Auteur Quentin Tarantino, hot on the news circuit these days thanks to his upcoming film slave-revenge film Django Unchained starring Jamie Foxx, has always had a bit of an acting bug. Be it his minor roles in his own films (Reservoir Dogs‘ Mr. Brown, Pulp Fiction‘s Jimmie) his roles in others’ films, such as Destiny Turns On The Radio, Desperado, From Dusk Til Dawn, and even a Broadway appearance (in Wait Until Dark), the writer/director has always wanted to act.
That said, it’s been a while since the filmmaker has thrown on the acting shoes (his last cameo came in 2007 in Sukiyaki Western Django). Now Italian actor Franco Nero has commissioned Tarantino to end the 4-year lapse. Nero had Tarantino sign a letter of intent saying that he appear in his The Angel, The Brute And The Wise, a western paying homage to both John Huston and Sergio Leone, directed by Nero. Tarantino will play one of 3 bandits Nero’s hero has to kill in a particular scene. This according to Nero himself:
“I said ‘Quentin, we are going to do a western. It would be an homage to Sergio Leone and John Huston, the director that discovered me, and would you be so kind to play a cameo?’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah! What do I have to do?’ I said, actually there are three bandits, and I have to kill them all, and he said, ‘oh, great, so I can come with Robert Rodriguez and my friends to play them.’ I said, yeah! That would be great! He said, ‘But how are you going to kill me?’ I said, I’ll tell you—with a shotgun, and inside, instead of having bullets, it will be gold coins. He said, ‘I love it!'” [Box Office Magazine]
On the opposite side of the coin (pun intended), the legendary actor said he is not yet confirmed to make an appearance in Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which itself takes a bit from violent Spaghetti Western film Django, which made Nero an international star way back in 1966. One would imagine Tarantino will find a place for Nero in his upcoming homage film, just as he did Enzo G. Castellari and Bo Svenson in Inglourious Basterds, the respective director and star of the 1978 The Inglorious Bastards.
Will you seek out Nero’s western, now with Tarantino in a role? Will Tarantino find a role for Nero?