Tarantino Loses Morricone for Inglourious Basterds

January 8

Quentin Tarantino is moving forward so fast on Inglourious Basterds (which the Weinsteins want to get on-screen as soon as possible) that he's lost his composer of choice for his homage to spaghetti westerns, Ennio Morricone, who composed the soundtracks for the Sergio Leone classic westerns starring Clint Eastwood as well as Once Upon a Time in the West, my personal fave score.I will fondly remember, always, the night I met the elegant and courteous Morricone a couple years ago hanging with Eastwood at an Italian party, when he was in town to collect his special Oscar. There are two guys with a strong work ethic.

Morricone accepts 'Inglorious' offer

November 14, 2008

Tarantino asks composer to score "Bastards"

Will Ennio Morricone score "Bastards"?
The Italian composer says he has accepted Quentin Tarantino's offer to write the music for "Inglorious Bastards" - but may not be able to cover all the needed material, given the pic's time constraints.

"Tarantino will finish shooting the film in February and has to deliver it by the end of April in time for Cannes," says the famously meticulous maestro from his Rome home. "That doesn't leave me enough time to do the music. Either I start working on it before he stops shooting - after we discuss it together - or I just can't do it."

Tarantino, who has been in Germany shooting the WWII pic toplining Brad Pitt as a Tennessee hillbilly who takes on the Nazis, is known to be a massive Morricone fan.

But while he has used several Morricone Spaghetti Western themes for "Kill Bill" and "Death Proof," having the composer do all of the music for "Bastards" would mark his first full original score on a Tarantino film.

Still, says Morricone, "I might end up just writing a couple of tracks."

Considering Morricone refused to contribute even a few minutes of original music for "Pulp Fiction," the composer has certainly changed his tune.

By Nick Vivarelli