CSI STARS AND PRODUCERS TALK ABOUT THE EXPLOSIVE TWO-HOUR SEASON FINALE OF “CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION,” AND ABOUT WORKING WITH DIRECTOR QUENTIN TARANTINO
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Tarantino Discusses Directing the Finale
“Grave Danger,” the two hour season finale of CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION, will be broadcast Thursday, May 19 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. In the episode, the CSIs are in a desperate race against time to save a member of their team who has been kidnapped and buried alive.
Without revealing too much about the storyline in order to keep it a surprise for viewers, the series’ cast members and producers, as well as Quentin Tarantino, who directed and developed the story for the season finale, have this to say about this not-to-be-missed season finale:
“It’s a thriller that involves us [the team] in the crime that’s committed against one of our own, and we have to rally against the clock to save a life.” – William Petersen (Gil Grissom) on the season finale storyline
“There’s just too much good stuff in there to try and slam it into 44 minutes with commercials.” – William Petersen (Gil Grissom) on making the season finale a two-hour episode
“I think his [Tarantino’s] filmmaking style lends itself really well to CSI’s in that, obviously, there’s an enormous amount of close-ups, and it’s a very visual show.” – Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) on Tarantino directing the season finale
“I think that watching him work and seeing the shots that he’s calling and the shots that he’s choosing and what he’s doing, I know that what we can expect is something very Tarantino-esque, in the way that he’s really attentive to detail and he makes you sit there and stay glued to your seat during his films, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen in our show.” – Gary Dourdan (Warrick Brown) on what viewers can expect from the season finale
“I think that over the years, if any fan has felt like they’ve gotten to know the characters, now they’re really gonna get to know them even better… We’re gonna take the next step in our relationship with our audience.” – George Eads (Nick Stokes) on what fans can expect from the season finale
“…I was really surprised at how emotional it [the episode] was. I mean, you read it, and it’s intense, and it’s action oriented and it’s exciting… There were a couple of times I just had to sort of like not cry, and I didn’t ever imagine that I would get like that…” – Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle) on the season finale script
“Quentin’s put his kind of musical stamp on the episode by picking a really good, kind of poppy, old classic hit by The Turtles… That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from him, a really good soundtrack, and something really catchy and that’ll kind of haunt you, and this is definitely one of those songs.” – Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders) on the season finale music
“Quentin has used his filmic vocabulary to authenticate the Vegas environment and keeps the show provocative with characters that are iconoclastic Vegas personas… grungy couriers, old west lawyers, showbiz legends… His deft balancing of tangential reality with the gravity of the main story, in real time, is the essence of his style. – Paul Guilfoyle (Captain Jim Brass) on Tarantino’s style in the season finale
“There’s a time element to this episode, and if you watch the first 10 seconds, you’re going to be with us 'til the end of it, because someone that you care about is in grave danger.” – Robert David Hall (Dr. Robbins) on the season finale suspense
“They can expect the unexpected, they can expect great visuals. It’s a thriller. Your heart will stop… Every time you think you’re zigging, you’re zagging in a Quentin Tarantino finale.” – Carol Mendelsohn (Executive Producer, Writer) on what viewers can expect from the season finale
“One of our own is in trouble… I think the most important thing is you really get a chance to learn a little bit about all of our characters… It’s the “Quentin-sential” ticking clock, if you will, and it really shows the family of our CSI team get together for one common cause.” – Anthony Zuiker (Creator, Executive Producer, Writer) on the CSI team coming together in the season finale
“This is a thriller, it’s a flat out thriller. A CSI is grabbed up from a crime scene and our people have to pull him out, and it’s tense, and it’s taut and it really is a CSI action movie.” – Naren Shankar (Executive Producer, Writer) on how the season finale is like a movie.
“I’m a big fan of the show, and so like I know like the backstory of all the characters and everything… it’s great to meet them and work with them and I know their characters really, really well, and I know these sets from watching the show and stuff, so I feel strangely comfortable even though I haven’t been here before.” – Quentin Tarantino (Director) on directing the season finale of a show of which he’s a big fan
“…something I really like about this episode is… it’s very story-oriented. It plays sort of, you know, not to be too grandiose, but it plays like a movie.” – Quentin Tarantino (Director) on his love for the type of episodic storytelling that is being used in the season finale of CSI
wait a second…Quentin directed a 2-hour long piece of work with the CSI finale? That’s like…almost the follow up to Kill Bill then…i mean 2 hours is like a movie.
