was great. One of the things that people are gonna see different in this movie as opposed to a normal action film, is that theres no 2nd unit director. Im directing it. If its in the movie, I directed it. I said "action" and "cut". I set up the shot. Its like when you goto a James Bond movie and they have 3 directors. I never understood this notion of doing an action movie and letting someone ekse do the action scenes, while your directing the exposition. Thats like havbing sex and letting somebody else have the orgasm.
FANG: Once you got past the initial setbacks, Thurmans pregnancy and Warren Beatty turning down Bill, was it smooth sailing?
QT: It was smooth sailing as far as, you know, we all had a good time making it, but it was hands down the most dificult thing Ive ever done in my life. This movie was climbing Mt Everest and Im still climbing it; its not like Im on the top or going back down. No we;re still on the mountain, climbing. But it was very difficult! We shot for 155 days about 30 weeks! As a director Ive never shot out of LA before and we shot Kill Bill all over the world, in Beijing, Tokyo, California, Mexico...All my other movies up until this were 10 weeks long, including Pulp Fiction. The big fight scene at the House of Blue Leaves, which is the climax of Vol 1 took 8 weeks alone.
FANG: Going in, did you realize Kill Bill would take that long to shoot and eventually be divided into 2 parts?
QT: I didnt know 100 perecnt that it was going to be divided into 2 partsm,but the thing about it is the movie was always vewry mallebble to me for different versions, because the one thing you have to keep in mind with me is, as opposed to alot of American filmmakers, Im not making my movies for America per se. My films have done well in countries all over the world. Ive spent 10 years going around the world getting to know those audiences and my fans, so America is just another country. Its not THE country. its A country. So I knew going into Kill Bill that I was gonna make a version for America, a version for Asia. So what happened was that while we were shooting, in the last month, Harvey Weinstein came on the set and said "you know Quentin, I dont want you to cut anything out of this movie. What about releasing it as two parts?" And within an hour, I figured it all out.One of my favorite epics is Richard Lesters The Three and For Musketeers. Thats a great movie. And thats exactly what they did on that. When I saw The Three Musketeers, I didnt even know there was gonna be a Four Musketeers but at the end of that movie you saw some scenes from The Four Musketeers and I thought "Oh my god! thersws more? Great!' And when they came out on video, I took both tapes and I cut off the closing credits and the opening credits of the second and put them together. So for Kill Bill, fans will be doing the same thing for the next 20 years.Plus there was something about doing A 3 hour grindhouse film that seemed pretentious. It smacks of some art film meditation on a grindhouse movie, whereas coming out with 2 kickass 90 minute movies, well thats not pretentious, thats ambitious. That works, thats right, thats how it should be. And after we got through the first one, I decided we needed to split it up, because its almost too intense to watch them both together. The first one ends with this big one person against 100 fight as Umas character goes up against Lucy Lius character. Shes the Queen of the Tokyo underworld and has a whole army of guys called The Crazy 88. After that big fight you wanna go home! You cant handle a whole other movie.
FANG: After cutting the film into 2 parts, is the next challenge winning an R rating?
QT: Its going to be challenging, but not a challenge. See, I have a really great relationship with the MPAA. Ive always worled really well with them and theyve worked well with me. Ive never understood directors like Wes Craven or Brian DePalma who are like "Fuck you assholes, you guys are fucking Nazis. Screw you!" Well, what the fuck do you think their response is gonna be when you treat them like that? And when you bitch about them to the press all the time, how the hell do you think your gonna get what you want? I have always been very understanding of the MPAA as far as they have a tough job to do and they could do it alot worse than they do. Everyone bitches at them when theyre wrong, but noone ever gives them credit when theyre right. I dont see horror fans applauding them when they give Cabin Fever an R. "Hey good job MPAA!" I dont see Fangoria applauding them when they give From Dusk Til Dawn an R. "Green blood and vampires, its funny, we get it".See, theyve got a line to walk; theyve got to both represent more or less the parents of America, whose kid might unsuspectingly see a movie, but they also even though they dont say it, they know they have a responsibility to filmmakers and to the art form. They dont say that they do, but they do. When I work with them, they understand. Some filmmakers bitch because they dont have a set of rules and they change it for each movie. But thats what you want! You want it to be flowing. You dont want a set of rules, you want them judging each film as its own case. But also between the MPAA and every jerkwater county in America having their own obscenity laws, you want the MPAA!!
