Posted in: Movies, Universal | Tagged: bleeding cool, films, Inglourious Basterds, Lantern Entertainment, movies, quentin tarantino, simon pegg, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tin-Tin

Inglourious Basterds: Simon Pegg Regrets Passing Up Role

Published Wed, 02 Dec 2020 11:45:00 -0600

by Tom Chang

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Simon Pegg is one of the most versatile comedic actors in Hollywood fortunate to be a part of some of the biggest franchises. One director he wished he worked with is Quentin Tarantino and at one point, he was considered for a role in his 2009 historic war fantasy Inglourious Basterds. Speaking the Radio Times via MSN, the actor talked about what could have been.

Simon Pegg at the UK premiere for "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" in Leicester Square, London. Editorial credit: Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com

"I have been cast in a Quentin movie before, but I had to drop out because I made a commitment to something else," Pegg said. "It was a heart-breaking week because I had to make a choice between Tarantino and Steven Spielberg (for The Adventures of Tintin)." The actor provided the voice of Thompson and if that isn't confusing enough, his frequent collaborator Nick Frost voiced Thomson in the film. The animated film started production in 2008 and experienced numerous delays until its ultimate release in 2011. Tin-Tin ended up making more at $373 million globally to Inglourious Basterds' $321 million with the latter turning up a better net profit of $13 million given their budgets. Tin-Tin cost $135 million compared to Basterds' $70 million.

Inglourious Basterds: Simon Pegg Regrets Passing Up Role — Eli Roth as Sgt. Donny Donowitz and Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds (2009). Image courtesy of Lantern Entertainment/Universal Pictures

The Tarantino film ended up nominated for eight Oscars with Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor to the Spielberg film's lone nomination. When asked what role was he penciled in for, Pegg remained coy. "I'm not going to say," he laughed. "But the person who did end up playing is a far better actor than me!" The Star Trek (2009) star can be seen reunited with Frost for their Amazon series Truth Seekers. He's reprising his role as Benji Dunn currently filming for Christopher McQuarrie's seventh and eighth installments of Mission: Impossible. He's also lending his voice as King James for the Netflix animated feature America: The Motion Picture.

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