Is Quentin Tarantino working on a prison movie inspired by the Robert Blake case?

[Oscar Rothman]

Source: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayli...medium=twitter

With Quentin Tarantino's script for his proposed, 70mm western "The Hateful Eight" now circulating, with the leak of his first draft causing the director to scrap the project, could he already be working on his next movie? Indeed, he did tell Deadline he was plowing ahead on another movie. .“The idea was, I was going to write two scripts,” Tarantino said. “I wasn’t going to shoot the Western until next winter, and I have been full of piss and vinegar about the other one. So now I’ll do that one.” And while he wouldn't spill what that movie was all about, rumors are already percolating about what it is.

According to The Wrap, Tarantino is penning "a prison movie of sorts" and that he has "immersed himself in the details of the Robert Blake case." In case you've forgotten, Blake is the former star of the '70s series "Baretta," who was accused of murdering his wife, who died of a gunshot wound to the head outside of a restaurant in 2001. Blake went to trial and was acquitted. However, in a civil case launched by his own children, the actor was found liable in the death of his wife, and ordered to pay $30 million dollars. It's the sort of celebrity/tabloid/murder tale that is juicy stuff (Blake contends his innocence to this day) and we could see QT riffing on that.

While we sorta doubt Tarantino doing a legal thriller, we do see the filmmaker using the case as a springboard to do a jailhouse flick, which would undoubtedly allow him to mine countless B-movies or exploitation flicks for inspiration. But of course, this is not confirmed, and what a "prison movie" to one person is something different to Tarantino, and we'll be curious to see what this actually turns out to be.