‘Bunch of Guys on a Mission Movie’

“THIS ain’t your daddy’s World War II movie,” Quentin Tarantino said with a grin, standing on a street corner here that had been scrubbed of 21st-century signposts to become the set of “Inglourious Basterds,” his new film about a band of Jewish-American soldiers on a scalp-hunting revenge quest against the Nazis.

Although it was mostly shot at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, the movie’s subtitle is “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France.” So on a three-day sojourn in Paris in December, Mr. Tarantino and his bi-continental moviemaking coalition commandeered a 1904 bistro with peeling paint, Art Deco stained glass and a wall of windows overlooking an intersection of identifiably Parisian streets in the 18th Arrondissement.

“We had to have a scene to sell the audience that we’re in France,” Mr. Tarantino said. “This is it.”

“Inglourious Basterds,” which is to have its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, is Mr. Tarantino’s first movie since “Death Proof,” half of “Grindhouse,” a double feature and box-office flop that he directed with Robert Rodriguez, and his first solo feature since “Kill Bill Vol. 2” in 2004.

Mr. Tarantino calls “Inglourious Basterds” his “bunch of guys on a mission movie.” Judging by the script, it should have the crackling dialogue, irreverent humor and stylized violence that are hallmarks of his work.

“You’ve got to make a movie about something, and I’m a film guy, so I think in terms of genres,” he said. “So you get a good idea, and it just moves forward and then usually by the time you’re finished, it doesn’t resemble anything of what might have been the inspiration. It’s simply the spark that starts the fire.”

The spark that led to “Inglourious Basterds,” starring Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Mike Myers, Eli Roth and a large international cast, can be traced to Mr. Tarantino’s storied days as a video-store clerk in Manhattan Beach, Calif. (The inspiration for “Reservoir Dogs,” “Jackie Brown” and other Tarantino movies can also be traced to that time.)

“The guys at Video Archives were like, ‘Quentin, maybe one of these days you’ll make your ‘Inglorious Bastards,’ ” Mr. Tarantino said, referring to the (conventionally spelled) 1978 Enzo G. Castellari film. “But they hadn’t even seen the movie, all right, it was just a great title. I love the movie, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a remake,” he said, of his version.

“It will be in the original category at the Oscars,” he added optimistically.

Lawrence Bender, who has produced all but one Tarantino movie, said he was surprised when Mr. Tarantino called last summer to announce he had finalized the long-gestating “Basterds” script and wanted to finish the movie in time for Cannes. Mr. Tarantino won the top prize there, the Palme d’Or, in 1994 for “Pulp Fiction.”

“He’s read me all kinds of stuff over the years,” Mr. Bender said, “but I always assumed it was something he was going to have and never do.” (Mr. Tarantino is known for taking plenty of detours on the way from one movie to the next. He has directed episodes of television shows, including “CSI,” acted in and produced other people’s movies, and has been a guest judge and “mentor” on “American Idol.”)

A six-month research period for “Basterds” several years ago “paralyzed my writing for a while,” Mr. Tarantino said. He thought of making a World War II documentary or teaching a college course and even plotted out a 12-hour mini-series. Then in January 2008 he said he decided to “take one more crack at seeing if I could make this a movie,” he said. “I wasn’t out to teach a history lesson. You can turn on the History Channel — which might as well be called the Hitler Channel. I just wanted to tell my story and have the same freedom I would have telling any story. I want the act of writing to be so fulfilling that I have to question do I want to even make the movie.”

Mr. Tarantino’s unedited script was circulating online within days after he completed it. “This was so personal to me, misspellings and all,” he said, mentioning that he had typed it with one finger on the same 1987 Smith Corona word processor that he used to produce “Reservoir Dogs” and “Pulp Fiction.” “I mean I’ll proofread it when we publish it.”

Not that he’ll change the title. “Basterds should be spelled with an e,” he said. “It sounds like it has an e.” He shouted, “Basterds! Basterds!” in what sounded like a Boston accent: more “BAS-tids” than “BAS-terds.” (As for the spelling of “Inglourious,” Mr. Tarantino said: “I can’t tell you stuff like that. It’s a movie thing.”)