Italian actor and one-time spaghetti western star Franco Nero announced his involvement with Quentin Tarantino in his next feature, a spaghetti western no doubt, which will also star Inglourious Basterds star Christoph Waltz. The announcement came from Nero when speaking at the Los Angeles Italia festival where his latest effort, Pasquale Squitieri‘s Father made its world premiere. Nero was quoted saying:
“The film will be called The Angel, The Bad And The Wise and is a tribute to Sergio Leone. It’s a movie that contains humor, lots of action, but also a great plot,” Nero said (via Movieplayer). “We have already been signed by a dozen people who will be part of project. Among the filmmakers involved include Quentin Tarantino , Keith Carradine, Treat Williams, fifteen people in all Americans who want to do this movie and so we are trying to produce it outside of Italy.”
There has been no announcement as to who is actually directing the film, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Tarantino took the job, considering he has already expressed a desire to direct his take on the genre. However, at this point one can only assume that Tarantino is only making an acting appearance much like he did in Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django.
As for why the film is being produced in the United States, Nero explains, “In the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s in Italy were the real producers, who produced the film that brought only if the author considered them interesting. Now all the films are produced by television and when you go to propose a project officer to Rai or Mediaset [they] say ‘this scene is too strong, can not go to 8.30 or 9.00 in the evening on TV.”
Nero’s first film role was a small part in La ragazza in prestito (1964), and he had his first lead role in Sergio Corbucci’s Django (1966) a Spaghetti Western and one of his best known films. In 1966 from Django he went on to appear in eight more films released that year including Texas, addio (1967) and Tempo di massacro. In 1967, he appeared in Camelot as Lancelot, where he met his long time romantic partner, and later on in life his wife, Vanessa Redgrave. The role is considered Nero’s most famous American screen roles next to Abel in John Huston’s The Bible.