Quick, what do H. B. Halicki and Louis B. Mayer have in common? They both went "from junk cars to movie stars" as the poster for The Junkman put it; both were scrap merchants who got into the film business. Wrecking shop owner turned auteur Halicki's homebrewed hit Gone in 60 Seconds led the 1999 remake by Dominic Sena, who reputedly worked on the original The Junkman as a camera man. The Junkman, the follow-up to the original 1974 Gone in 60 Seconds, is an even more extravagant car-cruncher. It's a film that makes Tarantino's great car chase in Death Proof look like an also-ran. (QT refers to this original by having Kurt Russell's character keep a row of sunglasses on his dashboard, just like Halicki did.) The Junkman is an all-out demolition derby with Hoyt Axton providing the vocals, a co-starring role by a pet pig named Farah and a finale with the Goodyear Blimp buzzing the Cinerama Dome. As the price of a gallon of gas reaches the inevitable $5 mark, let us return to this uniquely decadent actioner.

Anyone kind of wish Quentin Tarantino would chill and experiment with actually releasing a single, standalone movie rather than bizarro omnibuses and multi-part sagas? Well, too damn bad. Harry Knowles has a fairly lengthy piece on an interview with Tarantino that will be included for the forthcoming DVD release of the original Enzo Castellari version of Inglorious Bastards, which Tarantino is currently remaking/expanding/tributing. (Remember when he announced that he planned to have it ready for Cannes 2009? That was awesome.) In it, Tarantino discusses his plans for the film, including the fact that while writing the script (which he's still polishing), he did so much research that his story bubbled over into a second movie. In other words: here we go again.

Look, I'm happy to indulge the guy; really, I am. I sit through most movies anyway, and I have no problem sitting through an extra one by a filmmaker as interesting and skilled as Tarantino. He's bursting with ideas; fantastic. But there's a lot to be said for brevity and storytelling efficiency too.

The original Inglorious Bastards will hit DVD in a lavish 3-disc edition -- wait, make that "3-disc explosive edition" -- on July 29th. I note without comment that the Castellari film itself runs 99 minutes.

Quentin Tarantino's been talking up his WWII drama Inglorious Bastards for God knows how long. Last we heard he was buried in the script, with nothing concrete planned in the immediate future. Now, in a Cannes interview (via JoBlo), Tarantino has pronounced that he's finished a draft of the script (that was fast) and "if all goes well, I will be here, in Cannes, in 2009 with Inglorious Bastards."

Now, the only director I know who could take a largely uncast World War II movie from first draft to Cannes-ready cut in the span of 12 months is Steven Soderbergh, and he's busy figuring out what to do with Che. His prediction that he'll have Inglorious Bastards in next year's Cannes was, it seems to me, either hubris, excitement-of-the-moment hyperbole, or a straight-up lie. Still, the fact that he seems to be committed to doing this project -- or any project -- next is exciting in itself. I watched the standalone cut of Death Proof for the first time last week, and it's an astonishing piece of filmmaking. I think his work this century -- particularly Death Proof and Kill Bill Vol. 2 -- has been even more exciting than his legendary 90s stuff.

Inglorious Bastards will be about a group of Allied soldiers who volunteer for a suicide mission as a reprieve from execution for various misdeeds. Tarantino took the title from this 1978 Enzo Castellari film, though he doesn't intend it as a remake.

Quentin Tarantino loves to talk. In Pulp Fiction, he wrote one of the movie's breathlessly furious monologues for himself ("Do you see a sign..."). He's been known to deliver talks at universities and special screenings where he fields questions at a characteristically frenetic pace; it's almost like his crazed love of cinema is fueled as much by a constant supply of caffeine as it is by his authentic passion for the art form.

Today's Variety announces that Tarantino will deliver the highly vetted cinema masterclass lecture at the Cannes Film Festival next month, which certainly gives him a major audience on which to unleash his ideas. Filling a slot taken last year by Martin Scorsese, it's easy to imagine that Tarantino will touch on his wide variety of international influences, his ability to become an iconic filmmaker with only a handful of films, and the changing climate of the independent film scene.

