“Casino Royale”
Back before Americans knew the name Daniel Craig, Tarantino (as he was reminding all and sundry a few years back) had the idea to go back and do a “small-scale, plot-driven” take on the only Ian Fleming novel that hadn’t been properly adapted into a James Bond feature — “Casino Royale.” Even in the 1990s, there was loose talk about Tarantino taking it on, but it seemed to get serious as he was finishing up “Kill Bill Vol. 2,” with the director going as far as to meet Pierce Brosnan (who he wanted to keep in the role), and talking it up with Jay Leno on late night TV. But Brosnan officially departed the role in 2005, and Tarantino declared his interest dead, later saying that the producers were “‘afraid [Tarantino was] going to make it too good and f**k the rest of the series.’ ” He also basically has said that the producers stole his idea to retell, “Casino Royale.” Suffice to say there was some bad blood here, and his chance at Bond has probably come and gone, though it’s interesting to note that after years of hiring journeymen filmmakers, Eon hired a bigger name in Sam Mendes, and were rewarded with a film that made twice what any previous Bond had done.
“The Man From U.N.C.L.E”
A feature adaptation of the James Bond-ish ‘60s spy series starring Robert Vaughn was one of a few blockbuster-style projects Tarantino was offered in his three years of downtime following the success of ‘Pulp.’ While he eventually turned them all down, it sounds like he may have briefly entertained the idea of making “U.N.C.L.E.,” later saying he thought of casting George Clooney in the lead role of Napoleon Solo and himself as Ilya Kuryakin. Instead, he and Clooney teamed up for “From Dusk Til Dawn” and Tarantino made “Jackie Brown” his next project. Given the facility he showed for accents he showed in ‘Django,’ it’s probably best that Tarantino didn’t end up starring in the film, but clearly someone else was listening: Steven Soderbergh cast Clooney as Solo in his own version over a decade later, but the film fell apart. Guy Ritchie and Tom Cruise may yet bring it to the screen, though. While this one’s definitely off the list, clearly the espionage genre is something that interests Tarantino, and he may yet get to it one day.
“Modesty Blaise”
Ever since John Travolta was seen reading “Modesty Blaise” on the toilet in “Pulp Fiction,” Tarantino’s name has been linked to a possible adaptation of the comic strip/adventure novel character starring an exceptional young woman with many talents and a criminal past. But there’s never quite been anything solid behind it, though Neil Gaiman at one point was commissioned to write a treatment for the project based on the “I, Lucifer” novel — whether this was at the behest of QT or not is unclear. Still Harvey Weinstein was serious enough about the idea that, when Miramax were about to lose the rights, he commissoined a quickie adaptation, shot in less than three weeks, which Tarantino lent his name to: 2004’s “Quentin Tarantino Presents: My Name is Modesty.”Untitled Disaster Movie
While doing press for “Kill Bill, Vol. 1” Tarantino discussed tackling yet another ’70s genre — the disaster picture. Taking a cue from the famous (or infamous) star-studded likes of “The Towering Inferno,” “The Poseidon Adventure” and of course the “Airport” series, Tarantino remarked that he would like to get as many of the QT players as possible into a disaster movie of his own which he jokingly dubbed “Airport 2005.” The names mentioned were ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Jackie Brown’-centric: “(John) Travolta could be the pilot, Pam Grier the stewardess, Robert Forster, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Harvey Keitel, Bridget Fonda.” Though it sounded like a joke at the time and Tarantino admitted as much, he also remarked that he could see it happening and had discussed it with Samuel L. Jackson — who may have cannibalized the idea for “Snakes On a Plane.” It’s probably not happening ever, but protege Eli Roth has done something not too different, starring and producing in earthquake movie “Aftershock.” A Softcore Porn Movie Though never spoken about by Tarantino himself, a rumored remake of Russ Meyer‘s 1965 trash cinema classic
“Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” briefly became the talk of all the gossip sites way, way back in the day for one reason: Britney Spears was supposedly slated to star. Though both Spears and Tarantino’s camps denied her involvement and QT never confirmed any plans to remake the film, he did say back in 2003 that he was interested in making a sexploitation film. The director noted that the main reason his films don’t have sex is because he’s too gentlemanly to ask the young lasses to disrobe: “[I]f I were to write a real sex film, the actresses would have to be down with it. Like those great trampy actresses from Italy and Germany in the ’70s who were just like, ‘Roll the camera, motherfucker, here we go.’ That’d be so great.” Tarantino even mentioned a possible premise to the Daily Telegraph in 2007, telling the paper “I came up with the idea of like a cool sex movie that would take place in Stockholm, with a couple of Americans visiting a couple of Swedish friends. Kind of like the girls in ‘Death Proof,’ just going out drinking, having a good time, hooking up.” But he did say that there was something of a down side to the idea. “If I actually do an erotic movie, I’m going to have to reveal what I find sexy, what turns me on. And when it comes to sex in movies, it’s got to be kind of kinky, because that’s what’s cinematic, that’s what’s fun. Everything else is just – shagging. But my problem wouldn’t be revealing myself. My problem would be doing a press tour talking about me revealing myself. And how creepy that would be, how creepy the questions would be.” Still, with Lars Von Trier releasing “The Nymphomaniac” later in the year, maybe Tarantino will be inspired to let his freak flag fly.
