Toronto publication Eye Weekly has marked the opening of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds with a special themed issue largely dedicated to the movie, including contributions from the director and the stars of the film.
The free weekly’s “The Basterd Issue” hit streets Thursday, with Tarantino’s scowling face featured on the cover.
Inside, Tarantino and Basterds stars such as Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent and Christopher Waltz weigh in on the movie while also contributing to the paper’s weekly arts and lifestyle sections. For example, Roth identifies his favourite “Basterd” film directors, Kruger dispenses fashion advice and several actors share their concept of a “Basterd” music playlist.
The articles were culled from interviews conducted by Eye Weekly staff.
While the publication has developed cross-promotional programs with the film’s Canadian distributor, Alliance Films–including a contest where a randomly selected winner will receive a $2,500 entertainment system and a Tarantino DVD collection–Edward Keenan, senior editor of Eye Weekly, said the themed issue was conceived and driven by editorial staff.
“Tarantino is, for our readers, almost a perfect representation of the kind of arts we’re interested in,” said Keenan. “The editorial department came up with the idea of a Basterd issue that, if we could get the involvement of Tarantino and the cast, would be very dependent on their thoughts and ideas for all sections of our paper. Once we took that to the publicity department at Alliance and they got Tarantino to approve it, our marketing team came up with a cross-promotional marketing campaign.
“We were eager to do it as an editorial initiative regardless of any marketing concern.”
