Inglourious Basterds on Prime Video: Tarantino wanted a completely different cast!

This is one of Quentin Tarantino’s most iconic films, which gave Brad Pitt one of the best roles of his career. However, Inglourious Basterds could have taken a completely different form than the feature film that hit our screens in the summer of 2009.

The idea for this war movie, designed as an homage to spaghetti westerns, dates back to the 1990s. The writing of the screenplay began shortly after the release of Pulp Fiction and continued for several years. Ideas flow, stories intertwine, and yet Tarantino can’t find a conclusion to his story.

The project was shelved during the filming of the Kill Bill diptych, then again when Quentin Tarantino decided to direct Death Boulevard. A long-gestating project, Inglourious Basterds finally hit theaters in August 2009 with a prestigious cast.

Brad Pitt stars as Aldo Raine, an American soldier with a Tennessee killer accent. At the head of the Basterds, an anti-Nazi commando operating behind enemy lines, he relentlessly hunts, kills and scalps Nazis, and his guns reach the ears of the Führer himself.

The Expendables was ahead of its time

When he envisioned the film in the mid-90s, Quentin Tarantino began dreaming up a casting that brought together three of the biggest stars of American action cinema for the first time. Thus, for the role of Aldo Raine, QT is thinking of Sylvester Stallone, an actor whom the director wanted to direct three times in his career.

“Jewish Bear” Donnie Donowitz is played by director Eli Roth, a close friend of Quentin Tarantino. But in the first version, it was Bruce Willis who was being considered by the filmmaker – an actor who he portrayed twice in Pulp Fiction and then in his segment of the sketch film Four Rooms.

The third bastard could be played by an action superstar. Arnold Schwarzenegger was Tarantino’s go-to artist when he envisioned the character of Hugo Stieglitz. Finally, this German soldier, who has an unbridled hatred for the Nazis, is played by actor Til Schweiger in the film.

Of course, Inglourious Basterds, as originally envisioned by Tarantino, no longer has anything to do with the feature film as it was finally made. But these changes did not affect the quality of the film, on the contrary, which on AlloCiné has one of the highest ratings in the director’s filmography with an audience rating of 4.3 out of 5.

As for Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the three juggernauts of the American action blockbuster have finally reunited for the first two parts of the Expendables saga.

Inglourious Basterds will no longer be available on Prime Video from November 25th.

Discover the list of movies currently available on the platform!