Update: Not so fast. Thompson On Hollywood has reached out to Joe Dante directly, who has kiboshed these rumors: “Quentin is a great filmmaker and a good friend, however there is absolutely no truth to the stories in the press and on the web that he is going to play Roger Corman in my upcoming film’ The Man with Kaleidoscope Eyes.’ “
Quentin Tarantino isn’t afraid to put himself in front of the camera, even though he essentially can’t act. No matter where you stood on “Django Unchained,” his late appearance was distracting at best, ill-conceived at worst, and there’s a pretty good reason why he hasn’t led a film since “From Dusk ‘Til Dawn.” But it would appear that the director is gonna take a quick break from writing whatever his next movie is to play a moviemaking legend who has had a huge influence on his career.
According to a rather casual mention in The Telegraph, Tarantino is going to play Roger Corman in the upcoming biopic “Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes.” Set to be directed by Joe Dante, the 1960s set project is taking a comedic bent to the life and career of the man who gave a number of legends a start in the biz by entrusting them with his lo-fi productions. Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert De Niro and even Dante himself — all of them can owe their early careers to Corman.
“It’s the story of how I made ‘The Trip‘ in the 1960s about LSD. It starred Jack Nicholson in one of his first roles and I took LSD so I knew what it was all about. It was very controversial but it was the only American picture invited to the Cannes Film Festival that year,” Corman said to the UK paper about the film. “I have a cameo role in the movie about it, playing the executive who didn’t want me to make the film.”
Tarantino seems like an odd choice to play the relatively low key, but determined and driven Corman, though perhaps in a comedic setting it’ll work. After all, it would be the ultimate way for Tarantino to pay tribute to a filmmaker and producer he clearly adores.
Hopefully there’s more info/confirmation coming soon, but until then, here’s Tarantino introducing Corman in 2009 at the Governors Awards where he received an honorary Oscar followed by the trailer for “The Trip.” [via Bleeding Cool]