“Westworld”/”Green Lantern”
Over the years, producers have come to learn that Tarantino tends to originate his own work, and if you send him scripts, there’s a good chance they won’t cross his desk or raise his interest. But the filmmakers says that after “Death Proof” tanked, the offers became more prevalent, naming a couple of projects in particular to the Daily Telegraph in 2007. “Now I’ve had a flop, all of a sudden this Tom Cruise script comes in, [a remake of] ‘Westworld‘ comes in, all these remakes: ‘We’ll have Quentin for this, because he’s for sale now. He’s on the ropes!'” the director said. There’s no word on what the Cruise film could have been (“The Tourist,” “The Hardy Men” and “The Matarese Circle” were all wooing the actor around this time), but whatever it was, he didn’t read it, but did take a look at the long-gestating “Westworld” script, produced by Joel Silver, and long thought of as a vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger, because he’d heard that Billy Ray‘s take was good. Tarantino admits he considered it for a moment, but couldn’t bring himself to commit, saying “Yes, I could think about it for a second. But could I spend every day for the next year doing it? No way! No way. And I know that about myself. I need to start with the blank page.” Another that seemed to have surfaced around this time was “Green Lantern,” which Tarantino says the studio got “in touch with me in the very, early, early, early stages of,” but again, he wasn’t interested.
“Luke Cage”
Something from the very start of Tarantino’s career, but which only came to light recently, was the possibility of the director being ahead of the curve, and directing a movie about a Marvel superhero, long before “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” made the genre one of cinema’s biggest box-office draws. The director told MTV recently that “After ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ I had considered doing a ‘Luke Cage: Hero For Hire‘ movie.” For the uninitiated, Cage (also known as “Power Man“) was one of Marvel’s first African-American heros, released from prison in exchange for undergoing an experiemental procedure that gave him skin like steel and super-strength. He goes on to become a “hero for hire,” teaming up more often than not with martial arts hero Iron Fist. Long before Marvel formed their own studio, the rights to their characters were scattered, but Tarantino says he did have meetings with both the producer who owned the rights at the time, and even had a meeting with an actor. “Ed Pressman [producer of ‘The Crow,’ among others] owned it at that time and we talked about it. And I talked with Larry Fishburne about being Luke Cage and he really liked that idea.” However, Tarantino got swept up in “Pulp Fiction” instead, and never looked back, now saying, “My kinda feeling is if I wanted to do something like that, I’d create a super hero myself.”
And more: QT also told David Frost in 2009 that he hoped he’d one day make a children’s film, and a Howard Hawks-style screwball romantic comedy, but neither seem to be particularly pressing right now. There’s also a few debunked projects that have cropped up over the years. There were rumors that the filmmaker was mulling the idea of making a “Friday the 13th” movie, dubbed “The Ultimate Jason Voorhees Movie,” but while Tarantino admitted that he met with the studio, he called the idea that it was happening “a complete lie.” There were also erroneous reports he was making a Jimi Hendrix biopic, and a medieval movie that would have starred Helen Mirren. In 2010, there were also reports that he was circling a new version of “The Shadow” at 20th Century Fox, but they were swiftly denied. The source was a good one, but it seems like they might have jumped the gun. Tarantino may have been offered the gig, but seemed to have no intention of doing it. – with Stephen Belden