[quote=“Crazy_Hattori”]
wait a second…Quentin directed a 2-hour long piece of work with the CSI finale? That’s like…almost the follow up to Kill Bill then…i mean 2 hours is like a movie.
[/quote]
yeah but since its not his project, he didnt have to do as much work as it would have been had it been his project (preparation, preproduction, location scouting, casting, etc)
Cast & Crew comment
CSI cast and crew comment on the season 5 finale (Part 2)
Wednesday, 27th April 2005
"Quentin’s put his kind of musical stamp on the episode by picking a really good, kind of poppy, old classic hit by The Turtles… That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from him, a really good soundtrack, and something really catchy and that’ll kind of haunt you, and this is definitely one of those songs." – Eric Szmanda (Greg Sanders) on the season finale music.
"Quentin has used his filmic vocabulary to authenticate the Vegas environment and keeps the show provocative with characters that are iconoclastic Vegas personas… grungy couriers, old west lawyers, showbiz legends… His deft balancing of tangential reality with the gravity of the main story, in real time, is the essence of his style. – Paul Guilfoyle (Captain Jim Brass) on Tarantino’s style in the season finale.
“There’s a time element to this episode, and if you watch the first 10 seconds, you’re going to be with us 'til the end of it, because someone that you care about is in grave danger.” – Robert David Hall (Dr. Robbins) on the season finale suspense.
“They can expect the unexpected, they can expect great visuals. It’s a thriller. Your heart will stop… Every time you think you’re zigging, you’re zagging in a Quentin Tarantino finale.” – Carol Mendelsohn (Executive Producer, Writer) on what viewers can expect from the season finale.
“One of our own is in trouble… I think the most important thing is you really get a chance to learn a little bit about all of our characters… It’s the “Quentin-sential” ticking clock, if you will, and it really shows the family of our CSI team get together for one common cause.” – Anthony Zuiker (Creator, Executive Producer, Writer) on the CSI team coming together in the season finale.
“This is a thriller, it’s a flat out thriller. A CSI is grabbed up from a crime scene and our people have to pull him out, and it’s tense, and it’s taut and it really is a CSI action movie.” – Naren Shankar (Executive Producer, Writer) on how the season finale is like a movie.
“I’m a big fan of the show, and so like I know like the backstory of all the characters and everything… it’s great to meet them and work with them and I know their characters really, really well, and I know these sets from watching the show and stuff, so I feel strangely comfortable even though I haven’t been here before.” – Quentin Tarantino (Director) on directing the season finale of a show of which he’s a big fan.
“…something I really like about this episode is… it’s very story-oriented. It plays sort of, you know, not to be too grandiose, but it plays like a movie.” – Quentin Tarantino (Director) on his love for the type of episodic storytelling that is being used in the season finale of CSI.
QT will be on The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday May 11th. Priscilla Presley will also be on that show. Tune in. He’ll most likely mention something about Inglorious Bastards.
[quote=“FilmGuy”]
QT will be on The Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday May 11th. Priscilla Presley will also be on that show. Tune in. He’ll most likely mention something about Inglorious Bastards.
[/quote]
Add that here…
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While I have yet to dislike anything I’ve seen QT do, I’m not really sure about the CSI finale this Thursday. I’ve only watched the show a couple of times but I was sincerely unimpressed. The whole show seems to eschew any real character work for whatever the case to solve is, and while that works sometimes I’m not entirely sure that it will jibe with Quentin’s style. At best QT will bring life into what is at heart a stale show, and at worst he’ll piss off CSI’s current fanbase and dismay the casual Tarantino geeks by trying to dress up a bunch of shit with his own style. Also, the “trapped in a coffin” premise would be cool but he already pulled it off as well as I can imagine it in Kill Bill 2. Still, I’m really curious as to how he’s going to make it work, and a 2 hour episode of a tv show directed by Quentin is still a damned exciting prospect.
