Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee) is an American screenwriter, film director and actor. He rapidly rose to fame in the early 1990s as a stylish auteur whose bold use of nonlinear storylines, memorable dialogue, and bloody violence brought new life to familiar American film archetypes. His father was Italian and his mother was of mixed Irish and Native American descent.

Career history

Tarantino's big break came with the sale of his script True Romance, written with Roger Avary, which was made into a film starring Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater. He also wrote the original screenplay for Natural Born Killers, as part of the longer screenplay that True Romance came from, although it was changed significantly by subsequent writers, and he does not have a screenwriting credit on that film.

Related Topics:
True Romance - Roger Avary - Patricia Arquette - Christian Slater - Natural Born Killers

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The sale of True Romance (eventually released in 1993) garnered him attention. He met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party and Bender encouraged Tarantino to go write a film. The end product was Reservoir Dogs (1992), a stylish, witty, and blood-soaked heist movie that set the tone for his later films. The script was read by director Monte Helman who helped secure funding from Live Entertainment and also Tarantino's directorship of the film. Harvey Keitel heard of the script through his wife, who attended a class with Tarantino. He read the script and also contributed to funding, as well as securing a lead in the movie.

Related Topics:
1993 - Lawrence Bender - Reservoir Dogs - 1992 - Monte Helman - Harvey Keitel

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His followup was Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the 1994 Cannes film festival. It was a complexly plotted film with a similarly brutal wit. It featured many critically acclaimed performances, and was noted for reviving the career of John Travolta. Pulp Fiction also earned Tarantino an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and it was also nominated for Best Picture.

Related Topics:
Pulp Fiction - Palme d'Or - 1994 - Cannes film festival - John Travolta

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Tarantino's next film was Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of a novel by his mentor Elmore Leonard. A homage to blaxploitation films, it also starred Pam Grier, who had featured in many of the genre's films in the 1970s. In 1998, he turned his attention to the Broadway stage, where he starred in Wait Until Dark.

Related Topics:
Jackie Brown - 1997 - Elmore Leonard - Blaxploitation - Pam Grier - Broadway

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He had then planned to make the war film Inglorious Bastards. However, he postponed that to write and direct Kill Bill (released as two films, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Wuxia (Chinese martial arts), Japanese film, and Spaghetti Westerns. It was based on a character (The Bride) and plot that he and Kill Bill's lead actor, Uma Thurman had developed during the making of Pulp Fiction. In 2004, Tarantino returned to Cannes where he served as President of the Jury. Kill Bill was not in competition, but it did screen on the final night in its original 3+ hour version.

Related Topics:
War film - Inglorious Bastards - Kill Bill - Wuxia - Chinese - Japanese film - Spaghetti Western - Uma Thurman - 2004

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Tarantino is given credit as "Special Guest Director" for his work directing a sequence of the 2005 neo-noir film Sin City.

Related Topics:
2005 - Neo-noir - Film - Sin City

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On February 24, 2005 it was announced he would direct the season finale of . The two-hour episode, "Grave Danger," was aired on May 19 to stellar ratings and reviews. Although Tarantino is best known for his work behind the camera, he's also made recent appearances on the small screen in the first and third seasons of the TV show Alias.

Related Topics:
February 24 - 2005 - May 19 - Alias

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As of September, 2005, Tarantino has announced his current project is Grind House, which he is co-directing with Robert Rodriguez. He has stated he will "probably" follow that with Inglorious Bastards, but that he needed to spend another year working on the script before filming, making a 2006 release extremely unlikely.

Related Topics:
Grind House - Robert Rodriguez - 2006

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