In a new, in-depth interview with British magazine Sight & Sound, Quentin Tarantino, who I had the pleasure of meeting at this year's Sundance, goes into all his upcoming and most of his past projects, and gives a detailed update on exactly where he is with his next feature, a war movie called Inglorious Bastards. "I've got tons of material and a lot of stuff written but now I've figured out what to do, I gotta start from page one, square one," Tarantino says, seemingly putting to rest any notion that this thing will be going before the cameras in the next year or so. "I started just before I came on this trip and brought the stuff with me but I haven't had a chance to continue yet. But maybe on the flight back home I'll come back into it. I love writing in other countries." No further details about the plot or potential casting is given, just that quasi-confirmation that the film is in his cross-hairs at the moment.

Tarantino also talks at length about Grindhouse, admitting to being depressed and disappointed over how the film was received at the box office, but defending his longer, original cut of Death Proof as the definitive one and arguing that it stands on its own quite well. Tarantino also talks about the process of getting involved with the double feature in the first place, and reveals that he first wanted his contribution to be a Candyman-style horror film about the ghost of a slave that terrifies a group of white girls. "The first idea was a bunch of young college history students that were going through a tour of the plantations of the old South. And there's a ghost of an old slave that is part of negro folklore. Jody the Grinder actually went down and bested the devil, by f**king him. And so the devil put him on earth for all eternity to f**k white women."

So why didn't this idea make the cut? "I would probably have had Sam Jackson playing that part," Tarantino continues," and it was really good, but then I didn't have anywhere to go with it, because if you have a story about a killer slave with supermacho powers done in the style of a slasher film, then even if he's doing it today, and even if the white girls are innocent, how can you not be on the slave's side?" Tarantino goes into many other areas in the interview, talking about his writing process, the books he's reading, the British movies he'd like to make one day, and even his plans for eventual retirement.

If you haven't already noticed, today is Quentin Tarantino Day on Cinematical! This is the third time we've written about him -- first because of a scuffle in Park City, then a review of Hell Ride -- and now I bring you this pretty cool short film from Brazil called Tarantino's Mind. It's trippy, and there's tons of little nuggets of info in it, but basically the entire film follows two guys having a Tarantino-inspired conversation in a diner. It runs just over 10 minutes, and you'll need to put your reading glasses on, but it's damn good if I should say so myself.

One of the guys -- a Tarantino fanatic -- has just finished a thesis on the director, and he goes through each of his films pointing out similarities from other films. It's his belief that Tarantino created only one screenplay that "the geek divided into several parts." My favorite moment comes when he presents his theory on the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. Makes a lot of sense, and I can't believe I hadn't thought of that before. Anyway, take a break from whatever you're doing, clock out for ten minutes and check out this short. However, while it's in a foreign language, be aware that foul language is used and those words are displayed on the bottom of the screen. Enjoy!

The problem with making movies in the "grindhouse" style is that true grindhouse movies, almost by definition, were not seen by very many people. The target audience for a loving homage to the genre is therefore limited. Quentin Tarantino might adore the shlocky, violent capers of the 1970s, but how many of the rest of us have even seen them, much less love them enough to enjoy a re-creation of them?

Hell Ride, which Tarantino executive produced and Larry Bishop wrote and directed, is a salute to the ridiculous biker movies that Bishop frequently acted in back in the late '60s and early '70s. With titles like The Savage Seven and Chrome and Hot Leather, these were pure grindhouse cheese, and Hell Ride is either a parody of them or an adoring tribute. The line is always fine when it comes to a Tarantino project -- does he really like these movies, or does he only like them ironically? -- and here it's nearly invisible.

Bishop stars as Pistolero, the leader of a motorcycle gang called the Victors. Fellow members include Comanche (Eric Balfour) and The Gent (Michael Madsen); a comrade named St. Louie has just been murdered by a rival gang, the 666ers, led by Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones) and The Deuce (David Carradine). The Victors want revenge for this, but the often incomprehensible plot has them searching for a buried treasure, too, planted by a woman named Cherokee Kisum before she was killed back in 1976. Adding to the general mayhem is the reappearance of Eddie Zero (Dennis Hopper), a first-generation Victor who was presumed dead but has now returned to offer guidance to his successors.

