Quentin Tarantino Never Thought Lost ‘Kill Bill’ Chapter Would Get Made — Until Fortnite Stepped In: ‘I Sent Them the Script’ and They Said, ‘Let’s Do This’
A two-decade-old dream is finally coming true for director Quentin Tarantino. The “Kill Bill” chapter known as “Yuki’s Revenge” is coming to life in Fortnite.
The animated short will also head to the big screen as part of an exclusive limited theatrical run of “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.”
Tarantino’s “The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge” stars Uma Thurman, who returns as The Bride, and runs eight minutes. Tarantino and Thurman worked with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, and used motion capture technology to transfer her performance into the gaming platform.
Speaking at his Vista Theater in Los Angeles at a special launch event, Tarantino explained how Fortnite and Epic Games came to be the perfect fit for “The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge.”
He said, “They got together with me to talk about some situation where my characters and Fortnite do something kind of groovy. So I show up at the meeting thinking that we’re just going to talk about that they want to license the characters, and they want to get my ideas about what will be a fun thing to do.”
As it turns out, the powers that be at Epic Games had other ideas in mind. Rather than license his characters, they wanted to see if he had something in the eight to 12 minute range “that could be good for our purposes and make sure your iconic characters are wrapped up inside this.”
As it turned out, Tarantino did have something.
He had an entire chapter that existed in the original first draft of “Kill Bill.” “It never even made second drafts,” Tarantino revealed.
He explained that in the chapter, Gogo (Chiaki Kuriyama) had a twin sister and had the sniffles that night at the House of Blue Leaves and leaves early.
Due to pacing concerns, it never made the film. “It was too crazy, too violent, and just too much action,” Tarantino said.
He sent the script along. Tarantino said. “I actually thought maybe the ship had sailed as far as, like doing new material. I was wrong.” He added, “When I wrote the first draft of the script, there was a lost chapter that, frankly, I just didn’t think we could pull off. And Yuki has been a figment of my imagination for over 20 years.”
Getty Images for Epic Games
Thurman surprised audiences when she joined Tarantino to explain how motion capture technology helped her bring The Bride to Fortnite.
Unreal Engine’s technology renders characters in real time. In capturing performances, it can test poses and expressions and see what reads the best. And when it came to getting the voiceover, the team had facial data from the actors to help animate.
“It’s so novel to wear the camera on your head, but I completely forgot about it; just started to live in the moments of the scenes we were doing,” said Thurman.
As for this new way of bringing “Kill Bill” to audiences and telling the story of Yuki’s revenge, Thurman said she found it cool. “This is a new audience for the movie.” She went on to say, “It’s really moving. It’s really great, and I think it’s something meant to be.”
Getty Images for Epic Games
Lionsgate opens Tarantino’s‘ “The Whole Bloody Affair,” the four-hour cut (281 minutes with a 15 minute intermission) that combines “Kill Bill Vol. 1” and “Kill Bill Vol. 2″ into a single feature, in theaters on Dec. 5.
Thurman stars as The Bride, left for dead after her former boss and lover Bill ambushes her wedding rehearsal, shooting her in the head and stealing her unborn child. To exact her vengeance, she must first hunt down the four remaining members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad before confronting Bill himself.
“The Whole Bloody Affair” stars Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks, and David Carradine as Bill. Produced by Lawrence Bender, it’s written and directed by Tarantino, and is based on the character of “The Bride” created by Q&U (Quentin and Uma).
With the crossover, Tarantino said, “I want both the ‘Kill Bill’ fan and the Fortnite fan to be totally effing happy about this collaboration.”
