New Tarantino Film to Be Released in 2 Parts
By LAURA M. HOLSON
LOS ANGELES, July 15 — Miramax Films will take the unusual and potentially risky move of releasing "Kill Bill," the much-anticipated Quentin Tarantino martial arts action-adventure film, as two movies, the first to open in the fall. Miramax will in effect be taking a three-hour film with a 200-page script and turning it into a serial.
Harvey Weinstein, a co-founder of Miramax, which is financing the film, said in an interview on Monday that the first installment would be in theaters on Oct. 10. The second release date is in still being negotiated, but it could be two to six months later, he said.
To many in Hollywood, the decision will come as a surprise. Mr. Weinstein, who in Hollywood is known as "Harvey Scissorhands," after the title character in the movie "Edward Scissorhands," has a reputation for forcing directors to cut both costs and the lengths of their movies. Mr. Tarantino spent 155 days shooting the film, well more than planned and longer than usual for most films.
But Mr. Weinstein said Mr. Tarantino was something of a special case. The popularity of his violent yet original 1994 film, "Pulp Fiction," helped put Miramax on the map and generated an abundance of cash to help the studio bankroll other movies.
"Miramax is the house Quentin Tarantino built," Mr. Weinstein said. And because of this director's stature he was granted "carte blanche," Mr. Weinstein added.
"Kill Bill'` is Mr. Tarantino's first foray into action filmmaking. His limited body of work also includes the equally violent yet critically praised "Reservoir Dogs."
When Mr. Tarantino first approached Mr. Weinstein about doing "Kill Bill" several years ago, it was with the condition that he be allowed to film the whole 200-page script that he had written. When Mr. Weinstein visited the set in its last month of shooting late last year, Mr. Tarantino said in a statement, Mr. Weinstein brought up the idea of splitting it in two.
No decision was made at the time although Mr. Tarantino shot two opening-credit sequences, he said. Mr. Weinstein said it was not until he visited Los Angeles three weeks ago, when Mr. Tarantino showed him more than an hour and a half of the film, that the two decided on the two-film approach.
"Kill Bill" is the story, told in chapters, of the world's deadliest female assassin, who survives being shot on her wedding day and, after five years in a coma, seeks revenge on the man who tried to kill her. The film's samurai-style fight sequences were filmed largely in China and take place in everything from a nightclub to a snow-covered garden to a suburban home.
"There were no obstacles involved in splitting up `Kill Bill' at all because I've always designed the movie, thought about the film, as malleable in any number of versions," Mr. Tarantino said in his statement. That includes different versions for Asia, America and Europe.
The serial approach to "Kill Bill" has parallels to the making of the second and third installments of the "Matrix" series and "The Lord of The Rings" trilogy, which were filmed as one story but divided into parts and have been released on a staggered schedule. But those films were conceived as multipart releases; "Kill Bill" was not.
Despite the success of the "Matrix" and the "Lord of the Ring" franchises, Miramax's decision carries risks, given the box-office figures for a number of sequels, prequels and serials. Several have been disappointments this summer, including "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," which received heavy publicity and generally favorable reviews as an enjoyable romp but which still failed to attract crowds. The serial films that have done well at the box office, like the "Matrix" series, have had built-in audiences already interested in the story. "Kill Bill," on the other hand, is from Mr. Tarantino's original screenplay.
Mitigating some of the risk is the movie's price tag, which Mr. Weinstein estimated at more than $55 million, not including marketing costs: less than what many blockbusters cost because many of the actors worked for union-scale wages and because production costs in China are lower than in the United States.
What Miramax and Mr. Tarantino are betting on is that the director's avid fan base and the pent-up interest in "Kill Bill" — which has taken almost a decade to make and is Mr. Tarantino's fifth movie — will pack theaters not once, but twice. Still Mr. Weinstein said he was worried about overselling this film, calling it "just a fun B-movie."
The question is: Fun for whom? "Kill Bill," not unlike other films that Mr. Tarantino has made, is intensely violent. That will limit the people who can see it, particularly the younger action-film audience that studios covet. In one spectacular fight in the "House of Blue Leaves" nightclub, nearly 100 people are killed, according to one person who worked on the set in China. Much has been made of the notion that Mr. Tarantino wanted the blood to be a particularly vibrant red.
"Tarantino is something of an innovator who takes audiences into different realms," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles company that analyzes box-office returns.
Miramax has yet to work out the actors' salaries for the two movies, Mr. Weinstein said. The studio is renegotiating contracts, including one for Uma Thurman, who stars as the bride who is shot, and another for Lucy Liu, who plays a member of Bill's hit squad.
Two Hollywood executives familiar with the contracts said the two actresses would receive a percentage of the box-office revenue. Because the contracts were originally based on only one movie, they will have to be changed to reflect the two-part scheme, the executives said. Stars' salary demands can often derail a movie, but Mr. Weinstein expressed confidence that a new agreement would be reached since the actors will not have to shoot new scenes.
Looks nice.
Here's a link to the trailer:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/kill_bill/
Swords 
), but I'm there for Kill Bill.
Linear Mode
