Originally published December 18, 2012. Updated November 29, 2022.
Speaking to MTV at a press junket for his forthcoming Spaghetti Western homage Django Unchained, acclaimed filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has revealed that early in his career he planned to make a superhero film and toyed with the idea of bringing Marvel’s Luke Cage to the screen:
“After Reservoir Dogs, I had considered doing a Luke Cage: Hero for Hire movie. [Producer] Ed Pressman owned the rights at that time and we talked about it. I talked to Larry Fish [Laurence Fishburne] about being Luke Cage, and he really liked that idea. Then I ended up writing Pulp Fiction.”
Luke Cage wouldn’t be Tarantino’s only brush with a superhero movie – prior to directing Inglourious Basterds, the director was offered Green Lantern by Warner Bros., with the adaptation subsequently falling to Casino Royale helmer Martin Campbell after Tarantino passed on the project.
But would he ever be tempted to get behind the camera to direct a comic book adaptation? It looks unlikely, with Tarantino going on to state: “My feeling is if I wanted to do something like that, I’d want to create the superhero myself.”
Tarantino’s latest film Django Unchained is set for a North American release on Christmas Day, with a cast that’s led by new Spider-Man villain Jamie Foxx (Ray), alongside the likes of Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), Kerry Washington (Fantastic Four), Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception) and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers).
