Quentin Tarantino Once Got Triggered Seeing Keanu Reeves Watch an Early Screening of ‘Kill Bill’
Quentin Tarantino was with The Matrix star Keanu Reeves when the actor got to see an early screening of Kill Bill. But when he saw Reeves watch the film, there was something about Reeves’ reaction that upset Tarantino. And it had the actor reflecting on bigger issues in the film industry that bothered him.
Quentin Tarantino felt ‘The Matrix’ was ruined by its sequels
Tarantino once had much respect for the original Matrix movie. He even named it as one of his top modern movies in a video posted by QuentinTarantino HD. Although the Pulp Fiction director listed The Matrix as his 14th favorite contemporary film at the time, he would’ve ranked it higher. But the first Matrix took a hit thanks to its sequels.
“Now, there was a time actually that I would’ve actually considered Matrix the official number two after Battle Royale. However, I have to say that time was before Matrix 2 and 3 came out and actually ruined the mythology for me,” Tarantino said. “But even though it did ruin the mythology for me and actually moved the original Matrix down on my list, I can’t think about it the same way as I did before, it didn’t obliterate it entirely. It still has to be in my top 20.”
Quentin Tarantino was upset watching Keanu Reeves’ reaction to ‘Kill Bill’
Tarantino was with filmmaker Luc Besson and John Wick star Keanu Reeves when they watched an early screening of Kill Bill. However, when seeing Reeves watch his film, he couldn’t help but think about The Matrix. After a while, the filmmaker found himself getting riled up about the film and other films like it.
“I watched Keanu watching and I suddenly felt it,” Tarantino told Empire. “You know, my guys are all real. There’s no computer f****** around. I’m sick to death of all that s***. This is old school with f****** cameras. If I’d wanted all that computer game bulls***, I’d have gone home and stuck my d*** in my Nintendo.”
Because of this thought process, Tarantino felt that there would be ramifications for studios deciding to use too much CGI.
“This CGI bulls*** is the death knell of cinema. Movies are far too f****** expensive at the moment and it’s killing the f****** art form. The way it’s going, in ten years’ time it will officially be killed,” he continued.
Quentin Tarantino considered ‘Kill Bill’ his competition to movies like ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Star Wars’
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Quentin Tarantino admitted that making Kill Bill took a bit of trial and error. The movie was Tarantino’s first foray into the kung-fu genre. Given how new he was to the situation, mistakes occurred during production, which affected the film’s scheduling.
“I’ve never done action films before,” he said. “And I’ve definitely never done a Hong Kong action film. I was stepping into the unknown, and the unknown is scary. We screwed up every way you could screw up when it came to scheduling this movie. Because we just didn’t know what the f*** we were doing.”
Eventually, Tarantino filmed the movie over its schedule and over its original budget, which ballooned from $39 million to $55 million. However, Tarantino didn’t let that concern him, nor did he feel that the film’s studio needed to be concerned, either. Mostly because he felt Kill Bill was his studio’s only way to compete with other blockbuster franchises.
“Yes, we’re way over schedule, and way over our original budget, but it’s still the biggest motherf****** bargain in town. We’re Miramax’s competition to The Matrix. We’re Miramax’s competition to Die Another Day and Star Wars,” he explained.
