FACES ’93 : Some Names to Be Reckoned With in the New Year : FILM

Ahhh, a new year and so many unknowns: Will Jay, Dave and Johnny be genetically spliced to produce the Ultimate Talk Show Host? Will the Yuppie-in-Chief name Stevie Nicks to run the NEA? Who will Sinead pick as her tag team partner against Madonna and the Pope? Will the activist group AWOE (Actresses With One Eyebrow) demand that one of them be chosen to play Frida Kahlo? Oh well, frivolity aside, one thing is certain: You’ll be hearing these names and seeing these faces in the next 365.

Quentin Tarantino

Of all Hollywood’s ’92 success stories, none seems wilder than Tarantino’s. Consider: This ex-Manhattan Beach video store clerk, 29, writes a stylish heist thriller script, persuades Harvey Keitel to be its producer-star--and to back Tarantino as director--and comes up with a low-budget gem, “Reservoir Dogs,” a brilliant, hellishly comic ensemble study of an amoral gang falling apart. Next? Director Tony Scott just finished shooting his “True Romance” script, and Tarantino is finishing a screenplay called “Pulp Fiction,” which he’ll start shooting in late spring for Danny DeVito’s Jersey Films.