Quentin Tarantino Trivia

August 8, 2020

I have been a film buff since childhood and in recent months have reconnected with dozens of old favorites thanks to channels that include AMC, Netflix, ROKU, and TCM.

For background information, I think these are the best sources:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars)

American Film Institute (AFI)

Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

* * *

For example, thanks to IMDb, here are some interesting trivia about Quentin Tarantino (1963-    ). Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D’Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino’s next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

Since then, Tarantino has helmed several critically and financially successful films, including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015).

o Together with Lawrence Bender founded record company called A Band Apart Records. It will focus on film soundtracks and its releases will be distributed through Maverick Records, owned by Madonna. [July 1997]
o Was planning to direct an episode of The X-Files (1993) but refused to join the Director’s Guild of America. The Guild refused his request for a waiver so that he could direct the series. [November 1996]
o Claims that Tarantino acted in the film Dawn of the Dead (1978) or the film King Lear (1987) are incorrect. Quentin falsely listed these credits years ago on his acting resume to compensate for his lack of experience and these incorrect credits have subsequently been attributed to him in such places as Leonard Maltin‘s Movie and Video Guide and the Cinemania CD ROM.
o First noted screenplay was titled “Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit”, which was written in 1985.
Collects old board games having to do with television series like I Dream of Jeannie (1965), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), The A-Team (1983), etc.
o In all of his original screenplays, the name of a police detective named Scagnetti is referred to at least once. Most of the times, the particular scene was cut out of the final versions.
o He was an unlisted screenwriter for Tony Scott‘s Crimson Tide (1995). He was brought in to punch up the script’s dialogue, reportedly adding the Silver Surfer scene, submarine movie scene, racist horse monologue among other polishes.
He delayed production of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) for several months when Uma Thurman became pregnant. He refused to recast her, as he had written the role specifically for her, based on an idea the two conceived on the set of Pulp Fiction (1994).
o Is a huge fan of The Three Stooges.
o His parents are Tony Tarantino and Connie McHugh. His father is from New York, and Quentin’s paternal grandparents, Dominic James Tarantino and Elizabeth Jean Salvaggio, had Italian ancestry. Quentin’s mother was born in LaFollette, Tennessee, to Edwin William McHugh and Betty June Woody, was raised in Ohio, and has English and Irish ancestry.
o Although he uses both elements in his films, he strongly detests violence and drugs.
o Is listed in the acknowledgments of actor Ethan Hawke‘s novel, “Ash Wednesday”.
o Two of Tarantino’s favorite films are Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) (which he owns a 35mm copy of) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), which he references in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003).
o President of the ‘Official Competition’ jury at the 57th Cannes International Film Festival in 2004.
o He considers Ride in the Whirlwind (1966) one of the finest Westerns ever made, even writing an extensive article about it for Sight & Sound magazine titled A Rare Sorrow. The article was featured in the Pulp Fiction (1994) Special Edition DVD as an extra and also appears in Paul A. Woods’ Film Geek Files (pgs. 129-132). Interestingly, the director of Ride in the Whirlwind, Monte Hellman, was the executive producer of Reservoir Dogs (1992).
o Good friends with Robert Rodriguez and Kristin Chenoweth.
o He has called Uma Thurman his muse.
o Named after the Burt Reynolds character Quint Asper from Gunsmoke (1955)
o Was at one point in his life considering to become a novelist. He said that he tried writing two chapters of a novel about his experiences working at the Video Archives in Manhattan Beach. As can be immediately seen, novelistic narrative techniques bear a strong influence on his distinct filmmaking style.
o In 1994, before Pulp Fiction (1994), in an interview with Charlie Rose, he cited his three favorite films as Blow Out (1981) (directed by Brian De Palma), Rio Bravo (1959) (directed by Howard Hawks) and Taxi Driver (1976) (directed by Martin Scorsese).
o In the last Sight & Sound Greatest Films Poll (2002), he listed his Top Ten films as: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) (Leone), Rio Bravo (1959) (Hawks), Taxi Driver (1976) (Scorsese), His Girl Friday (1940) (Hawks), Rolling Thunder (1977) (Flynn), They All Laughed (1981) (Bogdanovich), The Great Escape (1963) (J. Sturges), Carrie (1976) (De Palma), Coffy (1973) (Hill), Dazed and Confused (1993) (Linklater), Five Fingers of Death (1972) (Chang) and Hi Diddle Diddle (1943) (Stone).
Please click here to learn more about Quentin Tarantino.

* * *

The notion of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) began with Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). He said he wanted to create an organization that would mediate labor disputes without unions and improve the industry’s image. He met with actor Conrad Nagel, director Fred Niblo, and the head of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Fred Beetson, to discuss these matters. The idea of this elite club having an annual banquet was discussed, but no mention of awards at that time. They also established that membership into the organization would only be open to people involved in one of the five branches of the industry: actors, directors, writers, technicians, and producers.

After their brief meeting, Mayer gathered up a group of thirty-six people involved in the film industry and invited them to a formal banquet at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on January 11, 1927. That evening Mayer presented to those guests what he called the International Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Everyone in the room that evening became a founder of the Academy. Between that evening and when the official Articles of Incorporation for the organization were filed on May 4, 1927, the “International” was dropped from the name, becoming the “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”

* * *

IMDb (Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. An additional fan feature, message boards, was abandoned in February 2017. Originally a fan-operated website, the database is owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.

As of January 2020, IMDb has approximately 6.5 million titles (including episodes) and 10.4 million personalities in its database, as well as 83 million registered users.

IMDb began as a movie database on the Usenet group “rec.arts.movies” in 1990 and moved to the web in 1993.

* * *

 

Posted in

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.