Filmmaker Stephen Tramontana has some harsh words for Quentin Tarantino:
Quentin Tarantino is a thieving piece of shit and he knows it. He stole Grindhouse from a bunch of kids who were just asking for his help and he helped them by stealing their title and concept.
Them's fightin' words!
Tramontana makes his claim on a new website he put up to capitalize on the release of the Tarantino/Rodriguez blood and boob sleazefest which opened this past Friday to solid reviews and tepid receipts.
On the site, Tramontana writes about stalking Tarantino and pitching his idea, then sending a tape (even after Tarantino says he doesn't want it), but as far as I can tell the only thing these two movies share is a name. It seems the filmmaker has pulled the trailer off YouTube himself and I wasn't able to find it anywhere else. [EDIT: The trailer is active again on the website and now it's clear there are no conceptual similarities].
Starting to sound more like sour grapes? I'd be more convinced if Tarantino didn't have such a long public love affair with grindhouse movies dating much earlier than Tramontana's low-budget flick, going so far as to release some classics on DVD through Miramax.
But where Tramontana really hits below the belt is in the final wish:
If there's any justice in the world, he'll fall out of favor and have to watch as his long, long-gestating World War 2 epic, Inglorious Bastards, gets handed over to Lloyd Kauffman [sic] to produce and Uwe Boll to direct.
C'mon, Stephen -- everyone knows the genius Lloyd Kaufman would NEVER work with someone like Uwe Boll, therefore I call BULLSHIT!
Now enjoy this hilarious fake trailer from the Grindhouse that's playing at a theater near you, at least until YouTube pulls it:
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I guess I dont see how Tramontana is capitalizing on this??? He is merely asking for respect, especially from a director who came from the bottom like himself. He isn't trying to sue or anything. It is sad to see a man rise from the pits, then run around with a swolen head once he gets some notoriety. Tramontana is bringing something to the public eye that people dont really want to face, corruption on any level is ugly. Every man deserves credit and respect, regardless of his level of fame.
Rustin,
As far as I can tell, the only thing these movies had in common was the name, a very common name (and one that I use for a series of posts on this very blog well before I ever heard of either Grindhouse movie). Their are no conceptual similarities between the movies whatsoever.
In truth, I'd have way more respect if he took a page from William Castle's book and played up the controversy for some serious PR rather than try to couch it all in some kind of high road moralizing-- that would be truly "Grindhouse".