For a guy who eats, sleeps, breathes and shits movies, Q.T. is hardly the hardest working director around… Despite his rivers of talent, we havent seen any thing from him since Kill Bill (and no, five minutes of Sin City and an episode of CSI dont count). If I were in his position, man I’d be knocking movies out left and right. What gives?
Ditto, David Fincher.
I don’t know…maybe he’s perfecting his next script. They’re all rather complex. I don’t imagine he can just bang them out quickly. I love him. Can’t wait for the next one.
Just a guess, but. . .he might actually CARE about the quality of his movies?
Do you think that if he were “knocking out movies left and right” he really would have made 4 of the best movies ever over the last 15 years?
I’ll fourth the opinion given in the replies - it’s quality, not quantity, that floats QT’s boats. And good for him. In that respect he’s comparable to Kubrick who made, what, 15 or so movies in 50 years?
Well, in the last few months, he’s probably been working on Hostel. He’s one of the producers.
How bout the gap between Jackie Brown (1997) and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)? That is quite a wait.
From this Salon article (subscription probably required):
He really loves movies, and gets a lot out of watching them. Spending time watching movies feeds the machine inside him that eventually spits out amazing films. I know Quentin a little bit, and here’s exactly what he told me: he took such a long break between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill for that reason, because he felt like he’d spent so much time and energy on the “business” side of making movies that he was getting away from his True Love. So he took time off, relaxed, traveled, and watched a shitload of movies, and then knocked out a three-hour-plus exploitation movie to end all exploitation movies, which took a long time to write and shoot. He had the script done by Summer 2001, which was less than four years after Jackie Brown.
I know there has been talk of potential projects down the line which may still be active in his brain- the ten-year hence KILL BEATRIX, THE VEGA BROTHERS, and the editing together of the complete KILL BILL.
He also has had this World War I movie on the backburner forever.
Ah yes, “Glorious Bastards” (or was it “Inglorious Bastards”?). I thought it was supposed to be a World War II movie, and I kept hearing for a while that he wanted to cast Michael Madsen and Adam Sandler, of all people.
Heck, Kubrick only directed eight movies after Spartacus, arguably his breakout work, averaging one every four years.
John Ford averaged 2 features a year between 1930 and 1966. Alfred Hitchcock directed almost 50 features and 17 television episodes between 1930 and 1976, more than one a year. William Wyler helmed 35 features in 40 years. Robert Altman has directed 38 theatrical features and almost a dozen TV movies between 1964 and 2006.
The guy has directed, at the absolute barest minimum, three of the ten greatest movies in the last 15 years, and you complain he’s too stingy with the flicks?
I agree that I would prefer to see a heartbreaking work of staggering genius every year, but I would prefer seeing one every five or ten years to seeing a merely good (hello, Jackie Brown) film every two or three years.
Look at Terrence Malick’s directorial career:
Badlands (1973)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The New World (2005)
Some people just don’t have a sense of urgency.
Billy Wilder:
The Front Page (1974)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
The Fortune Cookie (1966)
Irma la Douce (1963)
The Apartment (1960)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Love in the Afternoon (1957)
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Sabrina (1954)
Stalag 17 (1953)
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
A Foreign Affair (1948)
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Maybe he has fewer friends to borrow ideas from? Having Roger Avery around would probably have helped.
While not meaning to take anything away from the great Billy Wilder, or even put Tarantino on his level (though I personally prefer Tarantino, I also think Wilder’s a genius), I don’t think comparing their output is useful. Tarantino creates his characters and their worlds from the ground up, writes the screenplay then directs the movies. Just going by what IMDB tells me…
Billy Wilder:
== The Front Page (1974)
Based on a play by someone else (Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur). Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
The characters were created by Arthur Conan Doyele. Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== The Fortune Cookie (1966)
Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== Irma la Douce (1963)
Based on a play by Alexandre Breffort. Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== The Apartment (1960)
Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== Some Like It Hot (1959)
Story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan. Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Based on a play by Agatha Christie. Adaptation by Larry Marcus, Billy Wilder and Harry Kurnitz.
== Love in the Afternoon (1957)
Based on a novel by Claude Anet. Wilder’s credited with writing the screenplay, along with I.A.L. Diamond.
== The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)
Based on the book by Charles Lindbergh. Adaptation by Charles Lederer, Wendell Mayes and Billy Wilder.
== The Seven Year Itch (1955)
Based on the play by George Axelrod. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and George Axelrod.
== Sabrina (1954)
Based on the play Sabrina Fair by Samuel A. Taylor. Screenplay by Billy Wilder, Samuel A. Taylor and Ernest Lehman.
== Stalag 17 (1953)
Based on the play by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum.
== Ace in the Hole (1951)
Writtn by Walter Newman, Lesser Samuels and Billy Wilder.
== Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.
== A Foreign Affair (1948)
Story by David Shaw. Adaptation by Robert Harari. Written by Charles Brackett, Richard L. Breen and Billy Wilder.
== The Lost Weekend (1945)
Based on the novel by Charles R. Jackson. Screenplay by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder.
== Double Indemnity (1944)
Based on the novel by James m. Cain. Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler.
Those were your examples. Billy Wilder obviously worked with top-notch collaborators. Tarantino works alone. There’s no reason to compare them anyway.
Heeeeeeeeey now. Come on. He’s got a whole stable of young writer/directors floating in his pool as we speak. What do you think he keeps Eli Roth around for?