The great composer Ennio Morricone has officially accepted Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” WWII epic (it was previously rumored, but not 100% confirmed).
However, according to Variety, he may not do all of it because of time constraints given the director’s rushed schedule to finish in time for Cannes. Clearly the notoriously picky composer will not be rushed.
“Tarantino will finish shooting the film in February and has to deliver it by the end of April in time for Cannes,” the maestro Morricone told Variety from his home in Rome. “That doesn’t leave me enough time to do the music. Either I start working on it before he stops shooting — after we discuss it together — or I just can’t do it.”
As previously noted, Tarantino appropriated old Morricone scores for “Kill Bill” and “Death Proof,” but the composer turned down an offer to write some music for “Pulp Fiction,” back in 93/94. Morricone cautioned that while he’s agreed to write what he can, he “might end up just writing a couple of tracks.”
This makes perfect sense, QT is obviously a huge Morricone fan (over a half dozen songs featured in the “Kill Bill” films) and the “Inglourious Basterds” script even mention music that’s supposed to be “Morricone-like” more than once, including what’s written in the script as “Shosanna’s Theme” (the French heroine of the movie).