Quentin Tarantino’s prophetic duck hunting trip with Steven Spielberg
Two of the biggest names in cinema are undoubtedly Quentin Tarantino and Steven Spielberg, but the best filmmakers often compete with one another. After all, it is their works that compete with one another at several award ceremonies throughout a given year.
Howard Stern once asked Tarantino if he was friends with Spielberg. In response, Tarantino explained a story in which he went hunting with the legendary director. Joining them was Bob Zemeckis, the director of Forrest Gump and John Milius, screenwriter for several films, including Dirty Harry and Apocalypse Now.
Tarantino said, “I went duck hunting with him once. I guess it was 1995 because the Oscars were coming up. Steven called me up and goes, ‘Hey, Quentin, how would you like to go duck hunting with me and Bob Zemeckis and John Milius?’ I’m like, ‘Fuck yeah, I would love to do that'”.
He added, “I mean, I was just the new kid in town, and they were all really impressed with Pulp Fiction. But one of the things that Steven wanted to do was, ‘Look, you and Bob Zemeckis are going to be in competition the whole rest of this year. So before that competition starts, maybe it would be nice that we all go off and do something together.'”
In 1995, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction was up for a number of awards at that year’s Academy Awards ceremony. He felt fierce competition from Bob Zemeckis, who had cast Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and touched the hearts of its audiences worldwide.
Tarantino then explained that Spielberg had predictions about who would win what at the Academy Awards in 1995 and he turned out to be incredibly prophetic in his predictions. He said, “So we just kind of keep in mind that we’re all artists, and we’re all friendly. And then Spielberg said something that night – he’s like, ‘So here’s what’s going to happen at the Oscars. I don’t think you’re going to win the Oscar. I think it’s going to be Bob who’s going to win ‘Best Picture’, and I think it’s going to be Bob who’s going to win ‘Best Director’. In fact, I’m pretty sure of it'”.
However, Tarantino needn’t have felt too downtrodden about Spielberg’s predictions as he felt Tarantino would still take a prize home from the ceremony. He added, “[Spielberg said], ‘But, I do think you will win ‘Best Original Screenplay’. And then he stopped and then turned around and looked at me and goes, ‘Second movie, little gold man, not too bad,’ and started walking [off]”.
Forrest Gump indeed won ‘Best Picture’ while Tarantino also won ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for Pulp Fiction, proving either Spielberg’s clairvoyance or insider knowledge.
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