Quentin Tarantino has addressed Kanye West’s recent claims that the Hollywood director stole his concept for his 2012 slavery film “Django Unchained,” starring Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington. Tarantino, who went on to secure an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the motion picture, appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday night where he was asked about West’s accusations against the 59-year-old.
“Well, there’s no truth that Kanye West came up with the idea of ‘Django,’” he answered, before sarcastically adding, “And then he told it to me and I go, ‘Hey wow, that’s a really great idea. Let me take Kanye’s idea and make ‘Django Unchained’ out of it.’ That didn’t happen.” In fact, Tarantino says the concept for “Unchained” was already prepared long before the two had a meeting together.
Quentin Tarantino on Kanye West claiming that he came up with the idea for Django Unchained… pic.twitter.com/5gA4z523zW
— Jimmy Kimmel Live (@JimmyKimmelLive) October 28, 2022
Tarantino added that he had a get-together with Ye during the time he was planning to develop a feature film for his critically-acclaimed 2004 album “The College Dropout,” but the discussion later changed to talks about a treatment for the “Gold Digger” music video, which Tarantino said he found “really funny.”
In his now-infamous interview on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” earlier this month, West alleged that after speaking to Tarantino about his plans for the “Gold Digger” music video, the director ended up taking his initial idea and turning it into a hit blockbuster movie.
The pitch was said to have been slavery-themed, which, as you know, was not the treatment West ended up using for the visual, but apparently Tarantino thought it was cool enough to turn it into a movie, which he vehemently denies.
Aftermath of Kanye West’s antisemitic comments:
Adidas cut ties
Balenciaga cut ties
Vogue and Anna Wintour cut ties
Dropped by talent agency, CAA
Dropped by lawyer
Streams, sales & airplay plummeted
Restricted from Instagram & Twitter
Stadium shows cancelled
Documentary shelved pic.twitter.com/D1UiaAG3e9— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 25, 2022
“Tarantino can write a movie about slavery, where actually, him and Jamie, they got the idea from me, because the idea for ‘Django’ I pitched to Jamie Foxx and Quentin Tarantino as the video for ‘Gold Digger.’ And then Tarantino turned it into a film,” West told Morgan.
The father-of-four has found himself in hot water ever since making his anti-semitic remarks, which have seen a bunch of brands distance themselves from the “Fade” hitmaker, who lost his lucrative partnership with Adidas on Tuesday. It’s unclear how West plans to bounce back from the controversy he’s caused upon himself, but from a business standpoint, things are looking rather shaky right now.