Sundance Next Fest kicked off in Los Angeles with Tarantino taking the stage alongside 'Reservoir Dogs' actors Tim Roth and Michael Madsen ahead of anniversary screening.


Midway through an acceptance speech on Thursday night, Quentin Tarantino paused to give a shout out to the city outside.
"I am a L.A. boy," he told the capacity crowd inside downtown's The Theatre at Ace Hotel where the filmmaker was accepting a Vanguard Leadership Award presented by Acura before a 25th anniversary screening of his debut, Reservoir Dogs. "I'm from here; I was born in Tennessee but I moved here (when I was 2 years old) so give me a fucking break. I grew up in Los Angeles County. I went to movie theaters all over L.A. County and the surrounding counties."
And he clearly borrowed from those surroundings in making the 1992 cult classic. "The movie is a Los Angeles movie. There are New York crime films, this is a Los Angeles crime film," he explained, after inviting two Reservoir Dogs stars up on stage with him, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen. He also tipped his hat to other films in that lineage, Ulu Grosbard's Straight Time and Michael Mann's Thief. "I'm proud to have Reservoir Dogs be amongst those L.A. crime movies."
Tarantino, who accepted his award from Sundance's Michelle Satter with whom he worked on developing it way back in the day, also felt something for several notables in the audience, name checking a few people who helped get Reservoir Dogs to the screen.Those included producers Richard N. Gladstein, Monte Hellman, and Ronna B. Wallace. Other industry standouts listening to his speech included Sundance executives Keri Putnam, John Cooper and Trevor Groth, frequent Tarantino collaborator Walton Goggins, Fred Raskin, Robert Forster, Zoë Bell, Peter Bogdanovich, and Next Fest filmmakers Justin Chon (Gook), Michelle Morgan (L.A. Times), and Dan Sickles (Dina).

Michael Madsen and Walton Goggins catch up prior to the screening of 'Reservoir Dogs' as part of Sundance Next Fest After Dark on Aug. 10, 2017. (Photo by Ryan Kobane)


Speaking of L.A. stories, THR reported that Tarantino is in the early stages of shopping his next film, a take on the Manson Family murders. Not much is known about the project and clearly Tarantino clearly wants to keep it that way. After arriving to the red carpet on Thursday night, Tarantino posed for photographs and made his way down the carpet to do an interview with the house crew for Next Fest. But when a nearby reporter asked him about the Manson project, Tarantino's rep cut the interview off and pulled him from the carpet.
Meanwhile down the line, THR asked Roth, Madsen and Goggins for their take on Tarantino tackling one of the city's most notorious crime stories and all of the actors declined to speak on it.
Chatter came more easily at the after party to close out the first big night of the weekend festival, continuing through Aug. 13. For more information on the lineup of movies and music, click here.

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The marquee outside the Theatre at Ace Hotel for Sundance Next Fest After Dark presented by Acura on Aug. 10, 2017. (Photo by Ryan Kobane)

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Michelle Satter, founding director of the Sundance Institute feature film program, presents Quentin Tarantino with his Vanguard Leadership prize as part of Sundance Next Fest After Dark on Aug. 10, 2017. (Photo by Ryan Kobane)

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View inside Theatre at Ace Hotel at Sundance Next Fest After Dark on Aug. 10, 2017. (Photo by Nick Sammons)

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