By the way, I didn’t know if anyone here is anal about new forum members starting threads, I know a lot of boards I’ve been on are like that & I don’t really want to ruffle any feathers. I’m just a die-hard Tarantino geek who wants to talk about the genius of his films with some real fans, rather than trying to impart his greatness on my moron roomate who’d rather watch Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. Looking forward to some fascinating discourse.
Tarantino to Direct ‘CSI’ Season Finale
Yahoo News
LOS ANGELES - Unlike criminal investigator Nick Stokes, who’s buried alive in the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” season finale, Quentin Tarantino didn’t feel at all trapped by working within the confines of network television.
“It wasn’t a challenge in that regard because … I like the show,” says Tarantino, who conceived and directed the episode. "I just wanted to do my episode of it. So the format was all the stuff I embrace. I just wanted it to be bigger, to feel in someway like a `CSI’ movie."
TV’s top-rated program concludes its fifth season Thursday (8 p.m. Eastern) with Tarantino’s two-hour “Grave Danger,” subtitled Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 in homage to his most recent feature project, “Kill Bill,” released in two parts.
Tarantino, who rose to auteur prominence with 1994’s audacious “Pulp Fiction,” has seen every episode of “CSI” â€â€
Does anybody know when this will be shown in England?
Sometime in July 
shy loch
I always thought Scottish lakes to be quite confident.
[quote=“RazorCharlie”]
impart his greatness on my moron roomate who’d rather watch Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle.[/quote]
One of Quentin’s favourite films of last year. Called ‘Harold & Kumar Get The Munchies’ in Britain because we don’t get White Castle.
its the man eating monsters that lurk within that can by shy at times
A ‘Grave’ match: Tarantino and ‘CSI’
‘Kill Bill’ director in charge of season-ending episode
Thursday, May 19, 2005 Posted: 12:47 PM EDT (1647 GMT)
Editor’s note: The following Associated Press story reveals details about Thursday night’s finale of “CSI.” As always, caveat lector.
Quentin Tarantino talks with William Petersen on the set of "CSI."
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) – Unlike criminal investigator Nick Stokes, who’s buried alive in the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” season finale, Quentin Tarantino didn’t feel at all trapped by working within the confines of network television.
“It wasn’t a challenge in that regard because … I like the show,” says Tarantino, who conceived and directed the episode. "I just wanted to do my episode of it. So the format was all the stuff I embrace. I just wanted it to be bigger, to feel in someway like a ‘CSI’ movie."
TV’s top-rated program concludes its fifth season Thursday (8 p.m. Eastern) with Tarantino’s two-hour “Grave Danger,” subtitled Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 in homage to his most recent feature project, “Kill Bill,” released in two parts.
Tarantino, who rose to auteur prominence with 1994’s audacious “Pulp Fiction,” has seen every episode of “CSI” – many watched while shooting “Kill Bill” in Beijing, where he says the series played on “what was called the Adrenaline Channel” at 6 p.m. on Sunday – his day off.
Like much of the “CSI” audience, he’s “fascinated by the whole forensic thing.” And head criminologist Gil Grissom (William Petersen) is his favorite TV character – "the best detective to come along since Columbo."
Tarantino’s unabashed admiration for the series led to his doing this season’s last show.
“Word spread like wildfire that Quentin Tarantino was watching and we all took such pride in that, and eventually we started to think if he’s such a big fan, why don’t we ask him to write and direct a show,” says executive producer/writer Carol Mendelsohn.
Petersen called the filmmaker, who immediately accepted. Working with the show’s writing team, Tarantino came up with a script that originally was supposed to be one hour. But as filming started, it became clear there was enough material to fill two.
George Eads, who plays Stokes, says Tarantino’s presence on the set energized cast and crew alike.
“So when Quentin came on that set, everybody had a little pep in their step, excited to be at work,” he recalls. “They were laughing and smiling. They loved being there and after five years, it was like the adrenaline shot that was in ‘Pulp Fiction’ that the girl got in the chest. That was exactly what our set needed.”
