‘Bastard’ Eli Roth Continues to Follow Tarantino Around

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 6, 2008

Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth share at least two things in common. They’re both overrated* directors. And neither man should ever appear in front of the camera.

Variety reports that Roth is “on deck” to join Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards as Sgt. Donnie Donowitz. It’s not clear if “on deck” means Roth has actually been signed to the role or just that he’d be happy to play the baseball bat wielding bastard from Boston. Either way, one need only watch Roth’s extended cameo in Tarantino’s Death Proof to know that the man’s acting abilities are rivaled only by Tarantino’s. And we all know how bad of actor Tarantino is… and we also know he’ll be casting himself as one of the bastards that dies early on, which means Inglorious Bastards now features two vanity acting gigs instead of the usual one.

The same Variety piece also reveals that “Tarantino had planned to meet with Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of SS Col. Hans Landa, only to decide that the role should be played by a German actor.” Uh huh. Tarantino changed his mind on having DiCaprio in his film in favor of a lesser known German actor. That’s what happened…

Even with the one-two shitty acting punch above, I’ll still most likely be enjoying the hell out of this movie sometime in 2010.

*We can argue Tarantino’s value as a director… the man’s made some quality films admittedly, but he’s not now (nor has he ever been) the cinematic revolution some have claimed him to be. (In fact, I’ve always seen him as a much better screenwriter than director… True Romance is still his best film.) And Roth? All of his films have sucked hard.

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