Tarantino relief at finishing project

By Tom Brook
Provincetown, Massachusetts

Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino speaks of his relief at finishing the screenplay for his latest film project, a "modern, in-your-face" World War II epic.

Tarantino, who was at an independent film festival in the US, confirmed he has now finished the screenplay for Inglorious Bastards - his long-awaited new film - and he maintains he is moving into pre-production right away.

Tarantino said he was a "real happy dude right now"

He was speaking at the Provincetown Film Festival - where he received a special Filmmaker on the Edge award at the weekend, and was clearly pleased his script was all wrapped up.

"You're talking to a real happy dude right now," said the filmmaker, who only completed the screenplay last week.

He was surprised that the news of his screenplay had spread so rapidly. "I didn't know everyone knew about it, so this is actually kind of very bizarre for me."

Tarantino began writing Inglorious Bastards screenplay several years ago.

The film is a World War II epic and it will be the director's sixth major feature.

According to Tarantino no final decisions have yet been made about casting. But in the past a wide range of names from Tim Roth to Sylvester Stallone have been rumoured to be involved.

The film has been described as his version of the classic 1967 Second World War action movie The Dirty Dozen, starring Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

The director, pictured at 2008's Cannes Film Festival, is no stranger to publicity

That film told the fictional story of a group of American soldiers convicted of various military crimes who were ordered to go on a suicide mission behind enemy lines to kill Nazi officers.

But Tarantino points out that the original picture was only a source of inspiration, nothing more.

He says, "what actually got me to sit down and put pen to paper was 'hey wouldn't it be fun to do a Dirty Dozen kind of thing?' It doesn't look anything like The Dirty Dozen."

In the 90s Tarantino emerged to become one of America's best-known - and most controversial - independent filmmakers.

He made his name with Reservoir Dogs in 1992. He then followed up with the much celebrated Pulp Fiction two years later which brought him the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

With Inglorious Bastards he will be making his first period film.

But he said: "I don't want it to feel like a period film. I want it to feel current.

"I want it to feel right now. One of the things I have to battle against is 30 years of Nazi-occupation TV movies where we've all seen the big streets and the vintage cars and the Swastikas, and we've just seen that ad nauseum.

'Telling my stories'

"This is a modern, in-your-face movie. This is not a TV movie period piece."

Tarantino was a major attraction in Provincetown where two of his films were being shown.

The festival is now celebrating its 10th anniversary - and it has grown to become a well-respected international showcase for independent cinema.

The filmmaker was flattered to have been given the award but was not quite sure what to make of the accolade.

"I'm not trying to be on the edge, I'm not trying to go against the grain or anything, I'm just telling my stories and I've been lucky enough to actually find an audience."

In addition to receiving the award, Tarantino participated in an informal ceremony in which Provincetown officially proclaimed that 21 June would forever be "Quentin Tarantino Day".

The director was excited to have a day named in his honour but he left the festival with the sobering challenge of getting Inglorious Bastards completed according to a very ambitious self-imposed schedule.

He wants the picture, a project that has been subject to several delays, to be ready within 11 months in time for next year's Cannes Film Festival.