'Pure joy’
Among the guests in the episode are Frank Gorshin (center) – in his last role – and Tony Curtis.
Mendelsohn describes Tarantino’s mood while shooting as “pure joy. There’s nothing he would rather be doing … and when you see him bring such wide-eyed enthusiasm and energy and love for his job, you just say 'I know why I do this!”‘
Veteran character actor John Saxon, picked by Tarantino to guest-star as the criminal mastermind in the finale, also was taken with the director’s spirit.
“He’s so overwhelming enthusiastic. I think it really is one of his great strengths,” Saxon says.
Tarantino says he chose Saxon because his favorite episodes of “CSI” have Grissom “matching wits with another mastermind … I needed a big sequence in the middle with him and Grissom facing each other like (Robert) DeNiro and (Al) Pacino in the middle of ‘Heat.’ I needed an actor who could really hold his own against Billy (Petersen) in that kind of situation and John Saxon is the only actor to ever steal a movie from Marlon Brando,” a reference to the 1966 Western "The Appaloosa."
Any one of the criminal investigation team could have been chosen to be the buried-alive victim, but Mendelsohn gave the job to Eads because "I didn’t think anyone had more raw emotion inside of them at this point than George. I felt that he had something that needed to come out."
Tarantino couldn’t agree more.
“It was just kind of perfect for this character, where he falls in the surrogate family,” the director says. "He’s kind of the bastard stepchild. Grissom has never really given it to him 100 percent – they did an episode at one point about that – so it was perfect to see him now as the son who has never quite got the attention, but now they maybe are going to lose him and they realize how valuable he is."
Tarantino, who guest-directed a scene for the lurid feature “Sin City,” says he had few problems staying within the bounds of CBS’ censors. “I wasn’t trying to have them (the cast) cuss,” he laughs, "and the show’s pretty far out there anyway."
But as graphic as regular “CSI” episodes can be, Tarantino – who directed an episode of NBC’s “ER” in 1995 – says he created one scene “so gory I think we are going to have to show it in black and white. But it’s a hallucination sequence, so it will work kind of well like that.”
Tarantino brings intensity to 'CSI’
By BILL BRIOUX - Toronto Sun
How does a big shot like Quentin Tarantino wind up directing tonight’s two-hour season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CTV, CBS, 8 p.m.)?
Simple. He asks.
The Kill Bill auteur kept running into the cast and crew at award shows. Said he was a big fan.
One week last January he happened to be in Vegas when a former criminologist by the name of Larry Mitchell – a consultant on the series – bumped into him at a food court and invited him out to the set.
Mitchell had no idea who Tarantino was.
Series lead William Petersen (Gil Grissom) knew the dude. So did creator Anthony Zuiker. When Tarantino mentioned he had a little idea for the show, well, before you could say “royale with cheese,” the deal was done.
The result is a chilling, creepy, disturbing, intense, funny, dark, sick, twisted, perfect episode of TV’s No. 1 drama. (SPOILER ALERT – some details from tonight’s show follow).
Grave Danger (nice title) begins at a too-quiet crime scene. Suddenly, one of Grissom’s team is abducted, sedated and buried alive in a Plexiglas coffin (if you’ve caught any of the promo clips this week you probably already know who it is. Suffice to say one of the two actors who nearly got fired a year back in a salary dispute earns their paycheque tonight.)
The abductor has evidently seen several Tarantino movies. He leaves classic yet obscure '60s music behind as a clue. He speaks in short, punchy, smart-alecky sentences. He isn’t afraid to spill his guts, all over the screen.
He also leaves a computer link that leads to a coffin-cam website transmission of the victim’s plight. Grissom and crew stand in horror as they helplessly watch their colleague consumed by fear inside the see-through crypt. There’s a time limit before the air cuts out. There’s a loaded gun and a tape recorder in the coffin. And, as the computer link keeps telling the forensic cop crew, “YOU CAN ONLY WATCH.”
The intensity of the situation was evidently too much for Frank Gorshin. The former Batman villain, who died yesterday at 72, has a juicy cameo about halfway through tonight’s finale. (See story below). He’s in a Vegas lounge reminiscing with Tony Curtis, barely recognizable under 14 pounds of fake hair.
