Quentin Tarantino has made a career out of subverting the conventions of the genre movies he loves, from heist flicks to blaxploitation movies to Japanese samurai pictures. Now, he's ready to tackle his next Hollywood cliche: the World War II action caper. The Dirty Dozen, Guns of Navarone, The Great Escape ... Inglorious Bastards?

After working on the script for almost ten years, Tarantino released a draft to studios early in July, with plans to premiere at Cannes next May, and the script (PDF) quickly leaked online. The title is borrowed from Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's 1977 knockoff of The Dirty Dozen. Tarantino's version is set mostly in Nazi-occupied France, where the Bastards, a Jewish-American guerilla team, are dropped behind enemy lines with a single mission: to kill as many Nazis as possible. A subplot involving a young Jewish girl who escapes the SS and become a projectionist connects up with the Bastards when Goebbels plans to unveil his latest piece of propaganda at her Paris movie theater.

There are still people who think the leaked script might be a fake, and it does read like a parody of a war movie, although that may be the point. But would Tarantino really misspell his own title "INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS" on the cover page he sent to studios? Does he really think it's called the congregational medal of honor? Would he really write things like "True that" and "You bet your sweet ass that got her attention" as stage directions?

The script has its moments, but it certainly doesn't feel like a Tarantino film. There's not much of the great banter we expect, and the story is linear and a bit predictable; there are none of the flashes of inspiration that make you think of Tarantino's best work. But it is a working script, so maybe this is just a rough draft of the real thing. And think about it, wouldn't the Gimp have looked like a joke on paper, as well as a magic, dream Elvis who gives advice, or Uma Thurman drawing a square in the air?

(For the record, plenty of people disagree with me; at Ain't It Cool News, Harry Knowles said, "This film will be the best movie that Quentin Tarantino has made yet," and Latino Review called it "the most enjoyable read of the year for me so far ... a masterpiece.")

Tarantino recently flew to France to pitch the role of Aldo the Apache to Brad Pitt, and told Vanity Fair he was interested in Leonardo DiCaprio for Hans "The Jew Hunter" Landa, the chief villain. But he's famous for reviving has-been careers. May we suggest at least a small part for Jamie Farr?

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