It wouldn’t be a late Friday without one last “Inglorious Bastards” casting report. According to AICN (via CHUD), David Krumholtz, the young Jewish actor who was in talks to play one of Tarantino’s elite heeb brigade in ‘Bastards’ is off the project because of scheduling problems. Tarantino is obviously rushing to cast so he can start immediately and actors he wants are going to fall by the wayside because of this (see Adam Sandler, who was apparently close to getting a role).
So apparently Krumholtz is out and Samm Levine, the nerdy and ingratiating Neal Schweiber in “Freak And Geeks” has stepped in. It’s kind of like one Judd Apatow bit-player for another (Krumholtz had a small role in “Superbad”), but get this: Krumholtz was also on “Freaks & Geeks.” Who did he play? None other than Barry Schweiber, Neal’s older brother, ha.
Weird, right? Apatow’s got a surplus of young Jewish actors in his camp and Tarantino’s just going through a few of them one by one, apparently.
No matter what you think about “Inglorious Bastards” casting choices – we’re not feeling them for the most part frankly – the movie will probably live and die by the casting of its last two pivotal roles: the malevolent Col. Hans Landa and the lead French female protagonist Shoshanna. We’re probably going to be disappointed anyway you slice it since we’re married to the idea of Marion Cotillard in the lead, but hopefully QT scores real actors for these roles that are at least native German and French thespians respectively. The idea of Leo DiCaprio playing Landa would’ve sunk that battleship immediately. Thank god that didn’t happen.
Anywho, here’s a scene with Krumholtz and Levine together on ‘Freaks.’
Update: The Guardian (via Slash) is reporting that German critics are becoming upset over the one-note portrayal of the Germans and Nazis in the ‘Inglorious’ script. Whatever. More importantly the British paper says that Tarantino has met with Daniel Brühl and Til Schweiger. Brühl was the star of the 2003 breakout German flick, ‘Goodbye Lenin” (which was quite good) and also had a tiny role as Franka Potente’s younger brother in “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Schweiger’s been in and around Hollywood for years and you’ve seen him in bit parts and tons of smaller roles, one of his most memorable, and our personal favorite being his role as the unhinged German gun-fanatic and drug dealer “Crazy Mark” in “SLC Punk” (most audiences probably remember him as the crazy Saxon invader Cynric from “King Arthur”).
Aside from Brad Pitt and Nastassja Kinski, these are the two best casting choices we’ve heard so far. It wouldn’t suprise us at all if Schweiger read for Landa and Bruhl obviously would have met for the role of the younger, handsome German who tries to woo Shoshanna, Fredrick Zoller. He was someone we actually considered when we did our ‘Inglorious’ casting piece, but we thought he was too pretty and didn’t have enough of a mean streak in him, but he looks a lot more adult in “ Joyeux Noël,” pictured above.
Watch: Crazy Mark in “SLC Punk”
