Nice little parody of the Kill Bill trailer.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

The article is just another general Kill Bill piece, this one focused on the four main female characters in the film - Uma Thurman, Daryl Hannah, Vivica Fox and Lucy Liu. But the video of the LA premiere is worth watching.

The Village Voice also has a long article/interview with Tarantino.

"It's a sad cliche that most every director ends their career with a whimper," says Tarantino, who was friends with Fukasaku over the last 10 years of his life. "You know, it's like, 'The sex drive goes, great! Now I can devote myself to my art.' They didn't realize the dick drive is connected to the art drive." He's either about to break into "Dem Bones" or embarrass himself, so he stops. For the moment.

They also get into Quentin's foot fetish:

The small thing—things—are Thurman's feet. When Tarantino was meeting with her about Pulp Fiction, he reportedly proffered a friendly foot rub. In that movie, mobster Tony Rocky Horror got tossed out of the window by Ving Rhames for giving Thurman's character a foot massage. When Thurman's The Bride wakes from a coma and escapes from the hospital in Kill Bill, she struggles to get her paralyzed feet to regain sensation. For what seems like minutes these totemic toes fill the screen. The guy digs her dogs, and he turns them into something huge and pure pop on the screen—you want to shout at them toes to start a-wiggling. It's not just that he's a foot fetishist, but that he takes what he cares about—personal, quirky stuff—and transforms it into art. He hooks you in, too.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

I originally mentioned this back in June, but Valerie from TRIO was nice enough to send me a reminder that Tarantino's weekend of programming the cable network starts this Sunday, October 5th.

MY TR!O: QUENTIN TARANTINO is a 9-day (Sunday 10/5-Monday 10/13) deep genre festival featuring favorite films from Quentin's personal library. For six nights - Sunday through Friday - we'll run a drive-in-movie-style themed double feature, complete with vintage movie trailers. These films, which Quentin considers hidden gems, will begin and end with commentary from the master himself as he talks about violence in film and much more!

If you don't have TRIO on your cable system (like me), you can check out how to get it here. If you are lucky enough to already have TRIO, the whole Tarantino week schedule can be had here. Plan your whole week around Quentin!

Category: General
Comments: 0

Got a new packet of publicity information today for Kill Bill - the best of which is some new production stills: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

Here they are. I'll have some better quality shots of this later.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

Uma Thurman is on the cover of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, and since their website is restricted to AOL members and subscribers, you'll just have to make do with scans of the article. Thanks to Erik for the heads up and the scans.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

I'll try to post as many reviews of Kill Bill v1 here as possible. So far, nearly everything I've seen has been overwhelmingly positive. Here we go:

Harry Knowles (cream-your-pants positive)
AICN Readers (very positive, 1 exception)
TNMC (negative)
Jeffrey Wells rips Kill Bill - then actually sees the movie.

I'm under a review-embargo agreement, but have you ever read and heard so much negative stuff about a movie you've started to believe it's your own negative stuff, and on top of this you've allowed your cynicism about the editing and selling of a film to affect your view of what this film may actually turn out to be? But then you finally see the film and you come out staggering and amazed and resolved never to let advance hype affect your expectations again? I'm not referring to anything specific, of course, but you know what I mean.

Thats quite a turn around.

Dark Horizons review (positive)

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 10 (closed)

Daryl Hannah is cashing in on her Kill Bill rejuvinated career by posing nude in the November 2003 issue of Playboy magazine (more here). Apparently, she only got the gig after Playboy ditched Heidi Klum because she demanded all her photos be published in black and white.

For the curious, some previous nude shots of Daryl can be found here.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

The time has come to issue furious justice upon your enemies. The world famous Deadly Viper Assassins are here to carry out your will. Commission an assassin to destroy those who oppose you or stab your best friend in the back.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 11 (closed)

Maverick Records - the label that the Kill Bill Soundtrack is on has a Kill Bill Media Player on its site where you can get previews of some of the tracks from the soundtrack.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

The shortened version of the trailer that has been running on TV is up for download at The Movie Box.

Also, they have the bootleg trailers for download! Yes, thats plural. 2 bootleg trailers. Go now, hurry.

UPDATE:You can also download the 1st bootleg trailer from WBCD in RAR format. Thanks to Arne for the heads up.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 4 (closed)

Drudge is calling this the 1st review of Kill Bill which its clearly not - though it is among the first from the major media. Here's the skinny:

What surprised me most about Kill Bill, though, was Thurman. She's had an iffy movie career, with some good stuff (Pulp Fiction, Dangerous Liaisons, Hysterical Blindness) and some famously bad stuff (Gattaca, The Avengers, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues).

In a way, she's perfect Tarantino material -- someone we think of as a star whose resume is littered with junk. Tarantino taps into that very insightfully. Kill Bill sort of marries these two ideas together for Thurman. Now she'll be a star like never before. Her performance is just stunning, a really glorious piece of physical, witty exertion.

... these were the impressions I was left with after the screening: that it rocked, that the violence and spurting blood was cartoon-like fun, that Lucy Liu was the best she's ever been.

