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Published Nov 12, 2026, 7:00 PM EST
Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.
He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
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It's turning out to be quite an eventful month for Quentin Tarantino, even though seven years have passed since he last directed a movie. Tarantino still hasn't announced his next directorial venture, which is expected to be his last, but he's keeping himself occupied with a host of other projects. First up is The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, on which he serves purely as a writer. Following the film's release, he will begin working in earnest on his first project as a playwright, The Popinjay Cavalier. Tarantino is also the subject of the recently published book "The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds," in which he reveals a surprising fact about the revisionist World War II epic.
The book details how Brad Pitt came to star in the movie, thereby securing an additional $10 million for the budget. Pitt and Tarantino also discuss their first real meeting for the project, which lasted well into the night. However, one of the more surprising anecdotes revealed by Tarantino is that he fired one of the film's leads after they performed poorly during the first table read. The actor was rehired, but only after auditioning for the part again.
One legendary star, Isabelle Huppert, was also let go after failing to show up at the table read, and was replaced by Maggie Cheung. The part eventually didn't make it to the final cut, because Tarantino felt that it was veering into exposition territory. Tarantino said, "I have fired actors in the past. If it’s not right, it is not right. I don’t owe them shit. I owe my film the best actors I can find. Period." The filmmaker also clarified that while he fired and rehired the lead, he doesn't think negatively about their performance in the least. "If we had not agreed to talk about the shooting of the movie, it would be out of my mind, and I would never think about it again,” he said.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Coen Brothers Movie Would You Thrive In? Lebowski · O Brother · Fargo · No Country
Nobody writes people like the Coen brothers. The decent ones. The talkers. The ones who stopped trying years ago. And the ones who can already see how bad this is going to get. Four films, four completely different ways of handling trouble. Eight questions decide which one you would actually walk out of.
🎳Lebowski(1998)
🎸O Brother(2000)
❄️Fargo(1996)
🪙No Country(2007)
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
A bag of money lands in your lap. What happens next? Every Coen film starts roughly here. It never goes smoothly.
AI do not overthink it. Rent is paid, evening is free. BI have a plan for this. It involves other people. CI hand it in. Somebody is looking for this. DI am gone before anyone knows I have it.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Somebody is being completely unreasonable with you. How does it go? Coen dialogue is mostly people failing to understand each other.
AI let it go. It is not worth the energy. BI talk. At length. Until they are on my side. CI stay polite and repeat myself until they hear me. DI stop talking. Talking has not been working.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What is your actual relationship with work? Everyone in these films is either working far too hard or not at all.
AI have arranged things so I do as little as possible. BI would rather chase one big idea than hold a steady job. CI do it properly, including the boring parts. DIt pays. I do not need it to mean anything.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Long drive, bad weather, nobody else on the road. How are you? There is always a drive in these films. It is never a good drive.
AMusic on, in no hurry, perfectly content. BTalking the whole way, whether anybody answers or not. CBoth hands on the wheel, checking everyone is warm enough. DQuiet, watching the mirrors.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
You are offered a shortcut that is not quite legal. This is the moment where the Coens find out who you really are.
ANo, but not on principle. It sounds like effort. BYes, and I will make it sound like a great idea. CNo. And I would probably say something about it. DOnly if I am certain nobody finds out.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
The plan has fallen apart completely. What is your move? In a Coen film the plan always falls apart. That is the genre.
AOrder a drink and let things settle down. BImprovise loudly and hope momentum carries it. CStart again from the beginning and do it right. DCut my losses and leave before it gets worse.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which of these sounds most like something you would say? Nobody writes a line quite like the Coens. Which one is yours?
AIt is really not that serious. BTrust me, I have thought about this. CI just think we could all be a bit kinder. DThat was always going to happen.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
How does your film end? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your movie.
ANothing is resolved and I am completely fine with it. BA ridiculous piece of luck saves everybody. CQuietly, at home, with somebody I love. DSomebody older admits they no longer understand the world.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Verdict Is In Your Coen Film Is…
Four films, four completely different ways of handling money, trouble and other people. This is the one you would survive, why it suits you, and what it would cost you to be there.
The Big Lebowski
You have quietly arranged your life so that very little can get to you, and a surprising number of people find that infuriating. You would be completely at home here.
- The Dude is the only person in the film with no ambition, and the only one who comes out the other side undamaged. That is not an accident.
- You do not chase things. You let situations arrive and you deal with them at your own pace, which is a genuine skill however lazy it looks.
- This is a full crime plot happening around a man who mostly wants his rug back, and that is exactly the energy you would bring to it.
- Everything goes wrong. You abide. The film ends.
O Brother
You talk your way through life and it works far more often than it should. Give you a bad situation and an audience and you will find a way out of both at once.
- Everett never has a plan that survives contact with reality. He has something better, which is the ability to keep talking until a new one turns up.
- You are the optimist in the group, the one who makes a ridiculous idea sound reasonable at two in the morning.
- This is the warmest film the Coens have made. It is a chase, a comedy and a musical at once, and nobody in it is quite beyond saving.
- You would end up famous entirely by accident, and act like you planned it all along.
Fargo
You would survive Fargo because you are the only kind of person who does: patient, decent, and completely unimpressed by anybody trying to be clever.
- Marge Gunderson solves the whole case by being polite, thorough and unhurried while everybody around her panics. That is the entire argument of the film.
- You do the boring parts of the job, which is precisely why you would notice the thing everyone else walked straight past.
- Fargo is about ordinary greed causing enormous damage, and about one person who simply refuses to be corrupted by any of it.
- You would go home at the end of it, have dinner, and sleep perfectly well.
No Country
You do not expect the world to be fair and you stopped being surprised about it a long time ago. That clear-eyed quality is exactly what this film asks for.
- No Country is the Coens at their coldest: a film where being smart, fast and careful might still not be anywhere near enough.
- You plan for the worst, you keep your own counsel, and some part of you is already working out the exit.
- Llewelyn Moss is competent, prepared and resourceful, and the film is honest about whether any of that is ever sufficient.
- You would see it coming. Whether that helps is the one question the film refuses to answer.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Here's Who Quentin Tarantino Fired from 'Inglourious Basterds'
The actor he fired after the table read is none other than Mélanie Laurent, who plays the vengeful survivor Shosanna Dreyfus in the film. Tarantino said, "Mélanie Laurent’s table read was terrible. It wasn’t good enough to be terrible. The most exciting day of preproduction is for me the table read. That is the closest I get to seeing the movie for the first time. Up until then, it’s just been me reading all the scenes to myself or to a friend … so a table read with the whole cast is so exciting and so important to me. Well, Mélanie was terrible, so I fired her.”
Laurent was eventually brought back as Shosanna after she reached out to Tarantino a few days later and explained why she wasn't at the top of her game. Also featuring Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Daniel Brühl, and Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds grossed more than $320 million worldwide against a reported budget of $70 million.
Inglourious Basterds is streaming now on Prime Video. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date August 21, 2009
Runtime 153 minutes
