Inglourious Basterds revolves around a special force of Allied fighters under Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) who are tasked with killing Nazis behind enemy lines during World War II. The film connects many different plot lines and is brimming with ideas. Accordingly, Tarantino was initially overwhelmed with his script. In Robert Rodriguez’s documentary series The Director’s Chair he explained:
[Das Drehbuch zu] Inglourious Basterds became a never-ending process. I couldn’t stop writing. I was already 100 pages in and there was no end in sight. It was so big and unwieldy that I wanted to make it as a miniseries. That was really my plan.
This is what our colleague Yves from Inglourious Basterds thinks:
This film changed me: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS | Quentin Tarantino Rewatch
However, Tarantino’s idea didn’t make it past Luc Besson. The French cult director was not at all impressed by the idea of a minisere. Tarantino recalled on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson:
Luc [Besson] just said, ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ I asked him why. And he said, ‘You’re one of the few directors that makes me want to leave the house to see your films. And now I have to wait years for it [, weil du zuerste eine Serie veröffentlichst]? I’m a little disappointed.’ And bums [wie er]they say something that you can’t get out of your head.
Accordingly, Tarantino gave it a try cut the Inglourious Basterds script down to feature length. So if you love the cinema version of the masterpiece, you can thank Luc Besson.
Podcast: The 5 most exciting streaming films in January on Netflix, Amazon and Co.
You don’t know what to stream on Netflix or Amazon tonight? In the monthly overview we present you the most promising new films in January.
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Among the 5 selected streaming films you will find a star-studded sci-fi drama as well as a survival thriller that was made on Netflix based on true events.