Hey ... I actually liked Gattaca!

Also, Tarantino has apparently told TV Movie magazine that there will be another long pause between between Kill Bill Volume 2 and his next movie - heavily rumored to be Inglorious Bastards.

Hollywood Reporter has also reviewed Kill Bill.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

I don't have a link to the whole thing yet, but IOL has a small excerpt thats more than a little weird:

“China is the Ecstasy capital of the world right now. The nightlife in China is off the hook,” the filmmaker told Playboy magazine.

“The first time I went to the Great Wall of China, it was like an all-night rave. They had rock bands, fireworks. We were smoking pot and doing E. It’s a great way to see the Wall for the first time.”

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

In addition to the article, it includes a very flattering photo of Uma. I don't think I've ever seen her look so good. Here's an excerpt:

Thurman's statuesqueness has been an eye-drawing asset in previous performances, but it was a serious impediment to learning how to beat the life out of people. "My body type is the opposite of all the people who created these arts," she says. "They have a low center of gravity; they're compact. Then there's me. I'm like 5 ft. 11 in., all arms and legs, with a 2-ft. neck." The first time Thurman swung the 10-lb. samurai sword her character uses in Kill Bill's climactic duel, she hit herself in the head and nearly burst into tears. "At first I just lied to myself. I said, 'Obviously he sees this is going to be impossible for me, and he'll figure out a way to fake it."

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

Via the boys at JoBlo. This trailer gives a bit better idea of the plot than the official version. Go. Watch. Now.

UPDATE: Well, the trailer link is not working and I've been unable to find another site that is hosting the file. I've got it on my hard drive, but at 16MB, I'd go over my bandwidth cap in about 30 minutes if I put it up here. I'll keep looking, and you could always just buy the Kill Bill soundtrack - it has the trailer on it (along with 2 others).

UPDATE #2: Kill Bill Bootleg trailer is back online!

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 3 (closed)

The November issue of Empire Magazine has an interview with Quentin, and today, they've provided some choice excerpts regarding Tarantino's apparent hatred of CGI:

"I watched Keanu watching and I suddenly felt it. You know, my guys are all real. There's no computer fucking around. I'm sick to death of all that shit. This is old school with fucking cameras. If i'd wanted all that computer game bullshit, I'd have gone home and stuck my dick in my Nintendo.

"This CGI bullshit is the death knell of cinema. Movies are far too fucking expensive at the moment and it's killing the fucking art form. The way it's going, in ten year's time it will officially be killed."

Thats beautiful.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 3 (closed)

Need to kill some time? This'll do it for you.

The Definitive Tarantino Soundboard contains the very best quotes from Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown and True Romance. This Flash application lets you listen to all your favorite QT lines, just by clicking on them. No media players needed.

Category: General
Comments: 0

IGN has a shot of some of the anime that will be in Kill Bill Volume 1. About all I've heard about the animated portions of the film are that they deal with past events or flashbacks. Below are a few shots of the anime. Also, QT Archives managed to score some screenshots from an alternative Kill Bill trailer which is located on the official soundtrack.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 5 (closed)

This is a very long article that looks at the same question everyone else seems to be asking - does Tarantino still have it?. Here's the key paragraphs:

'Tarantino is in a uniquely difficult situation,' elaborates the film historian and critic Mark Cousins, 'because all the things that made him new and fresh when he burst on the scene a decade ago have become over-familiar and hackneyed through their over-use by other, often lesser, directors. It reached a kind of tipping point a few years back where every movie seemed to have a scene where the characters argued over pop cultural trivia. More worryingly in the long run is the sense that, like Scorsese before him, the second stage of his career might be characterised by that long, sad search for a subject.'

If that is indeed the case, Kill Bill might just be the pivotal moment when Tarantino exorcises, once and for all, the various absorbed generic influences - noir, blaxploitation, kung fu - that, to varying degrees, have defined all his films. Or, it could mark a long retreat into the kind of over-the-top stylistic conformity that will appeal only to his most adolescent-minded fans, of which there are many. Curiously, the most radical aspect of Kill Bill is also the most baffling: Tarantino's decision to pare the dialogue to a bare minimum which, though faithful to the genre's unspoken ground rules, is akin to Ronaldo deciding to stop scoring goals in order to concentrate fully on his passing.

Read the whole thing, its got lots of little tidbits of information - though I am getting tired of all these 'woe is Quentin' articles.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

The official Kill Bill website has re-launched with a whole slew of new pics and info. I'll have more on the specifics later, but go check it out.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 6 (closed)

Film Stew has an extensive article/interview with Scott Nelson - he plays 'The Groom' in Kill Bill. He has some good information on the casting process that the movie went thru and some insights from working with Tarantino.

"After they made Quentin, they absolutely broke the mould," says Nelson. "I’ve worked with probably most of the top directors in Hollywood at one time or another, and he is by far the most unique and inspiring guy that I’ve ever worked with. He is kind of like a Robin Williams in that he is inspired by everything and everybody."

