Quentin Tarantino brings a long-lost Kill Bill chapter to life, and this time it happens inside the world of Fortnite.
The filmmaker has teamed up with Epic Games to publish 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 part 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 play in theaters as part of the limited run of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.
Speaking at his Vista Theater in Los Angeles, Tarantino told how the collaboration began.
He initially thought that Epic Games would just license his characters.
“They got together with me to talk about a situation where my characters and Fortnite are doing something groovy,” he said. But when he arrived, they hit something else entirely.
They asked if he had something around eight to twelve minutes “that might be good for our purposes and make sure your iconic characters are wrapped into this.”
It turned out that Tarantino already had the perfect piece: a chapter written in the very first draft of Kill Bill that never progressed.
Gogo Yubari was supposed to have a twin sister named Yuki. “It never even made a second draft,” he said. The idea was cut for pacing reasons. “It was too crazy, too violent and just too much action.”
Tarantino admitted he didn’t think he’d ever get to see it again.
“I actually thought the ship might have sailed as far as making new material. I was wrong.” He added that Yuki had “been a made-up fantasy for over 20 years.”
Uma Thurman also surprised the audience by performing at the event. She explained how motion capture allowed her to perform as The Bride again.
Wearing head-mounted cameras and sensors, she said she eventually forgot the equipment was there. “I completely forgot about it; I just started living in the moments of the scenes we did.”
Thurman loved that the project makes history accessible in a new way. “This is a new audience for the film,” she said. “It’s really moving. It’s really amazing and I think it’s something that needs to be.”
Fortnite isn’t the only return for the iconic assassin. Lionsgate releases The Thoroughbred Affair in theaters on December 5.
For Tarantino, the crossover is meant to bridge generations of fans.
“I want boats Kill Bill fan and the Fortnite fan for being totally effing happy about this collaboration.”
