Quentin Tarantino (born 27.3.1963) is an American film director, known for his films 'Reservoir Dogs', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Inglorious Basterds' and 'Django Unchained'.
Net Worth: According to Celebrity Net Worth in 2014, Quentin Tarantino has a net worth of 100 USD.
Childhood: Quentin Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee to nurse Connie Zastoupil Italian-American actor and musician Tony Tarantino. While studying at high school in California, Tarantino dropped out in order to join the James Best Theatre Company. At acting school, Tarantino began writing scripts for short performances based on scenes from movies he'd seen. At the age of 22, Tarantino started working at a video rental store called Manhattan Beach Video Archives.
Film Career: After meeting Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Tarantino was convinced to write the screenplay for My Best Friend's Birthday, which he directed in 1987, but the film reel was destroyed when a fire broke out during the editing process. Instead, Tarantino adapted the screenplay into 'True Romance' later on. Tarantino decided to write a screenplay for the film 'Reservoir Dogs', which he intended to film as a home-movie. Bender was set to star in the film, but he past the screenplay over to Harvey Keitel who contacted Tarantino explaining how he wanted to not only star in the film, but would help secure funding to have it made as a full production. Tarantino was sceptical, but Keitel convinced him to wait one month before filming, in case he was able to get the funding.
'Reservoir Dogs' saw its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 21st January 1992, with the screenplay for 'True Romance' being picked up and filmed, ready for release on 10th October 1993. Tarantino had originally wanted to direct the film as well, but grew tired during the course of the production. Despite the script being reworked in order to follow a more chronological order, as opposed to the order he wrote the scenes in, Tarantino remarked that he was incredibly happy with how it turned out. Tarantino also wrote the screenplay for 'Natural Born Killers', and after selling the script, it was adapted and released on 26th August 1994. Following the success of 'Reservoir Dogs' and his two screenplays, Tarantino was asked to write the scripts for a number of films including 'Speed' and 'Men in Black', but he turned them down.
Tarantino took a short holiday to Amsterdam, where he penned the script for 'Pulp Fiction'. Following the film's release at the Cannes Film Festival on 12th May 1994, Tarantino believed that the film would fail to connect with audiences, believing that his own hyper-violent and non-linear film style was two weird for mainstream audiences. However, the festival awarded him the Palme d'Or - their most prestigious prize. He went on to win the Academy Award in the Best Writing (Original Screenplay), and a nomination for Best Director at the Oscars in February 1995.
Tarantino then wrote and directed 'The Man from Hollywood' - a segment in the 1995 anthology comedy film 'Four Rooms' with Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez. During the filming, Tarantino took Rodriguez aside and read him an excerpt from the script for 'Kill Bill'. 'Four Rooms' failed to connect with audiences, yet Tarantino and Rodriguez were already moving ahead on a new project. The two directors had been friends since 1992, when Tarantino was working on 'Reservoir Dogs' and Rodriguez was selling the distribution rights to his critically acclaimed home movie - 'El Mariachi'. Tarantino wrote the screenplay for 'From Dusk Till Dawn', which was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film stared Tarantino alongside George Clooney, and performed modestly at the box-office while receiving decent critical praise.
The following year, Tarantino released his third film, 'Jackie Brown'. Tarantino wrote and directed the film as an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel 'Rum Punch', but also as a love-letter to the Blaxploitation of Tarantino's youth. The film was released on 25th December 1997, receiving strong reviews from critics and performed well at the box-office. Tarantino was next set to release 'Inglorious Basterds', but the project was postponed so that Tarantino could work on 'Kill Bill'; similar to how 'Jackie Brown' was dedicated to Blaxploitation, 'Kill Bill' would be a homage to Chinese martial arts, Japanese drama, Spaghetti westerns and Italian horror movies all in one. When the film was finished, it clocked in at around four hours, so Tarantino decided to cut the film in half, releasing it as 'Volume 1' and 'Volume 2'.
'Kill Bill: Volume 1' was released on 10th October 2003, smashing the box-office and receiving strong critical praise. 'Kill Bill: Volume 2' was released on 16th April 2004, to better reviews but less box-office success. For the second part, Robert Rodriguez worked as cinematography and wrote some of the music. That same year, Tarantino served as President of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival, before working on a short scene and receiving a guest director credit on Robert Rodriguez' 2005 film, 'Sin City'. 2005 also saw Tarantino direct the season finale for the 5th season of 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.
In 2007, Tarantino and Rodriguez got together to show off their shared love for the Grindhouse film genre of 1970s exploitation and B-Movies. Tarantino directed the film 'Death Proof' and Rodriguez worked on 'Planet Terror', both of which were then released together under the title 'Grindhouse', in the style of drive-in double-bill movie screenings that were a staple of the genre. 'Death Proof' also served as Tarantino's first time working as Director of Photography. Despite the passion from both directors, rave reviews from critics and relatively small budget, the film bombed at the box-office. While Rodriguez chose to continue working in the grindhouse genre, Tarantino chose to return to the films that made him famous, and got to work finishing off 'Inglorious Basterds'.
Tarantino had, by this point, spent around a decade reworking the screenplay for the film, believing it to be his masterpiece. Filming finally began in October 2008, with a release date scheduled for 20th May 2009 at the Cannes Film Festival. When the film screened for the first time, the audience gave an over eight-minute standing ovation, and Actor Christoph Waltz earned the Best Actor award from the festival. The movie then opened theatrically on 21st August 2009, becoming Tarantino's highest grossing film at the time. It was then showered in Academy Award recognition, with nominations for eight awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Waltz (which he won), and Best Original Screenplay.
During the promotion for 'Inglorious Basterds', Tarantino came up with the first scene for 'Django Unchained', which he wrote on miscellaneous stationary in his hotel room. He had expressed a desire to work on the project as far back as 2007, yet he had not cemented what the film would be until the script was finished on 26th April 2011. Principle photography began in November 2011 and lasted for 130 days. The film saw its official theatrical release on 25th Decmeber 2012, and beat the box-office records set by 'Inglorious Basterds'. While some criticised the film for trivialising racial themes, the vast majority of audiences praised the film for the statements it made in attaching the iconic Western genre to ever-present and often dismissed period of slavery in the United States.
In November 2013, Tarantino announced that he would once again continue with the Western Genre, although it would not be a sequel to 'Django Unchained'. He revealed the titled to be 'The Hateful Eight' on 12th January 2014, but the script for the film was leaked in the same month before filming took place. While Tarantino originally wanted to scrap the film an rework the leaked script into a novel, he later conducted a live reading with many of his frequent collaborators, and announced that he was working on two script redrafts - each with different endings. Filming for 'The Hateful Eight' then officially began on 23rd January 2015.
Personal Life: Quentin Tarantino has been romantically linked to a number of Hollywood A-Listers, and rumoured to have had relationships with a number of actresses and high-profile celebrities, such as Mira Sorvino, Julie Dreyfus, Sofia Coppola, Shar Jackson and even Uma Thurman, although he has stated that his relationship with the latter is purely platonic. He has further stated that he does not wish to get married any time soon, as he is too busy making films.
Tarantino has stated that he intends to retire from filmmaking at the age of sixty in order to focus on writing novels and film literature. He has also revealed that if the film industry moves into a fully digital realm, he might retire early, due to his love of actual film. This is shown in his massive collection of 35mm film prints and his ownership of the historical New Beverly Cinema, which holds back-to-back screenings of some of his collection.
Biography by Contactmusic.com
