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Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds Starts Shooting in Germany

by Alex Billington
October 14, 2008

The Weinstein Company announced today that Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds officially began principal photography last week in Germany. First things first, it looks like Tarantino will forever change the way we spell "bastards", because the misspelling in this is intentional and that's the official title of the film. Additionally, the full ensemble cast has been finalized and features over 26 big names, obviously headlined by Brad Pitt. A poster for the film has also been floating around for quite some time and it seems like a bit of fake, but we'll add it to the big update on Inglourious Basterds today anyway.

We've included the full press release below, for those interested in reading all the fine print.

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds began principal photography last week on location in Germany. The ensemble cast of Inglourious Basterds includes Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Brühl, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak, Til Schweiger, Gedeon Burkhard, Paul Rust, Michael Bacall, Omar Doom, Sylvester Groth, Julie Dreyfus, Jacky Ido, August Diehl, Martin Wuttke, Richard Sammel, Christian Berkel, Sönke Möhring, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Rod Taylor, Denis Menochet and Cloris Leachman.

Inglourious Basterds reunites Tarantino with Academy Award-nominated editor Sally Menke, Academy Award-winning director of photography Bob Richardson, and production designer David Wasco. Joining Tarantino for the first time is Academy Award-nominated costume designer Anna Sheppard.

Academy Award-nominee Lawrence Bender is producing Inglourious Basterds. Erica Steinberg and Lloyd Phillips, and Bob and Harvey Weinstein are the film's executive producers. The co-producers are Charlie Woebcken, Christoph Fisser and Henning Molfenter. Pilar Savone is the associate producer.

The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures, through its newly formed International Studio, are co-financing and co-presenting the film with TWC handling domestic distribution and Universal handling international distribution. The two companies are partners on the project.

Zehnte Babelsberg Film, a subsidiary of Studio Babelsberg AG, is producing Inglourious Basterds. The film will shoot at Studio Babelsberg as well as in Berlin, Saxony and Paris.

Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own...

Inglourious Basterds will be released worldwide in 2009.

As everyone probably already knows, I'm very excited for this movie. This may sound a bit hokey, but it's like a dream come true - combining my appreciation of Quentin Tarantino's directing, my love of World War II movies, and a eclectic cast of some of the best actors out there. Everything about it sounds absolutely incredible, from the superb script to the oddly captivating cast. We'll definitely be following this production all the way through to the end, since it's been years in the making anyway. Below you'll find a teaser poster that has been floating around for Inglourious Basterds, although it doesn't seem to be official, considering the title is misspelled. Either way, this is definitely an exciting time for Quentin Tarantino fans!

Filed under Hype, Movie News

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