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

He brought back Travolta. He revived Pam Grier. Can he resuscitate himself?

Thats the question that Slate is asking. Everybody is sooo concerned for poor Quentin - as one guy said in the comments section of another article on this site - its like everybody thinks he was a cute boyband back in the mid 1990's, and now his audience has outgrown him.

Now, for the first time in his wunderkind career—at 40, he's actually past the wunderkind stage—Tarantino is facing real questions about his skill as a writer and a director. Like: After Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix movies, will yet another kung fu movie choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping seem tired?

There is one great little tidbit that I didn't know about Quentin in this article - his name was made up by his mother (first and last).

Seventeen-year-old Connie Zastoupil christened her infant son in 1963 by mixing high art with low and then infusing the blend with an arrogant, here-he-is-and-he'll-change-the-world bravado. "I wanted a name that would fill up the entire screen," she told Vanity Fair in 1994. "A multisyllable name: Quen-tin Ta-ran-ti-no." His first name was lifted from William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, but it was also inspired by the Burt Reynolds character, Quint, from Gunsmoke. And his last name? She made it up. It just sounded cool.

Category: General
Comments: 0

Lucy made the cover of Jane Magazine (article not online), but the Washington Post has a little excerpt:

Lucy Liu practices kali-eskrima-silat, a martial art involving sticks and knives. And while she's shown off her skills in the Charlie's Angels movies and Shanghai Noon," she's never had to use them to defend herself in real life.

"Thank God, no, but it has made me more aggressive," the 5-foot-3-inch actress told Jane magazine for its October issue.

After seeing Liu in action, Quentin Tarantino wrote a character for her in his upcoming martial-arts film, the two-part "Kill Bill."

"Quentin has an incredible knowledge of cinema," the 34-year-old actress said. "And to have somebody like that come up to you and tell you, 'Hey, I wrote this role for you. What do you think?' It makes you feel like you've done something right."

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

The UK press release site has song samples for 4 tracks and a new tidbit of information - the soundtrack will have 3 versions of the Kill Bill trailer that will be playable from a PC. The track samples are for:
Battle Without Honor or Humanity - Tomoyasu Hotei
Crane / White Lightning - The RZA
Ode To Oren Ishii - The RZA
That Certain Female - Charlie Feathers

Buy the Kill Bill soundtrack from Amazon.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 0

The Independent has a large interview with Tarantino where he discusses everything from splitting Kill Bill into two movies, to reminding us that the blood in his movies is just colored syrup. Read the whole thing - its worth it. Here's a couple of things QT had to say about Kill Bill Volume 1:

It's a different kind of thing. I wanted it to be more of a burst of adrenalin.We're getting the Bride on her way, and we don't want to get lost. And we're also setting up how she can't be stopped. One of my favourite shots in Volume 1 is just her in that wheelchair. She wakes up, she kills these guys, her bottom half doesn't work, but that's not going to stop her, she can't be stopped.

Also, this was an action movie. I don't need that dialogue to exist, what's there is good, and you'll get more of that in the second movie, but I don't have to live or die by it. I'm giving you something I haven't given you before. And it's got to be good so you don't miss the dialogue.

UPDATE:Coming Soon! also has some additional stills from both Kill Bill v1 and v2 that weren't part of the latest Mirimax press blitz.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 1 (closed)

The new theatrical trailer is now up and viewable from Yahoo! Movies.

UPDATE: I just got a chance to watch the trailer for the 1st time - WOW. This film just moved up a couple of notches on my expectation list. The fight scenes looked solid, the wire work wasn't over-done - and it had a wonderfully campy feel to it. A nurse wearing an eyepatch with a red cross on it? Please, it just doesn't get any funnier than that.

UPDATE #2: Here is a Quicktime version of the trailer for you.

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 12 (closed)

I'm not sure what the point of saying something like this is, but here's what she said:

But Uma, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Tarantino’s 1994 flic ‘Pulp Fiction’, is sure the martial arts saga has no hope of Oscar glory. She says, "It will be highly unlikely that happens again this time." The story is split and it's so violent I don't think the Academy will like it. It doesn't pander to the Oscar community."

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 2 (closed)

According to Christopher Kelly, most of the time between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill was spent working on the screenplay for Inglorious Bastards. While that's true, what Kelly doesn't mention is that the whole schedule for Kill Bill and Inglorious Bastards got pushed back because of Uma Thurman's pregnancy. Kelly is also 'worried' about just who wants to see a Tarantino movie these days:

There's also this question: Who, exactly, is his audience supposed to be this time around? The college kids Tarantino connected with in the early 1990s likely still consider themselves fans. But at this point, burned out long ago on all the Tarantino wannabes of the late '90s, they might prefer to give their box-office dollars to the more playful and droll Coen Brothers (whose Intolerable Cruelty also opens Oct. 10). As for today's college kids -- will they have even seen Reservoir Dogs, much less care about its director's motor-mouthed, movie-obsessed aesthetic?

Category: Kill Bill
Comments: 56 (closed)