Brian Damage
08-24-2009, 11:45 AM
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/08/in-quentin-tarantinos-freewheeling-world-war-ii-action-drama-inglourious-basterds-which-hits-theaters-today-eli-roth-gets-h.html
"After 'Cabin Fever,' I had this meeting at CAA with my agents," Roth said. "They said, 'There's this project and this project, but what do you think about directing "Baywatch"?' And I was like, 'I want to do it! I'll cash in all my credibility!'"
"They said, 'There's no writer.' So I called up my friend Richard Kelly, the man who did a movie called 'Donnie Darko.' I was like, 'Rich, I have a great idea. It'll be ridiculous. We'll make it like a "Simpsons" episode, totally absurd.' And so we went and met with the producers who owned the rights. We said, 'You can say, "From the creators of 'Cabin Fever' and 'Donnie Darko' — 'Baywatch 3-Double-D'!"'"
And yet, Richard Kelly went on to make Southland Tales and The Box instead, two movies that couldn't be any further from Baywatch. Of course, they didn't end up doing this. "The Internet nerds will go crazy, saying, 'Those dorks just wanted to meet girls in bikinis and they couldn't do it any other way! We supported your weirdo movies and now you sold us out to hang out with a bunch of bimbos!'" I'm sure that's exactly what would've happened. But the story isn't over. "We went on a bunch of pitch meetings and the next thing that happened was DreamWorks wanted it, but they wanted it to be an action movie. They wanted to hire their own writer and director. So all those jokes went out the window. Then I went off to direct Hostel."
"After 'Cabin Fever,' I had this meeting at CAA with my agents," Roth said. "They said, 'There's this project and this project, but what do you think about directing "Baywatch"?' And I was like, 'I want to do it! I'll cash in all my credibility!'"
"They said, 'There's no writer.' So I called up my friend Richard Kelly, the man who did a movie called 'Donnie Darko.' I was like, 'Rich, I have a great idea. It'll be ridiculous. We'll make it like a "Simpsons" episode, totally absurd.' And so we went and met with the producers who owned the rights. We said, 'You can say, "From the creators of 'Cabin Fever' and 'Donnie Darko' — 'Baywatch 3-Double-D'!"'"
And yet, Richard Kelly went on to make Southland Tales and The Box instead, two movies that couldn't be any further from Baywatch. Of course, they didn't end up doing this. "The Internet nerds will go crazy, saying, 'Those dorks just wanted to meet girls in bikinis and they couldn't do it any other way! We supported your weirdo movies and now you sold us out to hang out with a bunch of bimbos!'" I'm sure that's exactly what would've happened. But the story isn't over. "We went on a bunch of pitch meetings and the next thing that happened was DreamWorks wanted it, but they wanted it to be an action movie. They wanted to hire their own writer and director. So all those jokes went out the window. Then I went off to direct Hostel."