Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)

After the disappointing Elmore Leonard adaptation Jackie Brown (1997) - disappointing only by his own very high standards; it is my any other standards a very fine film - 90s wunderkind seemed to drop off the radar. He made plenty of acting and guesting appearances, thanks to his infectious enthusiasm and relentless motormouth spiel, but by the turn of the millennium, the unthinkable was being thought - was Tarantino a spent force?

In the wake of what appeared to be a Tarantino backlash following the relative failure of Jackie Brown, the director spent some time working on Broadway, starring in an adaptation of Wait Until Dark, co-writing hit songs (he was partly responsible for the Fun Lovin' Criminals' Scooby Snacks) and turning up in just about every film documentary of note. But directing gigs remained elusive. There were whispers of another Elmore Leonard adaptation (Killshot) an original thriller (40 Lashes and None) and the World War II drama, Inglorious Bastards, a remake of Enzo G. Castellari's Quel maledetto treno blindato (1977).

Then, in 2000, word came out that Tarantino had something new up his sleeve, a script specially written for his Pulp Fiction (1994) star, Uma Thurman. The script for what would eventually become Kill Bill was apparently written prior to Jackie Brown after a chance conversation with Thurman during - of all things - a game of mini-shuffleboard. Thurman told Total Film magazine: "We were talking about the idea of a revenge drama based on all the classic Japanese and Chinese genre films which Quentin is a huge fan of. I was thinking how wild it would be to play an assassin, who would go on this rampage seeking revenge, tracking down her enemies. So we played off that idea and eventually Quentin sat down and wrote a nine-page outline."

Tarantino starting piecing together what would end up as a gigantic 197 page script almost straight away, writing it will touring the world promoting Pulp Fiction. He was reportedly very enthusiastic about the film at this stage, but the wind was taken out of his sails by his experiences on the dreadful Four Rooms (1995). He got further sidetracked by writing, producing and starring in Robert Rodriguez' From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Reasoning that From Dusk Till Dawn was in a very similar vein – albeit a different genre – to Kill Bill, and that he didn't want to make two similar movies in a row, he committed to Jackie Brown instead.

After Jackie Brown opened to a chorus of disapproval, Tarantino got involved in the Inglorious Bastards project – now retitled Glorious Bastards – and spent the next two years researching and working on the script. By chance, he bumped into Thurman who reactivated his interest in Kill Bill and Tarantino decided that after all these years away, he would give his legion of fans exactly what they wanted – two films made back to back, Kill Bill, followed straight away by Glorious Bastards. Kill Bill was snapped up by Miramax and given the green light.

Kill Bill was originally due to start filming in summer 2001, but the Screen Actors Guild and Thurman's pregnancy kept pushing the start date further back. At one point, around July 2001, there was even talk of Tarantino abandoning the project and moving on to something else, or at least recasting the main role, Patricia Arquette's name being in the frame for a while. There were reports in British press at this time that Tarantino was openly arguing with studio head Harvey Weinstein – curiously, the stories claimed that it was Tarantino that wanted to recast the film and Miramax who were holding out waiting for Thurman to become available.

In truth Tarantino had written the script specifically for Thurman and was reluctant to recast. By August Tarantino was confidently claiming that Kill Bill would start shooting in the summer of 2002, would premiere at Cannes in 2003 and would now also feature Lucy Liu in a villainous role, leading to some press speculation that she was to replace Thurman.

That same month, Tarantino spoke to Ain't It Cool News supremo Harry Knowles, describing Kill Bill as "30 years of grindhouse movie going squeezed in a duck press!" and noted that his legion of actresses for Kill Bill would begin their extensive combat training by March of 2002, with a June 2002 date set for the start of filming.

Tarantino began casting the rest of the main characters, calling in Reservoir Dogs (1992) co-star Michael Madsen in October to play Bud / Sidewinder. Warren Beatty was cast in the crucial role of the treacherous Bill and there were rumours that British veteran Jacqueline Bisset was in talks for an unspecified role. Martial arts fans were gladdened by the news that Tarantino had cast genre superstars Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu alongside Battle Royale (2000) and Ju-on (2000) star Chiaki Kuriyama in key roles.

There were problems with the casting of Beatty right from the start. Rumours were flying that Beatty was furious with Thurman, whose pregnancy had caused the delays that led to him being out of work for a while – it was even suggested, by World Entertainment News Network, that Beatty had tried to persuade Tarantino to replace her with either Winona Ryder or Gwyneth Paltrow.

In October the first word on Thurman's main costume began to surface and it set the hearts of fanboys around the world fluttering – word was that she to wear a replica of the yellow catsuit made famous by Bruce Lee in his posthumous film Game of Death (1978)! Tarantino noted that "it was exciting, writing and thinking of Uma's physicality, those long lanky legs and that blonde hair, and her doing animal-style kung fu or using the samurai-style sword. She'll be wearing the yellow tracksuit of Bruce Lee from Game Of Death."

January 2002 brought the strangest casting news yet as rumours circulated that Tarantino had cast American Pie (1999) star Jason Biggs as Bill's son, rumours that later proved to be unfounded. Confirmed casting that same month though was Daryl Hannah, who signed on as Elle Driver / California Mountain Snake.

By March 2002 there had been some dramatic changes. The "loss" of Jacqueline Bisset was no great surprise as it hadn't ever really been confirmed that she'd committed to the project. But by the end of the month The Hollywood Reporter was reporting that Warren Beatty had now quit the project, citing the amount of time he would need to devote the project as the main reason for his leaving. It wasn't long however before Tarantino was pursuing David Carradine – apparently on Beatty's recommendation – who was still fondly remembered by fans for his role in TV's Kung Fu (1972 – 1975) to replace Beatty in the title role.

As casting and other pre-production chores continued, Tarantino announced in Variety that the film was just part of the Kill Bill story, which would also be told – in slightly altered form – in his debut novel. Although originally announced for a Spring 2003 release, as at October 2003, the novel had failed to appear. At around the same time, Tarantino announced that RZA from rap crew the Wu-Tang Clan would be producing the soundtrack and that former Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich would compose the actual music, with contributions from the legendary Ennio Morricone.

True to his word, Tarantino began shooting on 14 June 2002 with a location shoot in Beijing, just one of the many locations (including Los Angeles, Tokyo and Mexico) that the production would be visiting over the coming months.

By the end of December 2002, the first teaser trailer for Kill Bill was wowing audiences at screenings of Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002) and the extraordinary buzz the film would develop began. By the time film opened some 10 months later, expectations were at fever pitch.

By March, however, there were strange murmurings about the length of the film. Tarantino's epic script had been transformed into an epic film, reportedly three hours in length. Tarantino himself dismissed the idea of releasing a three hour action movie as "too pretentious" and fears began to mount that the film may have to be extensively cut.

But by the end of the month, David Carradine had let slip that Tarantino and Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein had cooked up an alternative – gossip columnists Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith ran a story suggesting that the film would be split in two and released as Volumes 1 and 2, three months apart. The rumour was soon shot down by Harry Knowles, a close friend of Tarantino's.

By mid-July, Knowles' dismissal of the idea of splitting the films in two had proved to be a little wide of the mark. Both Variety and The New York Times confirmed that the film would indeed be released in two parts. It sparked the first concerted backlash against the film as chat rooms and bulletin boards filled up with fans angry that they would have to be paying twice as much to see the whole film. It would mean, however, that the film would be seen as Tarantino intended without any cuts.

Meanwhile, the stars had been out in force adding further to the air of fevered anticipation. Lucy Liu started warning her more sensitive fans that the film's violence may be a bit too much for them – speaking to World Entertainment News Network, she warned that "It's so violent. People will leave the movie theatre or get sick in the movie theatre. But there's so much violence that it becomes not numbing, but almost comedic. There's a scene where there's so much violence that the colour of the film goes into black and white, so that the blood looks like oil. It's cinematic, it's art. You can take it to a different level, and show what violence is, in such a heightened manner that you don't think of it as violence anymore, you think of it as a language. If you go to Kill Bill, you know there's going to be violence - that's your option." Tarantino himself, also talking to WENN, seemed to confirm Liu's warning when he discussed his very particular needs when it came to the film's blood: "I'm really particular about the blood, so we're using a mixture depending on the scenes. I say, 'I don't want horror movie blood, alright? I want Samurai blood.' You can't pour this raspberry pancake syrup on a sword and have it look good. You have to have this special kind of blood that you only see in samurai movies."

If there was now some cynicism – and a sense of weariness – creeping in to net discussions about the film, much of it was dispelled in spectacular style in September 2003 when the first of the proper trailers appeared and just about blew away everyone who saw it. A third trailer appeared on the soundtrack album released the same month which confirmed one of the more outlandish rumours that had been circulating for a while – that the film would be shot in several different styles, fashioned after Oriental movie genres, including an anime sequence.
KEVIN LYONS

TO BE CONTINUED...

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008