Franco Nero announces new Spaghetti Western!

Italian Actor Franco Nero Says He’s Making A Spaghetti Western With Quentin Tarantino.
Keith Carradine & Treat Williams Also Said To Be Involved.

Speaking recently at the Los Angeles Italian festival where his latest effort, Pasquale Squitieri‘s “Father” made its world premiere, actor Franco Nero revealed his next project is a spaghetti western boasting some intriguing names including the aforementioned helmer who is a huge fan of the genre.

“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.”

Other than that, details on this potential project are scarce and it sounds like it’s still coming together. No word yet on who is directing the film, though the casting seems right out of the Tarantino playbook. And as fans of the director might recall, in 2009 during the press rounds for ‘Basterds,’ Tarantino expressed a desire to take on a Western though he said he didn’t even have a concept for a film in place and that it was too early to determine what his next film might be. So at this point, it remains to be seen if it’s just a project that Tarantino will pop his head in—like “Sukiyaki Western Django”—or if his involvement will be bigger than that.

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.”

We presume more news will start trickling out but the prospect of a Tarantino-directed spaghetti Western is pretty exciting stuff but again, his involvement in the project is yet to be formally confirmed at this point.


[Don't get too excited by this news. This could be the long planned(?), talked about Enzo Castellari project that has continued for a decade or more. Every two years or so we get an update on this project, a producer is announced along with participants and then nothing ever happens. We'll keep our fingers crossed but seeing is believing. TB]