‘You ruined everything’: Quentin Tarantino walked away from this Marvel movie he wanted to make

4- When was this supposed to come out?

Quentin Tarantino considered the Luke Cage project his second film since 1992 :

After Reservoir Dogs, I envisioned a Luke Cage adaptation, Hero for Hire. At one time Ed Pressman owned the rights and we talked about it.

Created by Archie Goodwin and drawn by George Tuska in 1972, Luke Cage was part of the 70s blaxploitation culture. An African-American superhero with bulletproof skin who fights crime in underground New York, he’ll have a connection to Jessica Jones. but also an iron fist.

3 – What was written?

Even though he never wrote a line for the film, Tarantino had a very simple starting idea that might satisfy fans of the character: “In my opinion, we should have taken the first issue and turned it into a screenplay”. Lucas Cage starts there in prison, Seagate, nicknamed “Little Alcatraz”.

We learn that Lucas has been convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and the Doctor wants him tested on a Stark Industries machine that can regenerate human body cells. Forced to submit to this experiment, the prisoner gains a skin of incredible resistance as well as superhuman strength. Soon he was nicknamed Lucas “Luke” Cage, as well as “Power Man”!

2- Who should play in it?

Tarantino cast his favorite actor Samuel L. Jackson couldn’t be chosen because he hadn’t made Pulp Fiction yet. At the time, he was discussing an actor who had just won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Laurence Fishburne!

on Amy Schumer’s podcast March 2020The director said:

All my friends were like, “No, no, no, you have to take Wesley Snipes. And I was like, “Hey, I like Wesley Snipes, but really, Larry Fishburne is almost Marlon Brando. Trust me: “Fish” is great.

Laurence Fishburne was contacted by Tarantino at the time and replied that he liked the idea.

1-Why didn’t it happen?

“My comic book friends saved me from doing this”Tarantino recalls “Because I had this idea that Larry Fishburne was perfect to play Luke Cage (…). They were saying, ‘Yeah, but he’s going to have to practice a lot to be able to do it.’ Snipes is already like that. !’. And I replied: “Hey Shig! It doesn’t matter! Go crazy, screw it up!”

And here’s how fans rejected the young director who went on to write and direct instead Pulp FictionLaunched a hypothetical superhero project to win the Palme d’Or and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Roger Evaris.

The director remained philosophical about this aborted Luke Cage, saying in 2012: “My feeling is that if I wanted to do something like that, I would create a superhero myself.”