Brad Pitt crashes his favorite motorcycle

TOKYO — Brad Pitt says he is in the market for a new motorcycle.

The actor, in Tokyo to promote his latest movie, "Inglourious Basterds," said he trashed his favorite bike recently while trying to escape overzealous photographers.

"I had a little mishap," he said. "No injuries, except my ego. I was trying to get away from some paparazzi and instead gave them a good story. It was my favorite bike, so that is really sad."

Pitt, a well-known motorcycle buff, was involved in a minor accident in Los Angeles last month after a paparazzo reportedly cut him off in traffic. He said that while he is in Tokyo he will be looking for a replacement.

"I will definitely be looking at motorcycles," he said. "You've got some of the best builders right here."

"Inglourious Basterds," directed by Quentin Tarantino, premiered in Tokyo on Wednesday. As a promotion gimmick, Japanese movie viewers will be given a money-back offer if they are bored after watching the first 60 minutes of the revisionist World War II swashbuckler.

Pitt said he felt lucky to be chosen as the movie's leading man — Tarantino had initially planned to cast himself in that part.

"We had heard about this script for about eight years before it came my way, so it had taken on a mythical dimension," he said. "I was doubly flattered because Quentin originally wrote the part for himself."

"Inglourious Basterds" follows a band of Jewish American soldiers, led by Tennessean Lt. Aldo Raine (Pitt), who hunt Nazis with the goal of not just killing them but scalping them and sometimes carving swastikas into their foreheads.

"What made me want to make the film is simply that I like war movies," said Tarantino, who joined Pitt and other cast members at a news conference. "The initial idea sometimes is really as simple as wanting to make a war movie or a car chase movie. The rest goes from there."