Brad Pitt and Simon Pegg enlist for Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards
Story by Jack Foley
BRAD Pitt has reportedly been enlisted for Quentin Tarantino’s World War Two epic Inglorious Bastards, with comedian Simon Pegg also rumoured to be joining the ranks.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pitt has signed on to play Lt. Aldo Raine, the head of the Jewish resistance, in the film, who leads a band of eight Jewish American soldiers in exacting revenge against the Nazis in German-occupied France.
If successful in his negotiations, Pegg would play a British lieutenant.
Further roles have reportedly been offered to David Krumholtz, as a member of Pitt’s team, and Nastassja Kinski, as a German actress.
The casting news was revealed by the film’s producer, Lawrence Bender, who predicted that the alchemy of Pitt and Tarantino, who have never worked together as actor and director, could yield unique results.
“They’re going to push each other and really help make something special,” he said.
Pitt has appeared in a cameo role in Tony Scott’s True Romance, a film based on a script by Tarantino, and has long since expressed a desire to work properly with the filmmaker. The two were reported to have met recently in France, following the birth of Pitt’s twins.
But his signature is sure to attract the type of cast Tarantino has long been seeking and will also help the film move forward on an accelerated schedule.
The Weinstein Co/Universal co-production is due to start shooting in October in Germany, with a view to being completed in time to make its debut at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, a favourite stomping ground of the director’s.
Pitt will also start shooting boxing drama The Fighter for Paramount later this year or early next and will soon be reunited with Ocean’s co-star George Clooney in the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading.
Bender, who is confident that Tarantino is about to deliver something really special to make up for the critical and commercial disappointment of his Death Proof/Grindhouse project (we still loved it!), went on to reveal that casting is ongoing to find a German actor to play Hans Landa, the Nazi leader targeted by the resistance.
BJ Novak and long-time Tarantino collaborator Eli Roth (of Hostel infamy) are also in talks to play soldiers in Pitt’s army.