Yes! Anyone’s who read The Playlist of late should know we’re strangely obsessed with Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards.” Mostly because even though it’s flawed and kind of disappointing in the end, it is rather a thrilling screenplay. Even though, we have many problems with QT we’re also rooting for it because it does have the potential to be the best film he’s done in years if handled right and if not cheesed up too much with the director’s B-movie proclivities.
Casting is essential (our suggestions) and we’ve been pretty adamant that Leonard DiCaprio should not play the cunning chief villain, Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, a.k.a. the “Jew Hunter.” He’s totally wrong for the part – casting him could ruin the movie – so when the news first broke of DiCaprio’s involvement, we became disheartened and mostly gave up all hope on the film.
But wait, a new report in Entertainment Weekly (not online) says that DiCaprio won’t be playing that part! They write in a very brief blurb about the film “A source says rumors that Tarantino is also courting Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of villainous Col. Hans Landa are false.”
[Spoiler below, in the penultimate graph don’t go any further if you don’t want to know parts of the end of the film]
Thank god! Look, if he’s one of the younger Basterds, we could live with that. He would presumably be PFC Utivitch (private first class), the only other Basterd that lives in the end alongside Lt. Aldo Raine (to be played by Brad Pitt – or at least they’re still in “negotiations”). We can presume someone of DiCaprio’s stature would want to play someone who doesn’t die mid-way through the script, but there are juicer Bastards to be chosen from frankly.
Either way, we feel like we’ve dodged a bullet and ‘Bastards’ has legs again. Hopefully he doesn’t fuck it up! But good lookin’ out. DiCaprio would’ve been a horrible choice for Landa. This makes our day.
Update: Many friends have wisely reminded us that DiCaprio could still play a German: Fredrick Zoller, the young, handsome war hero that tries to woo the film’s main female protagonist Shosanna. That’s not ideal frankly, as Zoller is supposed to speak immaculate German and French, but we’re probably too transfixed on the language point. But either way anything but DiCaprio as Landa and we’ll be pretty much happy. You gotta take what you can get these days.
[Images taken from Vulture, we’re at home without photoshop, Basterds spelled incorrectly on purpose as per the script]
