Fortnite is more than just battle royales and branded experiences — it’s becoming a home for auteur cinema, too. Quentin Tarantino has made an unlikely appearance within Epic Games‘ virtual sandbox, where he has premiered a “lost chapter” of his revered Kill Bill franchise.
The short — titled The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge — was initially written into Kill Bill: Volume 1, but it was ultimately left on the cutting room floor. Though Tarantino himself admitted that “maybe the ship had sailed” on that particular chapter of his swordplay saga, a meeting with Epic Games changed his thinking. “They asked if I had something in the eight to twelve minute range that could be good for our purposes and make sure your iconic characters are wrapped up inside this,” Tarantino said.
As a result of those conversations, Yuki’s Revenge premiered within Fortnite on November 30. To celebrate the occasion, Epic Games debuted an on-theme outfit that lets players dress up like The Bride, Uma Thurman’s Kill Bill heroine.
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
Quentin Tarantino may seem like an unusual partner for Fortnite (even if he included Battle Royale on his list of the best movies of the 21st century), but he’s not the first filmmaker to dive into the world of metaverse-style experiences. James Cameron took that plunge when he teamed up with Meta to develop cinematic experiences for Quest headsets.
Partnerships between digital platforms and Hollywood legends were harder to pull off a decade ago, back when a deal between director Ridley Scott and multi-channel network Machinima failed to materialize. In the 2020s, however, virtual spaces like Fortnite and Roblox are important marketing vehicles for Hollywood’s floundering mainstream. Lionsgate, the distributor of the Kill Bill movies, turned to Roblox to promote Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Tarantino’s decision to get on board with Fortnite will help the battle royale game legitimize itself as an artistic medium. If the promotional event helps Lionsgate score a win with its upcoming theatrical rerelease of the Kill Bill saga, we could see many more classic films reinterpreted as pixelated spectacles.
