{"id":5251,"date":"2012-08-27T18:44:28","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T01:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/?p=5251"},"modified":"2012-08-27T18:44:28","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T01:44:28","slug":"quentin-tarantino-richard-kelly-pay-tribute-to-director-tony-scott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/quentin-tarantino-richard-kelly-pay-tribute-to-director-tony-scott\/","title":{"rendered":"Quentin Tarantino, Richard Kelly Pay Tribute to Director Tony Scott"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Richard Kelly were brought together Friday at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood by Jeff Goldsmith of\u00a0The Q&A<\/em>\u00a0podcast<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Backstory<\/em>\u00a0digital magazine<\/a>\u00a0to remember the life and career of director Tony Scott. The tribute, titled \u201cWriting for Tony Scott,\u201d featured a discussion and screenings of\u00a0True Romance<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Domino<\/em>, Scott films penned by Tarantino and Kelly, respectively.<\/p>\n

In a theater packed with film students and movie fans, Goldsmith made the announcement that Scott had been buried earlier that day. Less than a week after\u00a0Scott took his own life by jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge<\/a>, the mood in the theater could easily have been somber, but the audience erupted with cheers and applause as the lights went out and \u201cA Tony Scott Film\u201d flashed onscreen and the opening bars of Charlie Sexton\u2019s \u201cGraceland\u201d heralded the beginning of the director\u2019s gritty fairy tale\u00a0True Romance<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After the credits rolled, Goldsmith brought out guests of honor Kelly and Tarantino to discuss their experiences writing and working for Scott.<\/p>\n

Tarantino admitted he was pleased to see the outpouring of support and love immediately following Scott\u2019s death. \u201cOne of the things that\u2019s actually been kind of gratifying about reading all of this Internet stuff, where everyone\u2019s talking about their favorite Tony Scott movie and stuff, is people were not saying that in 1990,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople used to [say] \u2018Oh, he\u2019s a commercial hack. His stuff is bullshit.\u2019 And I\u00a0loved<\/em>\u00a0his shit. I thought it was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>True Romance<\/em>\u00a0has achieved cult status and is beloved today, but Goldsmith recalled that the film was actually besieged by detractors and negative reviews when it was released. \u201cEven when\u00a0True Romance<\/em>\u00a0got good reviews, they wouldn\u2019t give Tony the credit for the good reviews,\u201d Tarantino added. \u201cThey would actually say that he glossed up my script \u2014 that he made it too pretty. He made it too vivid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarantino went even further, comparing Scott to another director who didn\u2019t receive the appreciation he deserved during his lifetime. \u201cHe\u2019s just like Douglas Sirk, man. Douglas Sirk never got any respect in the \u201850s,\u201d he said. \u201cHis movies were considered too commercial. Everybody put him down and now they teach classes on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Goldsmith asked Tarantino about Scott\u2019s restructuring of his original\u00a0True Romance<\/em>\u00a0script, the influential writer\/director downplayed the changes. \u201cIt was so easy to restructure that I think they just did it with a Xerox machine,\u201d Tarantino joked before hinting that an alternate cut of the film, which follows the structure of his original draft, is rumored to exist. \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve heard, he tried my structure but went\u00a0nuts<\/em>\u00a0with it \u2014 went far beyond what I did. So apparently there\u2019s this really metaphysical avant-garde cut of\u00a0True Romance<\/em>\u00a0floating around out there somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of avant-garde, Scott had been a fan of Kelly\u2019s\u00a0Donnie Darko<\/em>, and brought the young director in for a meeting when the conversation finally turned to\u00a0Domino<\/em>, a project Scott had been trying to get off the ground for more than 10 years. Kelly described his experience writing for Scott as very collaborative. \u201cUsually the screenwriter isn\u2019t really welcome on set or he\u2019s sort of only invited on certain days or it\u2019s a very \u2018keep your distance\u2019 sort of a situation, but this was the opposite,\u201d Kelly recalled. \u201cIt was a wonderful, wonderful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known for his over-the-top visual style, Kelly explained that Scott inherently understood that cinema is about the overall experience for an audience. \u201cI remember that in a movie like\u00a0The Fan<\/em>, people would complain, \u2018When it rains at night, they cancel the baseball game,\u2019 and Tony was like, \u2018I don\u2019t care. I want it to be raining.\u2019 He understood that they\u2019re movies, and it\u2019s about the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to talk about Tony and just get lost into the whole visual thing,\u201d Tarantino continued, \u201cBut Tony was one of the best director of actors that there was. Him and Denzel Washington\u2019s relationship was one of the best actor\/director combinations of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As prominent directors in their own right, Goldsmith asked about the experience of writing for a director like Scott. Tarantino admitted that his version of\u00a0True Romance<\/em>\u00a0would have been more cynical, and Christian Slater\u2019s character Clarence would have died at the end. \u201cI wanted to do that. I wanted to make you fall in love with Clarence and then I wanted to blow his fucking head off. I wanted to do that to you,\u201d Tarantino said, gesturing to the crowd. \u201cTony didn\u2019t want to do that to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fell in love with Clarence and Alabama, and it became \u2014 in fact, I think he loved them even more than I did,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think I took them for granted a little bit because Clarence was kind of me, so I could be brazen with me. I could blow my head off and that would be kind of a punk-rock move. Tony loved him and Tony loved Alabama, and it was very important to him that they get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarantino admitted he had accused Scott of \u201cwimping out for commercial bullshit\u2019 when he changed the script to give Alabama (played by Patricia Arquette) and Clarence a happy ending, but the director held firm. Launching into a vivid Scott impression, Tarantino said: \u2018Quentin, I\u2019m not doing it to be a commercial fuck, I\u2019m doing it because I love those fucking kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly also recalled Scott having a similar sensibility while the pair worked on\u00a0Domino<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m someone who \u2014 I kill all my characters. My movies are depressing and confusing and esoteric and they test horribly, and I\u2019m basically the worst nightmare for like a studio test audience,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it was great to get that endorsement from Tony, that while we were holding on to the radical nature of the screenplay, we could have a happy ending that was still honest and it was earned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldsmith wondered whether working with Scott had influenced either director and, if so, what they had learned or taken from him. \u201cFor me, it was the importance of research. Tony was a meticulous researcher,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI\u2019d never seen anyone push that deep into the research, and it was amazing. I carry that with me forever now.<\/p>\n

