Quentin Tarantino brings back something long lost kill bill chapter of life, and this time it will happen within the world of Fortnite.
The filmmaker has partnered with Epic Games to launch The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revengean animated short starring Uma Thurman as The Bride.
For Tarantino, it fulfills a 20-year wish to revisit a section of the original script that never made it to the screen.
The eight-minute short was made using Unreal Engine technology and motion capture.
It will also be released in theaters as part of the limited series of Kill Bill: The Whole Damn Thing.
Speaking at his Vista Theater in Los Angeles, Tarantino shared how the collaboration began.
At first he thought that Epic Games just wanted to license its characters.
“They met with me to talk about a situation where my characters and Fortnite do something cool,” he said. But when he arrived, they offered him something very different.
He was asked if he had anything between eight and twelve minutes “that might be good for our purposes and making sure that his iconic characters are wrapped up within this.”
It turned out that Tarantino already had the perfect piece: a chapter written in the first draft of kill bill that never went further.
Gogo Yubari was supposed to have a twin sister named Yuki. “He didn’t even do second drafts,” he said. The idea was scrapped for pacing reasons. “It was too crazy, too violent and too much action.”
Tarantino admitted that he didn’t think he would ever be able to revisit it.
“I actually thought maybe the ship had come as far as making new material. I was wrong.” He added that Yuki had “been a figment of my imagination for over 20 years.”
Uma Thurman also surprised the public by appearing at the event. She explained how motion capture allowed her to return to acting as The Bride.
With head-mounted cameras and sensors, he said he eventually forgot the equipment was there. “I completely forgot about it; I just started living the moments of the scenes we were doing.”
Thurman loved that the project makes history accessible in a new way. “This is a new audience for the film,” he said. “It’s really touching. It’s really fantastic and I think it’s something that was meant to be.”
Fortnite is not the only return of the iconic assassin. Lionsgate is releasing The whole damn thing in theaters December 5.
For Tarantino, the crossover is meant to unite generations of fans.
“I want so much kill bill fan and the Fortnite fan are totally happy with this collaboration.”
