QUENTIN TARANTINO

QUENTIN TARANTINO

Birth name Quentin Jerome Tarantino

Born - March 27, 1963 (1963-03-27) (age 44)
Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.

Years active - 1987 – present

Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, actor, and Oscar winning screenwriter. He rose to fame in the early 1990s as an auteur filmmaker whose films used postmodern nonlinear storylines, and stylized violence interwoven with often-obscure cinematic references. His films include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (Vol. 1 2003, Vol. 2 2004) and Death Proof featured in Grindhouse (2007).

Early life

Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of Connie Zastoupil , a nurse and health care executive who worked for a home medical organization, and Tony Tarantino, an actor and amateur musician. Tarantino's father is Italian American and his mother had part Cherokee Native American ancestry. Shortly after Quentin's birth, his mother married musician Curt Zastoupil, with whom Quentin would form a strong bond. He started kindergarten in 1968. In 1971, the family moved to El Segundo, in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, where Tarantino attended Hawthorne Christian School. At the age of 14, he wrote his first script, The Amazing Adventures of Mr. Lee. Dropping out of Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California at the age of sixteen, he went on to learn acting at the James Best Theatre Company. This proved to be influential in his movie-making career.

In 1984, Tarantino started working the counter at the Video Archives, a Manhattan Beach video store. Tarantino befriended Roger Avary, a fellow employee with whom he would later collaborate. While he continued to study acting at Allen Garfield's Actors' Shelter in Beverly Hills, he began to concentrate on screenwriting.

Film career

Tarantino's screenplay True Romance was optioned and eventually released in 1993. After Tarantino met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Bender encouraged Tarantino to write a film. The end product was Reservoir Dogs (1992), a dialogue-driven heist movie that set the tone for his later films. Tarantino wrote the script in three and a half weeks and Bender forwarded it to director Monte Hellman. Hellman helped Tarantino to secure funding from Richard Gladstein at Live Entertainment (which later became Artisan). Harvey Keitel read the script and also contributed to funding, took a co-producer role, and a part in the movie.

The second script that Tarantino sold was Natural Born Killers. Director Oliver Stone made a number of changes that Tarantino disagreed with. As a result, Tarantino disowned the script. Following the success of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino was approached by Hollywood and offered numerous projects, including Speed and Men in Black. He instead retreated to Amsterdam to work on his script for Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1994 Cannes film festival.

The success of Pulp Fiction also helped to revive the career of John Travolta. Pulp Fiction earned Tarantino and Avary Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, and was also nominated for Best Picture.

After Pulp Fiction he directed episode four of Four Rooms, "The Man from Hollywood", a tribute to an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode that starred Steve McQueen. Four Rooms is a collaborative effort with filmmakers Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell and Robert Rodriguez. The film was very poorly received by critics and audiences. He also starred in and wrote the script for Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, which saw mixed reviews from the critics yet led to two sequels, for which Tarantino and Rodriguez would only serve as executive producers.

Tarantino's next film was Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Rum Punch, a novel by his mentor Elmore Leonard. A homage to blaxploitation films, it also starred Pam Grier, who starred in many of that genre's films of the 1970s. In 1998, he turned his attention to the Broadway stage, where he starred in a revival of Wait Until Dark.

He had then planned to make the war film Inglorious Bastards. However, he postponed that to write and direct Kill Bill (released as two films, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Wuxia (Chinese martial arts), Jidaigeki (Japanese period cinema), Spaghetti Westerns and Italian horror or giallo. It was based on a character (The Bride) and a plot that he and Kill Bill's lead actress, Uma Thurman, had developed during the making of Pulp Fiction.

In 2004, Tarantino returned to Cannes where he served as President of the Jury. Kill Bill was not in competition, but it did screen on the final night in its original 3-hour-plus version. The Palme d'Or that year went to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

Tarantino is given credit as "Special Guest Director" for his work directing the car sequence between Clive Owen and Benicio del Toro of the 2005 neo-noir film Sin City. In 2005, Tarantino announced his next project would be Grindhouse, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. It was released in theaters on April 6, 2007.

Tarantino's section of the Grindhouse project, Death Proof, is to be released around the world in a stand-alone, 2 hour cut in September 2007. He has referred to the film as beginning as his take on the slasher movies of the 1970s, but developing into something very different.

He has stated his next film will "probably" be Inglorious Bastards, which is a World War II film, but that he needed to spend another year working on the script before filming. Reportedly, one of the scripts he wrote for Inglorious Bastards would, if filmed complete, make for an 8 hour long film. Also, Quentin has divulged information about possible anime prequels to the Kill Bill films. These would probably center around the DiVAS, Bill or The Bride before the events of the first two films. In a recent interview with The Telegraph he mentioned an idea for a form of spaghetti western set in America's Deep South which he calls "a southern." Stating that he wanted "to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to"

There have also been rumors of a film about two characters from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Vic and Vincent Vega. This would be The Vega Brothers but this has only been hinted at, along with April Fools rumours posted on the internet about Pulp Fiction 2: The Valley Of Darkness. In 2007 he claimed that the Vega Brothers project (which he intended to call Double V Vega) is "kind of unlikely now"

Among his current producing credits are the horror flick Hostel (which included numerous references to his own Pulp Fiction), the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot (which Tarantino had once written a script for) and Hell Ride (written & directed by Kill Bill star Larry Bishop). In 2005 Quentin Tarantino won the "Icon of the Decade" award at the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards.

On August 15, 2007, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroz congratulated Tarantino after handing over to him a lifetime achievement award at the Malacañang Palace in Manila. Tarantino was forced to take a pedicab to the palace after a flood-induced traffic jam caused by Typhoon Sepat trapped his limousine on streets of the country's capital, Manila.

