One thing was very clear when watching “Django Unchained” last year: Quentin Tarantino was delighted to finally be making a Western.
I don’t blame him. The conditions when making a film in the genre can be difficult. I know that John Carpenter has told me several times that the whole reason he’s never made a real Western is because of how much he hates horses. You’re outside, you’re typically on a location, and it’s not easy work. Tarantino took to it, though, so much so that it looks like he might be giving it another try.
Tonight, Tarantino was a guest on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” and a friend of mine went to the taping to see what happened. He Tweeted from NBC’s studios about a comment that Tarantino made, and it’s news even if it’s still somewhat vague news. He said the director was sipping moonshine during the interview and that he revealed that he is almost done writing his next film. He also revealed that it’s a Western.
So now begins the speculation. Which Western is it? During the release of “Django Unchained,” he talked a bit about making a follow-up film about abolitionist John Brown, treating him as a mythic hero and basically approaching it as a Western. According to John Jarratt, Tarantino also has been talking about wanting to make a film in Australia, set against the backdrop of the Outback, and I’ve heard someone else close to Tarantino describe that as whatever the Aussie equivalent of a Western would be.
There are also the Elmore Leonard novels that Tarantino has spoken about in the past, including “Forty Lashes Less One,” that could be in the mix. That book deals with an Apache indian and a disgraced black Union soldier who meet on death row before they are sent on a suicide mission to find and kill the five worst outlaws in the West.
Here’s BenDavid’s orginal Tweet that tipped us off, and if we end up with a great embed of the actual moment once the show airs, we’ll try to include that here, too:
Quentin said his next movie is a western. He’s almost done writing. He also drank a lot of moonshine.
– Doug Bubbletrausers (@bdgrabinski) November 27, 2013
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Whatever it turns out to be, we’ll be looking forward to it, and hopefully if he’s feeling chatty, new information about his plans for the immediate future will become clear sooner rather than later.