Tarantino casts pivotal BASTARDS

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

I finally this week got round to picking up Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards script from my shelf and I gotta say, although I have only read half of it to date, I adore it. It's certainly not the movie I was expecting from Tarantino when I heard him talk about it in various interviews and to be accurate, it's hardly like movies like The Dirty Dozen at all but it's uniquely Tarantino and is more subtlety epic than you might think. Can't wait to finish it off, the projected climax of the film sounds amazing. So shooting is set to begin on October 13th and Tarantino has added a few more names to his cast. First new casting is a big one, it's the role of Col. Hans Landa - the movie's second lead after Brad Pitt. He is "The Jew Hunter" and for me, he is easily the most realised character in the film, one of the smoothest and intriguing villains I've read in a long time. He reminded me of a cross between Alan Rickman in Die Hard crossed with Sergi Lopez's Captain Vidal from Pan's Labyrinth. When I read the script, I couldn't get the image of Leonardo DiCaprio (the role was his until Quentin decided to cast a German) out of my head, he would have been so perfect in the casting against type. I even think the fact he wasn't German wouldn't matter so much with Leo, who is better when he isn't playing the straight or conventional role. Such a shame Quentin decided against it, I think the movie would have benefited with another big name cast member to go opposite Pitt. Instead it will be 51 year old Austrian born T.V. actor Christoph Waltz who will play Landa, his biggest part of his whole career, unquestionably.

It's his first Hollywood production, his biggest movie, his biggest part. As a smooth Nazi villian, he certainly has the looks but presence is the key. This Col. Hans Landa just jumps off the page, grabs you and is no doubt a role actor's just crave. Let's hope he can live up to Quentin's faith in him and IMDB list him as being able to speak French, German and English which if you read the script is a big part of the character. Variety say National Treasure and Troy actress Diane Kruger will play German actress Bridget Von Hammersmark, one of the bigger parts as the movie progresses. It would appear that German Natassja Kinski turned Quentin down for what would have been her big come back movie.

Shame, because the role really did suit her, or at least it suited a former beauty queen who is now out of the spotlight. And Kruger is hardly an actress I would envisage as a legendary actress, she can barely make her way through Hollywood productions. I don't particularly rate her and for me, it's another poor casting decision from Tarantino, particularly in this case becuase I don't think she is really old enough. And finally, American actor Paul Rust who played "Wheelchair Darren" in Semi-Pro and has a part in the upcoming comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper has joined the cast in an unknown role. He will probably be a young member of the Bastards, as he is 27.

Which leaves us with...

Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Mike Myers, Michael Fassbender, B.J. Novak and Samm Levine with the pivotal roles of Shoshanna Dreyfus (she has a character arc much like Lucy Liu in Kill Bill) which should end up with a young adult playing her, AICN have it spot on that it's a Natalie Portman esque part.

Then there's Stiglitz (out of control Bastard, probably the role written for Michael Madsen) and Gestapo Deiter Hellstrom. Oh and then, just the small roles of Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels who have a varying amount of screentime in the flick.