Personal life

Tarantino has been romantically linked with numerous entertainers, including Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino, directors Allison Anders and Sofia Coppola, French actress Julie Dreyfus, and comediens Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho. There have also been rumors about his relationship with Uma Thurman, whom he has referred to as his "muse". However, Tarantino has gone on record as saying that their relationship is strictly platonic. He has also been allegedly linked to actress Shar Jackson. He has never married and has no children.

One of Tarantino's closest friends is fellow director Robert Rodriguez (the pair often refer to each other as brothers). Their biggest collaborations have been From Dusk Till Dawn (written by Tarantino, directed by Rodriguez), Four Rooms (they both wrote and directed segments of the film), Sin City and Grindhouse.

It was Tarantino who suggested that Rodriguez name the final part of his El Mariachi trilogy Once Upon a Time in Mexico, as a homage to the titles Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon A Time In America by Sergio Leone. They are both members of A Band Apart, a production company that also features directors John Woo and Luc Besson. Rodriguez scored Kill Bill: Volume 2 for one dollar, and the favor was returned in kind, with Tarantino directing a scene in Rodriguez's 2005 film Sin City for the same fee.

Rodriguez was also responsible for introducing Tarantino to digital film. Prior to this, Tarantino was a vocal supporter of using traditional celluloid film. Tarantino is good friends with The RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. They are often seen together in the VIP room of nightclubs. RZA composed the musical score for Kill Bill. Tarantino spat at Chris Connelly on the red carpet during the 1997 Oscars. He mistakenly thought Connelly edited a story in Premiere magazine about his estranged biological father.

Tarantino is a friend of Japanese Director Takashi Miike, whom he asked to perform a cameo in Eli Roth's film Hostel. As a result of Miike doing so, Tarantino is performing in the opening action sequence of Miike's next Movie Sukiyaki Western: Django, scheduled for release in August 2007.

Tarantino has claimed to detest both drugs and violence in real life.

In a recent Playboy interview, he jokes of smoking cannabis and using ecstasy while filming Kill Bill and his willingness to physically beat people who he has disagreements with In 1997 he was sued by a well known film producer for $5,000,000, accused of assault. Tarantino attacked the producer in a restaurant, slammed him against the wall and punched him.

Filmography

Director

Feature films

• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Jackie Brown (1997)
• Kill Bill (2003)
• Death Proof (2007)

Possible future projects

• Inglorious Bastards
• Come Drink With Me

Shorts and TV

• My Best Friend's Birthday (1987)
• ER (1995) Season 1; Episode 24: "Motherhood" (Director)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2004) 20 April 2004
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2005) '"Grave Danger: Vols. I & II"

Collaborative films

• Four Rooms(segment "The Man from Hollywood") (1995)
• Sin City (2005) (Special Guest Director)
• Grindhouse (film Death Proof) (2007)

Writer

• My Best Friend's Birthday(1987) (unfinished first film)
• Past Midnight (1992) (uncredited re-write)
• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• True Romance (1993)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Natural Born Killers(1994) (story credit, wrote original draft)
• It's Pat (1994) (uncredited re-write)
• Crimson Tide (1995) (uncredited re-write)
• Four Rooms (segment "The Man from Hollywood") (1995)
• The Rock (1996) (uncredited re-write)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
• Curdled (1996) (uncredited Gecko Brothers news report)
• Jackie Brown (1997) (adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch)
• Kill Bill (Vol. 1 (2003), Vol. 2 (2004))
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2005) '"Grave Danger: Vols. I & II" (story credit)
• Hostel (2006) (uncredited re-write)
• The Book With No Name (as Anonymous) (2006)
• Grindhouse (Death Proof segment) (2007)
• Inglorious Bastards(TBA)

Actor

• My Best Friend's Birthday (1987) as Clarence Pool.
• Reservoir Dogs (1992) as Mr. Brown.
• Pulp Fiction(1994) as Jimmie Dimmick.
• Sleep With Me(1994) as Sid.
• Destiny Turns On the Radio (1995) as Johnny Destiny.
• Four Rooms (segment "The Man from Hollywood") as Chester Rush.
• Desperado ((1995) as Pick-up Guy.
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) as Richie Gecko.
• Girl 6(1996) as Q.T.
• Jackie Brown (1997) as Default Answering Machine voice.
• Little Nicky(2000) as Deacon.
• Alias (television series) (2001) as McKenas Cole.
• BaadAsssss Cinema (2002) (documentary)
• Kill Bill (2003) as a Crazy 88 member.
• Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004) (documentary)
• The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) as Kermits Director.
• Grindhouse (2007) as Rapist #1 (Planet Terror)/Warrem the Bartender (Death Proof).
• Sukiyaki Western: Django (2007) as Mystery Man Ringo.

Producer

• My Best Friend's Birthday(1987)
• Past Midnight (1992)
• Iron Monkey (1993) (2001 U.S. release)
• Killing Zoe (1994)
• Four Rooms (1995)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
• Curdled (1996)
• God Said, 'Ha!' (1998)
• From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)
• From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000)
• Daltry Calhoun (2005)
• Freedom's Fury (2005)
• Hostel (2006)
• Killshot (2007)
• Grindhouse (2007)
• Hell Ride (2007)
• Hostel: Part II (2007)

Presenter

• Iron Monkey (1993) (2001 U.S. release)
• Hero (2002) (2004 U.S. release)
• Hostel (2005)
• The Protector (2005) (2006 U.S. release)
• Hostel: Part II (2007)