The Weinstein Company has officially announced that Quentin Tarantino‘s World War II movie Inglourious Basterds will be released on August 21, 2009.

At last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Tarantino promised to have the movie for the ’09 festival. No word yet as to if he’ll still fulfill that promise with the release date now set for three or so months after Cannes. I won’t be there, so I’m just happy to know when I’ll get to see it, but I am starting to think he’ll have it there and hopefully we’ll start to hear some feedback on what to expect.

For the Amish who recently jumped ship and embraced technology, Inglourious Basterds stars Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Mike Myers, and Diane Kruger as well as many, many others. It follows Pitt and his band of Jewish soldiers who were previously captives and are out to kill a group of Nazis.

Everyone’s favorite new WWII movie project from Quentin Tarantino, the curiously spelled Inglourious Basterds, has now begun filming in Germany!

Simple, but great news! Now images and eventually trailers will start raining down on us.

Speaking of images, we received the first one of Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine, on the film set. Click the image here to see a larger version. (The official synopsis is below.)

Inglourious Basterds follows a band of Jewish soldiers who go after the Nazis and has a crazy cast including Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger (Troy, National Treasure), Eli Roth (Hostel), Samm Levine (Not Another Teen Movie), B.J. Novak (The Office), Julie Dreyfus (Kill Bill), Michael Fassbender (300), Mike Myers, and Cloris Leachman among many others.

The Tarantino Archives has obtained some pictures from the set of Inglorious Bastards.

The pictures are mainly of the farmhouse that will be used in the film. There’s also a picture of a piece of paper that has the very odd spelling of the film as “Inglourious Basterds,” which I doubt they’re actually using; seems more like one of those inside-joke deals amongst the crew, I would think.

If you’re one of the many who has read the script, you’ll know the first 15-20 minutes involve this farmhouse and you’ll see that it’s nothing short of perfect-looking.

I’m taking this as a sign of very good things to come.

When Quentin Tarantino made his bold statement at Cannes that he would be there in one year with Inglorious Bastards, everyone laughed and shook their heads saying “Ooh, Quentin, you rascal, you” and then continued about their business. Pretty much immediately after the amusing quote, Tarantino went and finished his script and then started casting and scouting locations like a mad man; this told us he was actually serious and was out to prove it.

So here we are. The movie is looking to start production this Fall and a strong cast is forming with Brad Pitt, B.J. Novak, Mike Myers, Samm Levine, and Eli Roth signed on and many more to surely come. This is everything we’ve wanted, isn’t it? We should be giddy and riddled with goosebumps, right? I’m not so sure.

Since all of this began there’s been some other names involved as well; names like Adam Sandler, Simon Pegg, David Krumholtz, and Nastassja Kinski. While Kinski still remains unknown, Sandler, Pegg, and Krumholtz have all had to decline the roles offered to them because of that bastard Hollywood demon, the “conflicting schedule.” Even worse than that, these guys were actually excited to be in this movie!

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?