Tarantino admitted that while his own style is often diametrically opposed to Scott\u2019s, he appreciated the director\u2019s visual aesthetic, and he even went to him for advice after his 2007 feature\u00a0Grindhouse<\/em>flopped. \u201cI felt like the planet Earth broke up with me,\u201d Tarantino said, explaining that Scott was there to console him.\u201dJust remember how lucky you are,\u201d Tarantino recalled Scott saying, \u201cHow lucky you are that you got to make the movie you wanted to make and you got to make it the way you wanted to make it. People backed you. People supported you and you did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point in the evening, Goldsmith read a quote from Scott that can be heard on the commentary track of\u00a0Domino<\/em>, which reflected many of the characters the director brought to life in his long and impressive filmography: \u201cI\u2019m always attracted to people going to the dark side who manage to get back and when they get back, they\u2019re different human beings, but having touched those places, it makes them interesting people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire \u201cWriting for Tony Scott\u201d discussion will be made available through Goldsmith\u2019s podcastThe Q&A<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Richard Kelly were brought together Friday at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood by Jeff Goldsmith of\u00a0The Q&A\u00a0podcast\u00a0and\u00a0Backstory\u00a0digital magazine\u00a0to remember the life and career of director Tony Scott. The tribute, titled \u201cWriting for Tony Scott,\u201d featured a discussion and screenings of\u00a0True Romance\u00a0and\u00a0Domino, Scott films penned by Tarantino and Kelly, respectively. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1opIU-1mH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11873,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/mark-millars-nemesis-finally-moving\/","url_meta":{"origin":5251,"position":0},"title":"Mark Millar’s “Nemesis” Finally Moving?","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"August 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With \"Kingsman: The Secret Service\" being one of the big success stories of the year, it's no surprise that other film adaptations of the works of comic author Mark Millar that are currently in development have scored another look at by the studios. One previously talked about project is his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6149,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/reggie-hudlin-adapts-tarantinos-django-unchained-for-vertigo\/","url_meta":{"origin":5251,"position":1},"title":"Reggie Hudlin Adapts Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” For Vertigo","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"January 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Last December, Vertigo Comics delighted Quentin Tarantino fans as the publisher released the first issue of \"Django Unchained,\" the comic book adaptation of the filmmaker's 2012 slave revenge flick. Drawn by \"Scalped\" artist R.M. Guera, the miniseries is adapted from Tarantino's original screenplay by none other than Reggie Hudlin, writer,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20486,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/black-phone-2-official-trailer\/","url_meta":{"origin":5251,"position":2},"title":"Black Phone 2 Official Trailer","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"June 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The phone is ringing again.","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BP2ne.png?fit=732%2C844&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BP2ne.png?fit=732%2C844&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BP2ne.png?fit=732%2C844&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BP2ne.png?fit=732%2C844&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6247,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/fox-scott-free-to-adapt-mind-mgmt\/","url_meta":{"origin":5251,"position":3},"title":"Fox, Scott Free To Adapt “Mind MGMT”","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"January 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"20th Century Fox and Scott Free have picked up the film rights to Matt Kindt's indie comic \"Mind MGMT\". The ongoing series centers on a government agency consisting of psychic spies and their greatest asset, Henry Lime.After he suffers a breakdown and loses control of his abilities, causing the populace\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6195,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/scott-gimple-takes-over-walking-dead\/","url_meta":{"origin":5251,"position":4},"title":"Scott Gimple Takes Over “Walking Dead”","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"January 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Frank Darabont ran the series for the first season-and-a-half, Glen Mazzara took over for the next season-and-a-half. Now, executive producer Scott Gimple has been promoted to showrunner on \"The Walking Dead\" for its fourth season. Gimple joined the show at the start of its second season as producer. He's also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11910,"url":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/eve-online-to-become-a-tv-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":5251,"position":5},"title":"“EVE Online” To Become A TV Series","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"September 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Coming off strong reviews from last night's screening of \"Everest\" at the Venice Film Festival, the film's director Baltasar Kormakur is teaming with legendary \"Alien\" director Ridley Scott for a new TV series adaptation of the hit MMORPG sci-fi video game \"EVE Online\". The project is set in a galaxy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5252,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions\/5252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}