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Grindhouse (2007)
Grindhouse is a 2007 American anthology film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Presented as a double feature, it combines Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a horror comedy about a group of survivors who battle zombie-like creatures, and Tarantino's Death Proof, a thriller about a murderous stuntman who kills young women with modified vehicles. The former stars Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez,…
Directed by Quentin Tarantino · Shot by Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez · Cut by Sally Menke · 191 min
How it was made
- Death Proof was Tarantino's first credit as a cinematographer, while Robert Rodriguez shot his own segment as he had done on six previous features.
- To make the modern-day footage look like a battered grindhouse print, five of Planet Terror's six 25,000-frame reels were edited with real film damage, plug-ins and stock footage layered in during post-production.
- Cherry's prosthetic-free stump after her leg is lost was achieved by digitally erasing Rose McGowan's real leg and replacing it with computer-generated props, first a table leg and later a rifle; McGowan wore a restrictive cast on set so her movement would match what the effects team needed to track.
- Tarantino and Rodriguez invented the fake missing reel gag during editing, inspired by an actual damaged print of an Italian crime film Tarantino had once screened, using it to skip past the predictable late second act straight into the third.
- Tarantino cut his own segment down by about half an hour from the 127-minute version later shown at Cannes, deliberately trimming it to the bone to fit the double-feature format.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Quentin Tarantino
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