Tag Archives: Django Unchained

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This week in history: 24th March – 30th March

The actor Robert Carradine stood in a forest.

Image via: http://sfsketchfest.com/

This week’s TWIH post combines the births of some influential actors and actresses and the release of a first-of-its-kind film.

On the 24th of March in 1954, in Hollywood, the youngest of the Carradine brothers was born. Robert Carradine began his acting career in 1972 alongside John Wayne in the western classic The Cowboys. One of his best known roles had him portraying Sam McGuire, the father in the Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire. Unknown to many, Robert Carradine also starred in 2012’s Django Unchained!

On the 26th of the same month, in 1985, Keira Knightley was born. She grew up in London, and her first role was a small part in 1993’s Royal Celebration. Since then, she has starred in a huge number of brilliant films, including Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Bend it like Beckham (2002), and Doctor Zhivago (2002). One of her most famous roles is that of Lady Elizabeth Swann, which began in 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. 

The première of Shaun of the Dead was on the 29th of March, 2004. Simon Pegg, one of the leading actors in the film, said that the film was the first ever “rom-com-zom”, or romantic comedy featuring zombies. The film went on to make $30,039,392. Horror great George A. Romero was so impressed with Simon Pegg’s work towards this film that he offered him a cameo role in his 2005 zombie flick Land of the Dead!

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Quentin Tarantino sues for $2million over script leak.

An image of Quentin Tarantino holding an award.
An image of Quentin Tarantino holding an award.

Quentin Tarantino.
Source: Wikipedia

Oscar winning director and screenwriter, Quentin Tarantino is seeking at least $2million in damages down to the leak of his script for his movie The Hateful Eight.

Tarantino is suing the gossip website Gawker for contributory copyright infringement after it posted a link to the leaked screenplay.

Last Monday (20th January), the first draft of Tarantino’s ensemble Western was published to the world after the director trusted it into the hands of only six people.

The lawsuit, filed by Tarantino’s lawyers today, seeks damaged of $1million (£603,000) against Gawker and $1million against the anonymous file-sharing website where the leaked script was hosted.

The director, who last year won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for Django Unchained, has since decided to shelve the product which he had previously planned to film in the winter of 2015.

Instead, he said that he will probably publish the script as a book instead, a practice that in the past has seen him rack up some impressive royalties and advances.

With the release of Django Unchained in 2012 and Inglorious Basterds in 2009, the director is certainly not struggling for funds as they were both box-office smashes, accumulating over $740million worldwide.

As well as an impressive box office, the two films achieved 12 nominations and 3 wins at The Academy Awards.

As for what Quentin Tarantino has planned next, he said “I’ve got 10 more where that came from.”

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The all-encompassing Tarantino-verse

Quentin Tarantino holding a camera
The Bride swordfighting

Image via http://derekwinnert.com/

Sometimes you can flick to a film and just know whose it is. There’s that director footprint, like a seal of ownership, that you can identify within minutes of switching on. Sometimes it’s a visual style – you can tell a Pixar film from a mile off. Or maybe it’s the dialogue that’s distinctive. But what about the films of Quentin Tarantino? What makes them so, recognisable?

These films are incredibly indepth, with a ton of unique characters and brilliant ways in which they interact. But how do the films themselves do this? Tarantino has spent his life painstakingly crafting a spiderweb-like film universe, in which every character branches out to another somehow. This band of rogues overlaps in between his films in ways that are as weird and wonderful as his creations.

These aren’t plot related, mind you. These crossovers are more like Easter Eggs, teasing and giving little enjoyable in-jokes to only the most observant of fans. Film buffs say that good screenwriting is to give every character a backstory. Well Tarantino could dedicate entire films to his.

I’ll start with an easy one. Pulp Fiction‘s Mia Wallace tells John Travolta about her failed TV show, Fox Force Five. Sound like Kill Bill to you? Maybe it isn’t Uma Therman playing The Bride, but Mia Wallace? Coincidence I think not.

Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield holding guns

Image via http://handsomecitizens.com/

Speaking of John Travolta, did you know that Reservoir Dogs‘ Mr Blonde and Pulp Fiction’s Vincent Vega are related? Here’s a big hint – they’re brothers. Tarantino originially intended to write The Vega Brothers as a prequel but scrapped the idea when both Messrs Travolta and Madsen aged more than their respective characters.

Okay with that? Good, cause here’s where it gets a little deeper. Keeping with Reservoir Dogs, Mr White’s relationship with a woman known only as “Alabama” can be linked with the same girl from the Tarantino scribed True Romance. It’s also a safe bet to assume Detective Jack Scagnatti from the Tarantino penned Natural Born Killers is related to Seymour Scagnetti. Remember him? He was mentioned as being a parole officer in Reservoir Dogs by Mr Blonde.

Further down the rabbit hole we go. Tarantino himself has admitted that he writes two kinds of film; “movie movies” and the “Realer than Real” universe. These “movie movies”, From Dusk Till Dawn and Kill Bill are films that character from his other films would enjoy. So, in the drama Curdled, a character is seen watching the Gecko brothers from From Dawn Till Dusk on TV. This would explain both why there are suddenly vampires in a Tarantino film, and why no one in Django Unchained is worried about vampire attacks. The rest of his films are firmly in the “Realer than Real” category.

I could keep going endlessly with speculation and fanboy-driven ramblings, or you could go and watch the films and marvel at what Tarantino has created yourselves. Or, you could head to Cracked.com and check out their theory on the ending of Inglorious Basterds. It certainly blew my mind.

If that is true, then the man truly is a genius. Either way, you have to love how this guy’s brain works.