FANG: At any point, as the blood was flying, did anyone stop you and say "Quentin are you sure you want to shoot that?"
QT: No, not really. From time to tome people at Miramax were like: Quentin, are you sure we'll be ok with the MPAA? (laughs) and Im like "Guys, dont worry about it, itll be just fine" Because one of the things with the film is, as violent as it is, when you watch it, its so much fun. This is not real life. This is a movie-movie. There is not even an attempt to make a scene real. it exists only in a movie world. Im using all this filmic language from all these different movies, so its not real. It exists completely on celluloid. For instance, when Uma flies into Japan, I wanted to do it Godzilla style, models, all models. Model airplane, get the crazy orange backdrop, model of Tokyo...So we went to Toho and rented their Tokyo set that they used in the last Godzilla movie. And they said "Well you know, the way we do it now, is we use alot of CGI. And I said "No, no no. No CGI. I want models and strings. I wanna do it the way that Director Ishiro Honda did it, old school". So in Kill Bill youll see that crane that you always see silhouetted against the skline of Tokyo Bay.
FANG: Did the KNB boys offer any creative input on the carnage?
QT: Howard Berger was the lead guy. We had them there working their asses off. Also, Im into genre cinema from all different countries, so we literally had three different types of blood on the film. We had American, Japanese and Chinese blood and at different times we used all three. They all have different qualities. Normally you hire these prop guys and they show up with blood and its just the same shit. But in Shogun Assassin or the Baby Cart movies they have a special blood that you put on a sword and it stands out. If you go with whatever blood the SFX guy brings, you could be putting raspberrty pancake syrup on it. I wanted different styles, colors and consistencies. Yuen Woo Ping and the HK fight team taught us another way of doing a blood gag, the old 70s kung fu way and I loved it. I really applaud ingenuity on the set. If anyone came up with a good idea that helped something be accomplished that didnt necessarilly fall into their category I gave them 5 bucks. And people started wanting to win that 5 bucks. The bigger the filmmaking becomes, the less people start thinking with their heads and more about technology. We have to solve some of these problems as if we're making an amateur movie in our backyard. The Chinese dont have technology to rely on. They figured out "Hey if we take flour and we use this, we can do this and that will work!" We need to come up with solutions like that every once in awhile, because all these tubes, hydraulics, pressure gauges and everything. thats gonna get in my way at a certain point. We gotta figure out a smart way to do this. It was getting to be a drag having to hook up tubes to everyones leg everytime they wanted a blood squirt. One of my favorite directors, and hes one of the people Im dedicating this movie to, is the old kung fu director Chang Cheh. He is to old school Shaw Brothers kung fu movies what John Ford was to Westerns. He invented the modern martial arts movie. And what Cheh used to do, people would be fighting and the actors would be holding in one of their hands a Chinese condom filled with blood. And when they would get sliced POOF! theyd squeeze the condom and the blood PSSSH! would squirt out! It has to be a Chinese condom, because an American one you can squeeze all day and it wont crack (laughs).
FANG: You shot forever on Kill Bill as if the Weinsteins gave you a blank check.
QT: To one degree or another, there was a little aspect of knowing what we were getting into. First once I started shooting the action scenes, Im not gonna leave until theyre right. We went down to China and built this gigantic, gorgeous set for The House of Blue Leaves and we didnt just build a set, we built the House of Blue Leaves. We proceeded to destroy it over eight weeks. Little by little we started getting more and more behind schedule. And we just didnt really know what we were doing. We didnt have the proper time and budget. But once Harvey saw the footage he said "Quentin, this looks so great, you just keep going making your movie". And as it is, we have this giant epic that can go head to head with The Matrix and Charlies Angels and all these other big giant action films that are our competition, and they all cost 100-175 million. Ours cost 55 million, which is 100 million for me. No one in the industry can believev we made this and shot as long as we did for that price.
