Viennese "Basterd" the toast of Hollywood

Although reviewers stopped short of declaring Tarantino's latest film, Inglourious Basterds, his greatest work, there was one issue that they were unanimous on: the brilliance of Viennese actor Christoph Waltz.

Since scooping the Best Actor Award at Cannes this year, Mr Waltz has enjoyed nothing but adulation. And the success has been sweet - the 53-year-old actor was little known outside his native Austria until Tarantino's hit.

"I wouldn't say I resigned myself to mediocrity," he told Reuters. "Not at all, but I started to accept that there might be an ideal you strive for (and) never realize."

But now the tables have turned. The Austrian actor is guest of honour at all the top Hollywood bashes, and he's already snapped up his next role in a second Hollywood feature, The Green Hornet. The phone never stops ringing.

Wary of being type-cast, Waltz has declared that he won't be playing Nazis again. Nevertheless, his next roll is indeed a villain. Although he takes a somewhat wry view of all the Hollywood razzmatazz, he notes that all the greatest directors end up in Hollywood, and he dreams of working with film-makers such as Scorsese and Burton. Whether that ever happens, we'll have to see, but for the moment the Viennese actor is riding high.