Kill Bill: Volume One

[Ravi]

Anyone seen the Benihana commercial parodying Kill Bill?  It has a blonde woman in a robe fighting a Benihana chef.  Then they show that it was a dream of the woman, who is sitting at the table while the chef makes the food.  The music is almost identical to that of the Kill Bill ads.  

Benihana is a national chain, right?  Otherwise about 3 other people here know what I'm talking about and I'm wasting my time.

[Sleuth]

I live in Houston and I saw that too

[edison]

i also saw this the other night and i thought what the fuck? whatever gets people in the door i guess

[Ghostboy]

I think it's a national chain -- I remember my parents going to it back in my early days in Milwaukee.

Not that Kill Bill needs any more recommendations, but I finally managed to write a predictably wordy review.

[Banky]

[MacGuffin]

The deal, Vol. 1
'Kill Bill' is now two films, and Miramax wants director Tarantino to chip in on the extra costs.
Source: Los Angeles Times



Quentin Tarantino stands in front of a full house at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It is the premiere of his long-awaited "Kill Bill" and a big day for Tarantino.

He is still presumably recovering from an inebriated appearance put in just a few hours earlier on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." (His publicist, Bumble Ward, says Tarantino was sober, although hungry and exhausted, when he arrived at the studio and sampled the refreshments while waiting to go on.) Now, Tarantino faces an audience that includes celebrities from Chris Rock to Dennis Hopper, eager to see his first film in six years.  
 
Sounding more like a rapper than a revered auteur making his return to the big screen, Tarantino tells the guests how he wanted to add a little spark to the occasion. First, he says, he considered releasing rats in the theater. Or stopping by "the 'hood" to invite some Crips and Bloods to attend. He then would offer the guests either red or blue colors and stand back to watch what came next.

But he does not play out either of these fantasies. Instead, he dutifully greets a group that won passes in a radio promotion, thanks his cast and lets the film roll.

Looking on nervously is Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax co-chairman who has stood gamely behind Tarantino during the arduous and prolonged filming of his much-anticipated fourth directing effort. Tarantino was supposed to film "Kill Bill" in 60 days. He ended up shooting for eight months and going dramatically over budget. At the end, he was awash in footage.

While that might cause tension between any filmmaker and studio — and fireworks when the personalities involved are as outsized as Tarantino's and Weinstein's — the two came to what appears to be a completely amicable solution: Break the film into two installments.

But that didn't mean all was settled. Just days before Friday's release of "Kill Bill Vol. 1," Tarantino and Weinstein have been involved in a behind-the-scenes conflict over — what else — money.

Weinstein has asked Tarantino and producer Lawrence Bender to agree to give up some of their compensation to help cover increased marketing costs — at least until Miramax finds out whether it's going to get its money back.

"We are looking to adjust a certain aspect of the deal, given the significant increase in the [marketing] budget, now that there are two films," Rick Sands, Miramax's chief operating officer, said in a written response to questions about the matter. Sands said Miramax would spend more to market just the first installment of the two-part series than it would have spent if "Kill Bill" had been a one-shot deal. The company might end up paying marketing costs of "$35 million and $25 million ... for Volumes 1 and 2, respectively," Sands said.

He added that "that there is a tremendous amount of respect, trust and collaboration between everyone. Quentin, Harvey, Lawrence all very much want this to be equitable and fair."

While most directors, or at least their agents, would outright reject such an after-the-fact renegotiation, nothing about "Kill Bill" is routine. And William Morris agent Mike Simpson, who represents Tarantino and Bender, says his clients are close to a deal with Miramax. He said they are cooperating because they want to ensure that Miramax will spend aggressively to market the two pictures.

"We could do nothing, but we wouldn't be acting like a good partner, and Miramax would have good reason to feel like they needed to hold back and look out for themselves," Simpson says.

"Kill Bill" is the stylishly told tale of a bride (Uma Thurman) who suffers a vicious attack by a gang of killers. The wedding party is massacred, and the bride is left for dead. But she isn't dead, of course, and "Kill Bill" spins the tale of her quest for vengeance. It pays extensive homage to martial-arts films and has been described by Tarantino, who declined to be interviewed, as "the movie of my geek movie dreams."

Replete with severed limbs and geysers of blood, "Kill Bill" is a festival of violence. On his Ain't It Cool News Web site, devoted "Kill Bill" fan Harry Knowles marvels at its reception from the Motion Picture Assn. of America. "Quentin dosed the MPAA," he exclaims joyously. "They had acid in their coffee the day they gave this film an R rating."

So graphic is the film that it raises questions about what it would take to get an NC-17 rating for violence.

Getting all that gore on film took time. As the grueling filming wore on, some in the industry started calling it "Tarantino's 'Apocalypse Now,' " alluding to Francis Ford Coppola's famously drawn-out shoot of his 1979 film. An executive involved in making the picture says the comparison is not on point. "It wasn't like he was in trouble," he says. "He just kept going."

Many were amazed that Weinstein, the famously hands-on co-chairman of Miramax who tried strenuously to rein in Martin Scorsese during the protracted making of "Gangs of New York," was willing to indulge Tarantino — as the executive put it — "to the hilt." Weinstein has explained his reticence by citing the outsized success of Tarantino's 1994 film "Pulp Fiction," which cost $8 million and grossed more than $100 million. The film was critical to establishing Miramax, and Weinstein refers to his company as "the House that Quentin built."

