Tarantino found the inspiration for Kill Bill over a cocktail

Inspiration struck while they were drinking an after-work cocktail during the filming of Pulp Fiction, Thurman told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I told him I had this idea about a character - she's an assassin - and we went back and forth," Thurman said.

"And Quentin goes, 'Yes! and the guy at the head of it all, his name is Bill! He's a pimp for assassins! He's the bad guy and the movie's called 'Kill Bill!'"

Tarantino wrote the opening scene on the spot, but set aside the project until 2000 when he met Thurman at an Oscars party in Hollywood.

"I just wrote and re-wrote for a whole year," Tarantino told the newspaper.

Ambitious

Kill Bill became the director's most ambitious project to date - a three-hour tale of an elite assassin, played by Thurman, who is on a mission of revenge against her former employer, Bill.

Tarantino wrote Kill Bill specially for star Uma Thurman

US critics have hailed the fillm, Tarantino's first since 1997's Jackie Brown, as a masterpiece. But it has been criticised for its violence.

Tarantino has defended the project, saying it is a "black comedy" and obviously set in "fantasy land".

"This is definitely not taking place on planet Earth," he said.

"I have done violence before but never in such an outrageous way. Not that I have any problem with violence if it isn't outrageous."

Last summer, Tarantino agreed with distributor Miramax to split the film into two instalments.

Volume one opens in London on Thursday, with the rest of the UK following on 17 October.