Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Quentin Tarantino, the master of bloodbath cinema, is to give his trademark comic-book treatment to the Nazis and the Second World War in a film that has stirred controversy even before production has begun.
Shooting on the film which Tarantino has described as an 'in-your-face movie' is due to start in the Potsdam Babelsberg studios west of Berlin on October 13.
But the film project by the US director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, which is a remake of a 70s war film by Enzo Castellaris, has already created a furious response from German critics. One said the effects of the 'collision' between pulp fiction and Nazi barbarity were 'completely unpredictable'.
The film depicts scalpings, disembowelment and swastikas being engraved in foreheads as a group of American Jewish soldiers are airdropped into Nazi-occupied Europe to wreak revenge on the Germans.
Film buffs have been poring over what appeared to be the Tarantino script of the film, which has apparently been leaked and posted on several internet sites. Although film experts said the 167-page 'final draft' had Tarantino's handprint all over it - including his wobbly handwriting, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors - it had not been confirmed as genuine. There was speculation that it might have been released as a publicity stunt.
What has been confirmed is that Brad Pitt is to play the starring role, Lieutenant Aldo Raine, 'known to the Germans as Apache Aldo ... a hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee', who leads the group of Nazi-hunters.
Other stars believed to have been signed up or up for consideration who have flown to Berlin over the past fortnight to meet Tarantino, include Natassja Kinski, Leonardo di Caprio and German film stars Daniel Bruhl and Til Schweiger.
If the script is anything to go by, the film looks likely to be a stomach-churner.
The trouble is that little distinction is made between Nazi and German, ordinary Wehrmacht soldiers or SS officers, to the extent that, if the script is anything to go by, there is no such thing as a good German and all of them have to die.
