Inglourious Basterds
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Melanie Laurent, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbenderr, Til Schweiger, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Mike Myers
Rated R
Release date: August 21, 2009

I did not discover Quentin Tarantino at the same time everyone else did, but by the time his 1997 crime drama Jackie Brown, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, was released I knew who he was. I came by his movies on my own with my only knowledge of them being what I had read in magazines like Rolling Stone, Premiere, and Entertainment Weekly.

Pulp Fiction, his epic anthology of strangely believable adventures in the underworld, was the first. I rented that movie when it was first released on video but it took me all of the one-week rental period to watch it because I could not view it in the presence of my younger brother and sister. But as I watched Pulp Fiction, piece by piece every day before and after I went to school, I became captivated by what I was seeing and I began to understand why Quentin Tarantino was the talk of the town. Here was undoubtedly the most innovative and dynamic new filmmaker to emerge in a decade that had seen more than its fair share of cinematic underachievers and would see even more before the millennium came to a close. Tarantino’s films were heavily criticized for their violence but when weighed against the majority of the R-rated action fare that was coming out of Hollywood there was not much bloodshed at all. What gave the violence in Tarantino’s films its impact was its relative restraint. His films rely mostly on the integral developments of plot and character. When the violence does come, be it in a shocking gag (the accidental shooting of Marvin in Pulp Fiction) or an extended battle sequence (the House of Blue Leaves fight which takes up the majority of Kill Bill Volume 1‘s third act), it feels like a cathartic release of tension and energy. Tarantino’s own personal celluloid orgasm, if you will.

In one of the more strange casting announcements I’ve heard in a while, Mike Myers has been cast in Quentin Tarantino‘s upcoming Inglorious Bastards in a small role as a British General named Ed French who assists in the plan to take down the Nazis.

Considering all of the comedic names rumored for this movie, like Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, and most recently Simon Pegg who’s in talks, and BJ Nowak, who has been cast (along with Brad Pitt, by the way); you would think that this wouldn’t surprise me, but man, Mike Myers in this seems totally made up. Don’t get me wrong though, this adds to the intrigue.

Luckily, Myers is just playing a bit part, because we wouldn’t want anything to get it the way of his writing an Austin Powers 4, now would we?

As expected, the casting has begun to pick up for Quentin Tarantino‘s now in full-swing Inglorious Bastards. Recently it was announced that Eli Roth would have a role in the film and earlier today it was reported that B.J. Novak from The Office was in talks for a role. But now the first big-time casting announcement is that Brad Pitt has officially signed on to play Aldo Raine, a southerner who leads a group of Jewish-American soldiers against the Nazis. Roth will be playing Sgt. Donnie Donowitz and Novak is up for the role of PFC Utivich.

Simon Pegg and David Krumholtz are also in talks to join the cast.