Quentin Tarantino and the cast of his latest film “The Hateful Eight” corralled San Diego Comic-Con’s renowned Hall H this weekend to preview unseen footage and to answer questions from fans, and invariably a question from the crowd was raised about whether there would be a third installment to the inventive, genre-bending"Kill Bill" series?
“Never say never, we’ll see, when it comes to ‘Kill Bill 3.’ [Uma Thurman] would really like to do it, we talk about it every once in awhile or so — we’ve got to wait for Vernita’s daughter to get old enough to go and kill her,” Tarantino explained, which drew thunderous applause from the audience.
QT is of course referring to the character of Nikkia Bell (played by actress Ambrosia Kelley), the daughter of Vernita Green (played by Vivica A. Fox), who Beatrix provides an assassin’s edict to upon murdering her mother: “When you grow up, and if you still feel raw about it, I’ll be waiting."
Kelley was born in 1995, was roughly four-years-old when shooting the first two “Kill Bill” films, and is now approaching her 20th birthday — so “Kill Bill Vol. 3” could occur if they plan on casting Kelley, or another actress in her 20s, to play the part, especially with Beatrix’s own daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine) being the same age and possibly trained to protect her mother, which could lead to an epic showdown between the next generation of assassins. However, knowing the fate of some of Tarantino’s more ambitious ideas or would-be sequels — which include a Vega Brothers prequel/sequel, an "Inglourious Basterds" Aldo and Danny spin-off, and many other notions that never came to fruition — it probably will be something to keep dreaming about instead of a reality likely to happen in the near future.
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"The Hateful Eight" stars Bruce Dern as the codgy old General Sandy Smithers, Walton Goggins as Sherrif Chris Mannix, Kurt Russell as John “The Hangman” Ruth, Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue, Tim Roth as Oswaldo Molbray, Demian Bechir as Bob the Mexican, and Channing Tatum in an unnamed role.
Meanwhile, during an interview with Deadline, Tarantino revealed that if he had to cast actors to play roles in a 1969 version of the film, he obviously would have an entirely different movie. The director said a younger Bruce Dern would have planned Walton Goggin’s character and revealed who else would have played who about five decades ago.
"The jumping off point was those episodic Western TV shows," he said. "If I was doing this movie in 1969, what would be the cast, with those type of actors? Bruce Dern would be playing the Chris Mannix role [Goggins’ role] Vic Morrow would be there, Claude Akins would be the John Ruth role [played by Kurt Russell], [and] I would have cast Bill Cosby to be the Major Warren role [Samuel L. Jackson’s role].”
A controversial last choice given the recent Cosby news, but perhaps that’s Tarantino for you. Deeper in the interview, the filmmaker also mentions how the great reviews to his staged live reading of the script spurred him on to complete the film, that Jennnifer Jason Leigh was the most surprising actor with her performance of Daisy Domergue, how Damien Bichir also impressed him by creating a performance that went way beyond the page; and essentially never thinking that he would be in a world where his movie — shooting on 70mm lenses — would be leading “Star Wars” in terms of technical equipment, as the next installment after ‘The Force Awakens‘ will be shooting on Ultra Panavision 70 lenses.
"The Hateful Eight" will be released this Christmas Day, December 25, 2015.