“‘Let me take Kanye’s idea and make Django Unchained out of it,'” Tarantino quipped.”That didn’t happen.”
Quentin Tarantino is dismissing Kanye “Ye” West‘s claim he took the idea for his 2012 film “Django Unchained” from the controversial rapper.
During an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the 59-year-old director set the record straight when host Jimmy Kimmel asked if West’s allegations that he had taken the concept after he pitched the idea for the 2005 “Gold Digger” music video.
“There’s no truth to the idea that Kanye West came up with the idea of Django and then he told that 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,'” Tarantino quipped. “That didn’t happen.”
The “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” filmmaker stated that he had sat on the idea for the movie “for a while before I ever met Kanye.”
“[West] wanted to do a giant movie version of The College Dropout [his 2004 debut album] the way he did the album,” Tarantino continued. “So he wanted to get big directors to do different tracks from the album and then release it as this giant movie… not videos, nothing as crass as videos, movies, they were going to be movies based on each of the different tracks.”
Tarantino said the two had used the project as an “excuse to meet each other” and the Yeezy founder “did have an idea for a video” that involved West depicted as a slave.
“I do think it was for the ‘Gold Digger’ video, that he would be a slave,” Tarantino said. “And the whole thing was this slave narrative where he’s a slave and he’s singing ‘Gold Digger.’ And it was very funny. It was a really, really funny idea.” He noted that West’s idea was “meant to be ironic.”
Quentin continued, “And it’s like a huge musical. I mean, like no expenses spared with him in this slave rag outfit, doing everything, and then that was also part of the pushback on it. But I wish he had done it. It sounded really cool. Anyway, that’s what he’s referring to.”
Last week, West claimed that Tarantino and “Django Unchained” star Jamie Foxx “got the idea [for the film] from me” during an interview with Piers Morgan.
“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,'” Kanye claimed. “And then Tarantino turned it into a film.”
The 45-year-old “Donda” rapper has been the subject of criticism for his repeated anti-Semitic remarks. His comments have lost him several brand deals and the support of many of his celebrity friends.