“I’m telling you, you couldn’t beat this town in the '70s,” he says in a rare line of dialogue actually in the original script.
Better quips were evidently ad-libbed. “Me, dress up in drag?” Curtis says at one point to Gorshin. “Who do you think you’re talking to – Jack Lemmon?” Gorshin even breaks into one last blast of Jack Nicholson and Ed Sullivan, God rest his riddle-me-this soul.
Other stars from the '70s, including former Bond girl Lois Chiles and black belt action star John Saxon, get face time in short but key roles.
Besides the usual Tarantino time shifting, there are plenty of twists, shocks and gross humour, including a chainsaw gag in the morgue. Scenes shift from sweet tributes to Roy Rogers to splattered doggie entrails. As usual, you’ll want to eat at least three hours before diving into this show.
Don’t let that put you off. Tarantino has crafted a brilliant study in crime, character and courage. TV at its best.
Tarantino lends his grave touchto ‘CSI’ finale
By Sid Smith
Chicago Tribune arts critic
Published May 19, 2005
Perhaps inspired by an itch to win back some of the attention heaped nowadays on “Desperate Housewives,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” (7 p.m. Thursday, WBBM-Ch. 2) ends the season with a real gripper, directed by no less a thrills master than cinema’s Quentin Tarantino.
The aptly titled two-hour episode, “Grave Danger,” isn’t just the case of a celebrity director drafted for a little publicity glitz. Tarantino heaps stylistic contribution after contribution onto the episode, a scary, addictive, ultra-harrowing yarn that at times marries “CSI” with "Fear Factor."
The saga begins typically “CSI” enough. Team member Nick Stokes (George Eads) arrives at a lonely crime scene, where a single police officer is guarding a steaming heap of disemboweled entrails. While the officer is overcome with nausea, distracted as he empties his own stomach, Stokes follows clues a block or so away and is quickly grabbed and kidnapped by a masked assailant.
Faster than you can say “Kill Bill,” Stokes slowly awakens from his ether-induced sleep to grasp that the assailant has buried him alive. He’s trapped in a tight plastic coffin, which, unknown to him, is equipped with a video camera. The distraught “CSI” team is sent a Web site address allowing them (and us) to watch poor Stokes as he struggles to breath and maintain his sanity. The kidnappers send a note demanding $1 million.
The setup allows the show’s sometimes robotic technicians to revel in emotion, displaying frayed tempers, crippling guilt and eruptions of Greek tragedian grief. Team member Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan), who flipped a coin with Stokes to determine who would get the assignment, gets so distraught he kicks at the floor, upsetting a box of evidence, as big a “CSI” no-no as they come.
Tarantino, a master of postmodern allusions and in-jokes, includes one delicious scene in which Tony Curtis and Frank Gorshin play themselves, hamming it up at a Vegas nightclub. Gorshin suggests Curtis wear a dress, to which, he retorts, “Who do you think I am? Jack Lemmon?” Mimic Gorshin throws in a few imitations, including the prerequisite Ed Sullivan: Pure Tarantino, ever the poet laureate of pop cultural pulp.
More substantively, “Grave Danger” boasts Tarantino’s signature with its Gothic, psychological frights. Burial alive is an archetypical image of classic horror, employed in everything from Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” to the 1988 Dutch movie classic "The Vanishing."
Tarantino, who also devised the story, fashions a slow, encroaching mood of crisis and disaster that all but overwhelms the team, allowing Chicago stage veteran William Petersen, as team leader, a couple of mesmerizing standout scenes. And the director doesn’t go easy in making the most of the burial scenario, letting Eads explode and disintegrate with claustrophobic terror, and that’s well before the makeshift coffin is invaded by an army of ravenous red ants.
To those who are going to watch it today, please a post some comments about it, ta.
Check out a few minutes of the finale…
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[quote=“Ify”]
To those who are going to watch it today, please a post some comments about it, ta.
[/quote]
Very good so far! You can tell it’s him directing by the use of music and the time-jump scenes. Ernie from Vol. 2 made a cameo as a lawyer.