High-profile conflicts

A former company insider speculated that Weinstein had other reasons for leaving Tarantino to his own devices. At the time, Weinstein was embroiled in a number of high-profile conflicts — with director Julie Taymor over "Frida," with producer Scott Rudin over "The Hours" and with Scorsese over "Gangs."

"Harvey knew if you take Quentin on, if you try your typical strong-arming of Quentin, and he doesn't agree and it gets into the press, you're going to look bad," says the insider. "The one thing he wouldn't do was to take on Quentin."

The film, which the studio said was meant to cost a little more than $40 million, ended up costing more than $60 million.

Between that and the increased cost of marketing two films, Miramax was on the hook for a lot more money than planned, prompting the bid for renegotiation.

According to a prominent agent not directly involved with "Kill Bill," a studio will often insert a provision in a director's contract requiring the filmmaker to pay over-budget penalties. This is particularly true when a director has two of Hollywood's most coveted perks: the creative control of final-cut authority and a share in what is called "dollar-one gross" — that is, the film's profit before the studio recovers its costs.

Tarantino has a rich deal that includes first-dollar gross and final cut. And Miramax, which usually makes films with small to midsize budgets, does not generally seek a penalty provision in advance.

Former Fox chief Bill Mechanic, who routinely insisted on over-budget penalties with top directors, said he believed that trying to insert such a penalty after a film was shot would be virtually impossible.

Instead, Miramax is seeking to recoup by taking another tack — tying the renegotiation to marketing costs, not to the budget overage.

"It's not about going over budget; it's about [marketing] spending being quite a bit higher than it would have been if it was one movie," agent Simpson says.

Once Tarantino stopped shooting, it became clear to many involved that the story would have to be told in two installments.

Several of those who have seen it concur that the film, depicting a series of over-the-top revenge killings, would have been too long and numbing to absorb in one sitting. "Quentin definitely saw it being released as an epic," says the former Miramax executive. "But it was clear that keeping an audience engaged for that long a time didn't make sense. Everybody was in agreement. It's not 'The Godfather' .... Quentin sort of knew that."

Aside from higher-than-expected marketing costs, Miramax also had to increase the salary of the stars, such as Thurman, for appearing in two movies, according to a talent representative with direct knowledge of the situation. The representative says the renegotiation with the stars was only concluded at the beginning of this week. Had the studio failed to reach agreement, this representative said, the actors could have moved to block release of the second installment, scheduled for February. Miramax disputes that point.

Miramax is releasing "Kill Bill" at a delicate time. The company is already under pressure from Disney in part because it has released a spate of expensive films, some of which have failed. "View From the Top" with Gwyneth Paltrow was a flop that cost nearly $40 million. "Duplex," a film that went over budget and cost more than $60 million, sank like a stone.

Still to come this year is "Cold Mountain," starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. Industry sources estimate the budget at $90 million. Miramax said it cost about $12 million less because of tax breaks in Europe, where most of the film was shot. Still, the film is expensive, and its Civil War subject matter is grim.

As for "Kill Bill," audience surveys suggest that the first installment will have a strong opening. Its success beyond that is anyone's guess.

[©brad]

oh please. they are gonna be laughing all the way to the bank, what with the two installment thing, cuz anyone who sees the first is gonna see the second. kill bill volume one will cover all production costs alone, not to mention volume two, international grosses, dvd and video sales.

please. no sympathy.

[Ghostboy]

Quentin continues his four star trend with Roger Ebert.

[Pedro]

Today.  
Pedro the Wombat will watch.
Uma Thurman.
Kill Bill.

[Alethia]

a link to probably one of the most poorly written reviews i have ever read.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1126182/reviews.php?critic=columns&sortby=default&page=5&rid=1205313

[Derek237]

I love that review. You'll never see "*thwapt thwapt thwapt*" in an Ebert review, that's for sure.

[Teen Wolf]

I will try to see this tonight. If not, the matinee tomorrow. God, this is going to be a great weekend!

[Sleuth]

I was trying really, really hard not to spend any money for a while but I know I'll see Kill Bill between now and monday



?

[Banky]

i just got bak from it.  I would say it was good but not great.  I now i will probably be persicuted for this.

[©brad]

minor spoilers.

u should have seen all the fanboys drooling at the 1:30 matinee this afternoon. i myself was drooling, esp. after that opening shot.

man did i dig this movie.

first thing to say, the photography. this is some of robert richardson's best work, if not the best. man, some of those shots!  esp. that long one reminiscent of the overhead shot in minority report. visually, the movie its stunning.

damn.

goes w/o saying that this movie is cool, the epitome of cool. and the coolest of all cool moments is the slo-mo walk of lucy lui w/ her posse. the crowd went nuts during that part.

i could go on and on- the anime sequence i didn't want to end, the hysterical interchange in the sushi bar, the beautiful exterior shots of the garden w/ the snow falling, the music... anyhow, its all chilling. im no good at movie reviews.

i dunno. my mind is a little fuzzy at the moment. perhaps after a second viewing and a day or so to think about it ill have a better understanding.