FANG: Was the House of Blue Leaves sequence the toughest one to shoot?
QT: At the time, I thought it was until we started getting into other stuff. We have a huge fight between Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah in Vol 2 where they have this massive, knock down, drag out, bitch fight inside this white trash trailer. And theyre both these big tall, leggy blondes who do diagonally from one end of the trailer to the next, and theyre just bouncing off the walls. That was very difficult (laughs) the scene went on forever too.
FANG: Youve been called the career revitalizer. Whos it gonna be this time?
QT: Umas gonna get a whole lot of the press, because this is the first movie Ive done where only one person is the lead. Even in Jackie Brown it was pretty well divided between Pam Grier, Robert Forster and Samuel L Jackson. So this is the first time Ive done a movie where there is just one protagonist and everybody is supporting her. But its gonna be a combination of David Carradine as Bill and also Michael Madsen as Budd, Bills brother in the movie. Michael is just amazing in it. Its some of the best work Ive ever seen him do. Hes just really amazing!
FANG: And you got Bo Svenson too.
QT: Yeah! We got a bunch of cool guys! Bo Svenson, Michael Parks....As a matter of fact both Michael Parks and his son Jim recreate their roles from other movies. Michael is playing the same character Earl McGraw he did in From Dusk Til Dawn, and Jim is playing the same part in From Dusk Til Dawn 2.
FANG: Did you have to rewrite Bill for Carradine?
QT: Not necessarilly, but I started changing it a little. Its not like I went back to the drawing board. David was really coming into my mind as a possible Bill even as I was talking to Warren Beatty. I ended up reading his autobiography, Endless Highway, and it was so fantastic that I felt he would be a really good Bill.
FANG: Kill Bill has been described as flowing like a book- the opposite of the kung fu flicks that inspired you. Is this an attempt to turn exploitation into art?
QT: Well, I guess that is what Im always trying to do, but I just believe that if Im doing it, Im coming to it from an artistic place. Ive always like exploitation movies when they came from an artistic place. Those are two great tastes that taste great together! But yeah, youre right, it is different from the way most drive in films are done, but that to me, thats what I have to offer to it. It is broken down into 10 chapters, and each chapter kinda takes you to a different place.
FANG: Are you concerned about the expectations surrounding the new Quentin Tarantino film?
QT: No, Im counting on it (laughs). Thats why I took so long to make it, cause I wanted to surpass the expectations. I know people have been waiting a long time, and I appreciate them waiting a long time so I really wanted to give them one that was worth the wait. May whole thing is that I make the films for me, and everyone else is invited. But if you go see Kill Bill, you will have a night at the movies! You wont just be going out and having a bunch of images glaze over you and forgetting what you saw by the time you walk to the car. You have been to the movies!
FANG: Will you ever do a true horror film someday?
QT: Yeah, I would really like to, actually. In particular, Id like to do a low budget one. I feel like I missed something by not having to do an exploitation movie first before I could just do exactly what I wanted with Reservoir Dogs. I always shed a tear for those exploitation movies I couldve made if I had come up in the 70s and in a way I can do those now and not have to listen to people jerk me around and tell me how to do it. So I would totally love to do a real Italian giallo or a slasher film, or some wild crazy Body Melt kind of movie, or a Pillipine Blood Island movie. I would just be so into that!
FANG: Is the war film next?
QT: Well, I have that written. That will either be the next one or maybe the one after that. I dont know if I wanna dive into another epic right now.
FANG: Then do the giallo!
QT: Im thinking about it, something a little smaller, a little less of a big canvas after Kill Bill. So Im watching gialli, maybe I can do one of those, maybe my crime film, a horror film. whatever. I just want to take a short break and chill for awhile.
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