Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)   Release Date: April 16th, 2004 (wide)

Release Date Notes: (8/26/03) When Miramax first announced their plans to split 'Kill Bill' into two parts in mid-July, 2003, they gave the target release for this second movie as somewhere between two and six months after the October 10th release date of Kill Bill Volume 1. Then, a few days later at Comic-Con in San Diego, Quentin Tarantino gave a much more specific answer of three months, which suggests a release in January, 2004 (or if he really meant two months and three weeks: late December, 2003). This has been somewhat confirmed by emerging reports and rumors emerging from overseas that the European release dates are in December or January. One theory that I have about this division of the movie into two parts, if the second one *is* released in 2004, is that it could be a way for Miramax to try to attract twice as much Academy Award consideration (some in one year, some in the next). (8/28/03) The final answer is actually four months, not three, as Miramax has announced plans for a February 20th, 2004 release. As I predicted, Miramax is indeed seeing this as a way to attract Oscar consideration twice over. (1/8/04) During a recent appearance on ABC's "The View," Uma Thurman announced that the release date has been pushed back two months until April 16th, 2004, which puts it up against another action movie: The Punisher. I should note, however, that there's a rumor posted today at Tarantino.info that the release might actually have been pushed back even farther, until June or maybe later.

Running Time: Approximately 100-120 minutes (this is the second half of a nearly-four-hour epic)

Running Time Note: (8/26/03) According to Jeffrey Wells, there is a rumor that the real running time of the two films together is closer to 4 or 5 hours long, which if true, would make the split seem a lot more common sense.

Distributor: Miramax Films

Production Company: A Band Apart (Tarantino's company)

Animation Note: (8/27/03) In addition to the live-action that makes up the bulk of the movie, there will be some scenes of Japanese Anime inserted into the movie, which is being done by Production I.G., a company working on the 'Ghost in the Shell' sequel for next year (preview page coming soon for that one).

Cast: Uma Thurman (The Bride, AKA Black Mamba), David Carradine (Bill), Julie Dreyfus (Sofie Fatale), Sonny Chiba (Hattori Hanzo), Vivica A. Fox (Vernita Green, AKA Copperhead), Daryl Hannah (Elle Driver, AKA California Mountain Snake), Samuel L Jackson (The Piano Player), Caitlin Keats (Janeen), Lucy Liu (O-Ren Ishii, AKA Cottonmouth), Michael Madsen (Budd, AKA Sidewinder), Chris Nelson (The Groom), LaTanya Richardson (L.F. O'Boyle), Shana Stein (Erica), Bo Svenson (The Preacher), Michael Jai White (Alburt)

Cast Notes: (8/29/03) Since the movie is now split into two halves and *especially* since this is a bloody revenge movie, it's possible that some of the cast members listed above might only appear in Kill Bill Volume 1, and not in this second half.

Director: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown; his latest before this is Kill Bill Volume 1; he's also got Inglorious Bastards in development)

Action Choreographers: Yuen Woo Ping (kung fu), Sonny Chiba (samurai)

Screenwriter: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Jackie Brown, From Dusk Till Dawn; his latest film before this is Kill Bill Volume 1 ; next up is Inglorious Bastards)

Based Upon: Although neither the script nor the novel are reportedly (Variety, 4/18/02) based on each other, Talk Miramax Books will be publishing Kill Bill, Tarantino's first novel, in the spring of 2003, giving fans plenty of time to become familiar with the story ahead of time. Expect, however, Tarantino to "mess" with you a bit, since he knows while directing this film that his fans probably read the book; so there may be changes.

Video Game Notes: (10/5/02) Black Label Games, the company behind "Enclave" for the XBox, the game version of John Carpenter's The Thing, and the video game versions of the "Lord of the Rings" novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, has signed on to produce a game based on "Kill Bill" for both the PC and (unspecified) consoles, to be released in conjuction with the "Kill Bill" DVD in the 2nd quarter of 2004. (8/27/03) The release of the video game has been pushed back to the fall of 2004. (10/30/03) The video game has been canceled completely.

Sequel Note: (10/30/03) Earlier this month, AICN reprinted text from an interview that David Carradine did with a magazine called "NewType" in which he revealed that Quentin Tarantino has plans for two more movies besides the two 'Kill Bill' volumes. The first would be an anime prequel (much like the origin of O-Ren sequence in this movie), and the second, which wouldn't be filmed for quite some time yet, would be a sequel featuring the children of some of the characters in these first two films.

Premise: Continuing the storyline that started in Kill Bill Volume I, this is the story of an assassin called The Bride (Thurman) who sets out to wreak revenge upon her former employer, Bill (Carradine) and other members of their assassin circle, for shooting her at her wedding (along with everyone else at the wedding) and leaving her for dead. When this movie begins, it's expected that the Bride will have already encountered some of her targets, as she continues up the chain of command, which will ultimately lead her to the big finale: her chance to Kill Bill. Much like how Volume 1 was an homage to Asian "grindhouse" movies of the 1970s, this finale will pay a close homage to the Italian "spaghetti western" genre.

Filming: Production started on June 14th, 2002 in Beijing, with other locations to include California (mostly Los Angeles), Japan (mostly Tokyo) and Mexico, and wrapped up in early 2003.

Genre: Crime, Female, Sequel, Thriller

Genre Note: (8/27/03) Although this is *really* just the second half of a movie, released separately, by doing so, the movie has essentially come close enough to the dictionary definiton of a "sequel" to earn that designation, even though in that other way, it really isn't.


Published: 01/24/2004