Grindhouse, the faux double feature of exploitation movies by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, will be released as separate films overseas, and several key cut scenes will be restored in the international versions, including Vanessa Ferlito's lapdance on Kurt Russell and a song by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Other scenes that will be restored include a funeral scene involving Michael Parks and Marley Shelton, in which Parks improvises lines based on a poem by e.e. cummings, and a bedroom scene involving James Brolin, for which he gained nearly 30 pounds.
"I gained all this fricking weight, and it was literally just for that scene," Brolin said with a laugh. "My fat ass is in that scene, and they cut the frickin' scene, man." Brolin plays the villainous Dr. William Block in Rodriguez's half of the film, the SF zombie movie Planet Terror; Shelton plays Block's wife, Dr. Dakota Block. Parks plays Dakota's father, Earl McGraw.
Ferlito, who plays Arlene in Tarantino's Death Proof segment of Grindhouse, was more philosophical about her lost scene. "I just think it was a matter of time and getting the whole car chase really in," she said. "How could you cut that up? I mean, it is what it is, you know?" In the U.S. version of the movie, as Arlene is about to give Russell's Stuntman Mike his lapdance, the film cuts to a title card reading "missing reel."
Winstead, who plays Lee in Death Proof, says that she was originally supposed to sing along with the 1970s pop tune "Baby It's You" by Smith, which plays on the radio while she's riding in a car. "In the script, I was just singing along to the radio, and in the audition, [Tarantino] was like, 'Sing!' And so I started singing, and he let me keep singing, and ... he really loved my voice. So he turned it into this whole long scene where I'm singing, belting out the song as Kurt [Russell] is sort of creeping up on Rosario [Dawson]. ... And it was a really great moment, and I'm kind of bummed that it's not in the double-feature version, but it'll be in [the international version]."
The cut scenes may also make it onto DVD versions of the films.
Meanwhile, Variety reported that Tarantino may take an extended version of Death Proof to the Cannes Film Festival in May, where it could land a competition slot. Tarantino won Cannes' top prize in 1994 with Pulp Fiction, and his Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 were shown out of competition. Tarantino also served as president of the jury in 2004.
Planet Terror may be gunning for a berth at Cannes as well, the trade paper reported. Grindhouse opens April 6.
- The Monster
Labels: Death Proof, Grindhouse, Planet Terror, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez
