: Pulp Fiction: Almost a Different Film?

Brain Burst • : Pulp Fiction: Almost a Different Film?

Everyone knows that “Pulp Fiction,” Quentin Tarantino’s beloved, acclaimed 1994 ensemble film, is told across a scattered, non-linear narrative where the stories end up linking together in wholly unexpected ways. But apparently, the original idea was quite different.

In a sprawling oral history of the film in Variety commemorating the movie’s 30th anniversary, Roger Avary, who co-wrote the story with Tarantino, said there was initially a totally different format for the project. “The original idea for ‘Pulp Fiction’ was, we’re going to make three short films with three different filmmakers. I’m going to make one, Quentin’s going to make one and we hit a pal, Adam Rifkin, who was going to make one. I wrote a script called ‘Pandemonium Reigns,’ and along the way, my little short film expanded into a feature-length script. ‘Reservoir Dogs’ expanded into a feature-length script. Adam just never wrote his, and ‘Pulp Fiction’ for a while was something that wasn’t going to happen.”

Eventually, they scored a deal with Danny DeVito, who ended up working as an executive producer on “Pulp Fiction” and had a larger deal with TriStar Entertainment; as the “It’s Always Sunny” actor recalls, he wanted to get this version of “Pulp Fiction” going pretty quickly. “After about six minutes of talking with Quentin, I said, ‘I want to make a deal right now,'” DeVito said. “There was a little Q…odriguez (“Grindhouse,” made up of Tarantino’s “Death Proof” and Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror”), but the multi-story project he originally conceived with Roger Avary apparently wasn’t meant to be. 

Quentin Tarantino got a major producer on board for Pulp Fiction by sending a very long script

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