Quentin Tarantino has come a long way from his 1987 amateur film, My Best Friend’s Birthday. He’s a genius and an auteur and when he stops making movies, it will be a loss for us all.
Tag: Films
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Week in Review (December 18, 2015)
Sisters, the new film starring Tina Fey Pierznik and Amy Poehler, comes out today and I don’t know why.
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The Evolution of Quentin Tarantino Films
Jim Casey has a great YouTube page full of fascinating videos, but my favorite is this quick look at the way Quentin Tarantino’s films have evolved over his career, from his amateur film all the way to now. And it’s only four minutes.
In 1993, three eight year old boys, best friends, from West Memphis, Arkansas were found murdered and hogtied. Although there was very little evidence (and several other more plausible suspects), three teenagers were arrested, charged, and ultimately convicted of the murders, which the prosecution claimed occurred as part of Satanic rituals.
It is often said that so many things need to go right on a movie set that it’s amazing that any films survive long enough to make it to the theater. Also, many scripts and plans take years to develop with various directors and actors becoming attached to productions before dropping out of them and pursuing other avenues of work.
Here is a short list of just some my favorite what ifs in the film industry:
- What if Will Smith had not turned down the lead roles in The Matrix and Django Unchained?
- What if Marvel Studios had not let Jon Favreau cast Robert Downey Jr. as the lead in Iron Man?
- What if Quentin Tarantino had gotten his dream cast for Pulp Fiction?
- What would The Dark Knight Rises had been if Heath Ledger had lived?
- What if Jim Carrey and Steven Spielberg had made Meet the Parents (Carrey is the one that came up with the last name of “Focker”)?
- What if Jack Nicholson had not turned down the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather?
- What if Marlon Brandon had reprised his role as Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II?
- What if Francis Ford Coppola had not waited so long to make The Godfather Part III?
- What if Robert Duvall’s salary demand not have prevented him from starring in Godfather III?
- What if Paramount had made Godfather III starring John Travolta and directed by Sylvester Stallone?
- What if Robert De Niro hadn’t dropped out of the role of Frank Costello in The Departed?
- What if Tim Burton had made Superman Lives (with Nicholas Cage as Superman and possibly Jim Carrey as Brainiac)?
- What if the ending of I Am Legend not been changed?
- What if Molly Ringwald had not turned down the lead role in Ghost?
- What if Leonardo DiCaprio had not turned down the role of Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights?
- What if Forrest Gump had been made with any of the studio’s first three choices as the titular character – John Travolta, Bill Murray or Chevy Chase?
- What if Eric Stoltz had not been replaced by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future?
- What if Brad Pitt had played the lead in Memento?
- What if David Lynch had directed Return of the Jedi?
- What if George Lucas had not changed the ending of Return of the Jedi (originally titled Revenge of the Jedi)?
- What if Lucas had let others direct (and write) the prequels?
- What if Brandon Lee and River Phoenix had lived?
- What if Thomas Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company had not forced filmmakers to flee to Hollywood, California?
Christopher Pierznik is the author of eight books, all of which can be purchased in paperback and Kindle. His work has appeared on XXL, Cuepoint, Business Insider, The Cauldron, and many more. Subscribe to his monthly reading review newsletter or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
In the mid-to-late ’90s, Warner Brothers began development of a revival of Superman. Kevin Smith even wrote a script for it before Tim Burton became attached and brought in his own writers. He immediately cast Nicholas Cage as Clark Kent and there are rumors that Jim Carrey was in talks to portray Brainiac.
The project never took off for a variety of reasons, a major one being the fact that Batman & Robin was so awful that Warner Brothers decided to remove itself from the entire comic superhero universe for a few years. So Joel Schumacher, who has made some great movies in his life, ruined not only Tim Burton’s Batman franchise but also his Superman franchise.
Still, this is a fascinating film about a film that was never made. Seeing Nicholas Cage with the giant S logo on his chest and listening to what they had planned makes one wonder how it all would have turned out.
Update: The film has been ripped off YouTube so here’s the trailer:
Previously in Documentary Tuesday:
Room 237 | Exit Through the Gift Shop
Christopher Pierznik is the author of eight books, all of which can be purchased in paperback and Kindle. His work has appeared on XXL, Cuepoint, Business Insider, The Cauldron, and many more. He has been quoted on Buzzfeed and Deadspin. Subscribe to his monthly reading review newsletter or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
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Unpopular Pop Culture Opinions
I feel like I’ve always fallen outside of the mainstream. Even as a child, I knew that many of my tastes were not in line with the majority. Often, my opinion is the unpopular one.
From the ages of about twelve to seventeen, I was alone for much of my downtime. I didn’t have a girlfriend, so if I weren’t at basketball practice, I was lounging around the house, either listening to hip-hop or watching my favorite movies over and over, quoting dialogue, imagining being a different person in a different world.
That all began with Young Guns II.
Following up on yesterday’s post on Room 237, here are some photos from Stanley Kubrick’s copy of Stephen King’s novel, complete with his notes and ideas.
“Only Christopher we acknowledge is Wallace”
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik 