Perplexingly retitled Inglourious Basterds begins shooting

It had been nearly a week since the latest round of silly online casting rumors for Inglourious Basterds, which meant that the Weinsteins needed to refocus our attention back to the film. As such, they issued a press release yesterday announcing that the film had begun shooting. Not only does the statement officially change the name of the film back to how Tarantino had it in his first draft (and distinguishes it from Enzo Castellari's 1978 feature), but it puts the film's timetable on par with what Tarantino promised. At this rate, we may see it premiere at Cannes after all.

One additional component of the press release was official information regarding cast and crew. The final (lengthy) cast listing is as follows: 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.

Director of Photography Bob Richardson will be returning to work with Tarantino, who did his own cinematography for Death Proof.  Richardson was also DP on Kill Bill, and has offered his services on both Martin Scorsese and Errol Morris' most beautiful films Bringing out the Dead and Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. Sally Menke will be editing the film, which is no surprise since she's edited every one of Tarantino's features, so no need to expect this to be cut down for time. Production design is also coming from a Tarantino alum, David Wasco, who has also worked on design for Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and Stop-Loss. No one ever said Tarantino had a hard time finding talent.

Related links:
News: Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards shooting in October
News: Casting continues for Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards
NYmag: We've got Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards script

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