'Kill Bill 2' European rollout may rule out Cannes date
PARIS -- Following this weekend's announcement that Quentin Tarantino will preside over this year's Festival de Cannes jury, festival organizers Monday were playing down any suggestion that his presence is an indicator that "Kill Bill-Vol. 2" could open the festival May 12.
According to industry sources, festival organizers had been very keen to open with Tarantino's latest offering, 12 years after his cult classic "Reservoir Dogs" visited the festival in an Out of Competition slot.
"Miramax is keen to schedule an early release of the film all over Europe in the second week of May, and that would rule out the film opening Cannes," an industry source said. The film's United States release is scheduled for April 16. TFM, the French distributor, was not available for comment.
Tarantino's return to Cannes as jury president 10 years after his film "Pulp Fiction" won the Palme d'Or has been billed by the French press as a "badly needed shot in the arm" after a lackluster event last year.
Heading the Cannes jury, Tarantino will follow in the footsteps of such filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, Wim Wenders, Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski.
"For a filmmaker and film lover, there's no greater honor than to be on the jury of the Cannes film festival," Tarantino said in a statement. "To be president is both a magnificent honor and a magnificent responsibility and also the crowning achievement of a lifetime spent in cinematic obsession -- a magnificent obsession."
Tarantino succeeds last year's jury president, Patrice Chereau ("Intimacy"), and will head a yet-to-be-announced nine-member jury of French and international filmmakers, actors, writers and directors.
