By Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino always has strong opinions on films, but he’s usually one fairly open to all kinds of cinematic works… unless they’re not original it seems.
In a new interview for The Bret Easton Ellis podcast, Tarantino reveals he’s not a fan of remakes and hopes creatives work on new stories rather than retell the same stories over and over.
Once he’s seen a story, he doesn’t need to see it again even if it’s a new interpretation it seems – and specifically points out three highly acclaimed recent takes on prior works – “Dune,” “Shōgun” and “Ripley”.
He hasn’t seen either of Denis Villeneueve’s “Dune” films and explains he has no desire to:
“I saw [David Lynch’s] Dune a couple of times. I don’t need to see that story again. I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word ‘spice’ so dramatically.”
He then goes to talk about those aforementioned TV shows. With “Ripley” he says he’s seen several prior adaptations and is done with it:
“It’s one after another of this remake, and that remake. People ask ‘have you seen Dune? Have you seen Ripley? Have you seen Shogun?’ And I’m like ‘no, no, no, no.’ There’s six or seven Ripley books, if you do one again, why are you doing the same one that they’ve done twice already?
I’ve seen that story twice before, and I didn’t really like it in either version, so I’m not really interested in seeing it a third time. If you did another story, that would be interesting enough to give it a shot anyway.”
He’s likely referring to both René Clément’s 1960 film “Purple Noon” and Anthony Minghella’s 1999 film “The Talented Mr. Ripley” which both adapted the first book in Patricia Highsmith’s series.
In regards to “Shōgun,” he says he saw the Richard Chamberlain-led series in the 1980s and that was enough:
“I saw Shōgun in the ‘80s. I watched all 13 hours. I’m good. I don’t need to see that story again, I don’t care how they do it. I don’t care if they take me and put me in ancient Japan in a time machine. I don’t care, I’ve seen the story.”
This interview made headlines earlier this week as Tarantino heavily praised Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux”.
The post Tarantino Refuses To Watch “Dune,” “Shōgun” appeared first on Dark Horizons.