For those who don't know, Quentin Tarantino was floating around Sundance last week, mainly to promote the film Hell Ride (which he produced). Cinematical spotted him a few times in our hotel bar, but that was about it. We drank in our corner, he drank in his corner and the world was a safe and happy place. Others, however, actually approached the guy for either a pic or to say what's up. I know one fellow blogger who asked Tarantino for a photo outside the Hell Ride premiere, only to have the guy flat out reject him as if he were asking for a million dollars and a lap dance. Then, not long after hearing that story, this video clip popped up on YouTube.

It shows Tarantino exiting a Starbucks in Park City, while some dude points a camera in his face. Right off the bat, Tarantino is edgy; asking continuously what this whole camera thing is all about. Yet, it appears the guy attempts to answer, only Tarantino won't let him. Instead, the Pulp Fiction director shoves the guy, threatens to fight and then both get all tough with one another -- like those days back in the schoolyard when each kid would wait for the other to throw the first punch. Now I'm on the fence as to whether Tarantino is in the right here. It does take awhile for the guy to even attempt to pony up his reason for being there, but Tarantino doesn't give him much breathing room. Plus, it's Sundance -- these guys aren't in the middle of nowhere. If you're a big celebrity, you have to understand folks will be interested in photographing you during the festival, be it at a party, a premiere or outside a Starbucks. But what do you think?

The place to be Thursday night after the late press screeings was the Yarrow Bar, where Elvis Mitchell and Quentin Tarantino were holding court. The press crowd was rocking the bar; we had the guy with the guitar in there again providing impromptu music and the small bar was packed. And of course, everyone was watching Tarantino, and simultaneously pretending not to be watching Tarantino. Frankly, he's so expressive it was hard not to watch him, which was a bit tricksy because he was sitting in front of me, and was directly in my line of sight.

Last night I saw Ballast, which I really enjoyed, at a packed Raquet Club screening. It's a contemplative, character-driven movie, nothing fancy except a great script and superb acting, which is what I love to see in an independent film. This morning I caught Towelhead, directed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) which I've heard a lot about. It's about the sexual awakening of a young girl, and the situations she gets into as she wrestles with her blossoming sexuality. Very intense, but a very well done film that a lot of women, especially, will relate to from their own teen years -- particularly the conflicting messages young girls get about themselves as sexual beings and learning to express that sexual power in a world where a girl who has sex is a slut, but a boy who does the same is just "becoming a man." Very powerful film. Oh, and William H. Macy was at the screening, a couple rows ahead of me.

After the critical and commercial success of Rocky Balboa, which I adored, who can blame Sylvester Stallone for wanting to bring another of his iconic characters back to the big screen? Rocky Balboa surprised people with how heartfelt and genuinely moving it was. Rambo (and yes, it's just called Rambo now) will shock people with how serious and shockingly violent it is. Set against the very real, very disturbing situation in Burma, Rambo finds Stallone on a mission to rescue a group of missionaries from sadistic Burmese soldiers.

Do you ever imagine a world where you shot the original ending of the novel First Blood (John Rambo commits suicide), and you hadn't had Rambo with you all these years?

SYLVESTER STALLONE: Yeah, I think about that all the time. I had that debate with Quentin Tarantino, and he was vehement that I made a mistake. On an artistic level, he's probably right. But at the time, I had been spending a lot of time doing research with veterans, and it seemed like this terrible, nihilistic...they just reveled in complete despair. And at that time, we had had almost a quarter of a million Vietnam suicides. So I thought, do I want to end it on that note? Or make him more of a victim who has been created to do a job, does a job, comes home, and no longer fits in? It's like training a pit bull. You train a dog to become a killer and now what do you do? You gotta put him down. But what happens if that pit bull gets loose and you realize he's not as bad as you think, you can somehow redeem him. I thought that was more of an interesting story. As Kirk Douglas says, "Not artistic, but commercial!"

Did you have to go back and look at the previous Rambo movies to get back into character?

SS: The ponderousness that comes with aging, the sense of weight, knowledge, knowing too much, lack of naivete, which has happened in my life, sort of set the stage for me. I wanted Rambo to be heavier, bulkier -- that's why his first line of the movie is pretty negative, he's given up. The other Rambos had a bit too much energy, they were a little too spry. I'm not trying to run myself down, but there was much more vanity involved. It was all about body movement, rather than just the ferocity. This character, to me, is much more interesting. I like First Blood and I like this one. So it's like the first Rocky and the last -- Rocky Balboa. Everything in between is kind of trying to figure out what I should do.