Given that a) he hasn’t even started filming his segment of Grind House and b) a brief glimpse at Robert Rodriguez’ film, Planet Terror, with its kinetic scenes of zombie killing and downright demented action (hats off to Mr. RR for the ultimate accessory for any cripple – a machine gun shoved into the stump), it might have been easy for Quentin Tarantino to have been somehow overshadowed at the San Diego Comic-Con Grind House presentation.
Not so, though – that’s not QT’s style. First off, he had the crowd on his side with a vow that Grind House would not be a mere vanity project (perhaps he’d read Empire’s MySpace blog - we've now changed our minds, having seen Rodriguez' footage), but would in fact be two full-length movies. “This is my next movie, and this is Robert’s next movie,” he said. “This isn’t some Twilight Zone movie fucking kind of thing. It’s not like mine will be an hour and his will be an hour. Bullshit on that. Can you imagine me making a movie an hour long? This is two fucking movies for the price of one!”
But then he sent the 6,500 capacity room very Terry Nutkins (that’s really wild to you) with an announcement about not only the subject matter of his flick – the wonderfully titled Death Proof – but a bit of a casting tidbit.
“Robert’s is a zombie movie,” he said, while Rodriguez rolled his eyes and discussed semantics. “Mine is a slasher film, but a slasher film at 200 miles per hour. And I’ve got some very lovely ladies who are in danger in this film [Marley Shelton, Rose Magowan, Rosario Dawson, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Mary Elizabeth Winstead]. But I have one announcement to make… we have the ladies. However, every slasher film needs a killer. And I can announce here for the very first time because we just did the deal last night.
“But rather than just say his name, because he’s played such a wild rogue’s gallery of characters, and the character he’s going to play here, Stuntman Mike, is I think going to be one of his best. But let me just say one of his characters and see if you can guess who he is…
“Snake Plissken.”
Yes, folks – Kurt Russell, who deserves better than the likes of Poseidon and Dreamer, is going to star in a Quentin Tarantino film. It's a match made in heaven, given the career renaissances Tarantino inspired for John Travolta and Harvey Keitel - great actors, both, but neither of them played Snake Plissken...
And even if QT has already given away the fact that Russell will be the villain of the piece, there’s bound to be much enjoyment and suspense to be had, for Tarantino always has some surprises up his sleeve. And on the most basic level, it should be fun seeing Russell just wig out.
Grind House – Planet Terror, Death Proof and trailers by Eli Roth and Edgar Wright – will open next April.