We narrowly missed a reboot of Reservoir Dogs with an all Black cast

While on the ReelBlend podcast, Tarantino said wanted his last film before retiring to be a reboot featuring all Black actors

By Tatiana Tenreyro | July 12, 2021 | 2:53pm

Film News Reservoir Dogs

We narrowly missed a reboot of Reservoir Dogs with an all Black cast

Reservoir Dogs Screenshot: Miramax

Quentin Tarantino still hasn’t changed his mind about wanting to retire, as he’s said in practically every interview he’s done in the past couple of years. Last month, he went on the Pure Cinema Podcast and said he was strongly thinking about finishing his filmmaking career with Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, so he can end on a high note. That month, he also went on Real Time With Bill Maher and reiterated what he said on the podcast, but he also revealed that he had considered making a Reservoir Dogs reboot as his last film. He clarified, “I won’t do it, internet. But I considered it.” In case you were wondering what that reboot would look like, Tarantino talked about what he envisioned in a new interview on the ReelBlend podcast.

“I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing when I did Reservoir Dogs. And now I know what I’m doing a little bit more… I think I was thinking at the time when I was considering doing it as a movie, making it an all Black cast. That’s what I think would have been my twist on it, as far as making it a different movie.”

Most Popular

Perhaps it’s best that Tarantino scrapped it because, let’s be honest, even the original Reservoir Dogs had its racist moments. We’d be far more interested in this project if he collaborated with a Black writer for any potential remakes.

Though Tarantino didn’t share where he got his inspiration for the reboot twist, perhaps he got the idea from the Reservoir Dogs table read Jason Reitman put together in 2012 that consisted almost entirely of Black actors. It featured an all-star cast including: Laurence Fishburne as Mr. White, Anthony Mackie as Mr. Pink, Common as Mr. Brown and Officer Nash, Anthony Anderson as Nice Guy Eddie, Terrence Howard as Mr. Blonde, and Chi McBride as Joe Cabot. (Patton Oswalt was the only white actor who participated. He played Holdaway, who was the only major Black character in the original film.)

While we’ve narrowly missed seeing what an all Black Reservoir Dogs reboot would look like on the big screen, Tarantino’s still considering taking it to the stage. “I’ve decided if I wanted to do something like [a Reservoir Dogs reboot], I would do it more on stage. I think that would be cool,” says the filmmaker. “It’d be a great stage play. My thought process was, ‘Well, if it’s a strong piece of material, it would work doing it any time.’ It does seem timeless. And then just with a new group of actors, that would have a new life.”

[IndieWire]