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Eli Roth Cast in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards?!

by Alex Billington
August 5, 2008

Yep, it's true! Variety confirms that filmmaker Eli Roth, of Hostel infamy, is in talks to join Quentin Tarantino's WWII epic Inglorious Bastards. I don't think anyone saw this one coming! Roth will play Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, nicknamed "The Bear Jew", one of the rogue Jewish-American soldiers that goes on a suicide mission hunting Nazi's in France. His trademark is smashing Nazi skulls with a baseball bat - something which should be quite exciting to see Roth doing. Additionally, the rumor that popped up about Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio also ends up being only half true - Pitt is still in talks to play Lt. Aldo Raine aka "Aldo the Apache", however Tarantino passed on DiCaprio in favor of a German actor.

For those of you who might immediately discredit Inglorious Bastards and Eli Roth, let me remind you that he did have a small "jackass" role in Tarantino's Death Proof half of Grindhouse, on top of an appearance in his own trailer for Thanksgiving that was also part of that film. Tarantino is expected to announce the rest of the cast for Inglorious Bastards soon, which makes sense considering he's supposed to start filming in September. Am I concerned about Roth? No, not at all, in fact, he'll probably be a great addition. I've got enough confidence in Tarantino that he knows what he's doing and he'll fill up the rest of the cast with quality actors. Pitt is not going to let Roth screw up the movie just because he's in it.

Ever since the first script reviews of Inglorious Bastards hit and we started learning about the various characters that make up the group, including Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, I've been gaining excitement with each and every new announcement. Tarantino is working on what might potentially be a WWII masterpiece (or so I hope) and I'm incredibly anxious to see who else he casts for the rest of the important roles. With DiCaprio out, who else could take on the primary villain role of the Col. Hans Landa? And who else will fill up the rest of team of Jewish-Americans Nazi hunters? So far we've got Brad Pitt and Eli Roth, who else might round out one of the best ensembles casts we might ever see? Thoughts?

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