30 years ago, Tarantino planned a thriller with Brad Pitt as a disturbing psychopath – it was so brutal that the film failed

30 years ago Tarantino planned a thriller with Brad Pitt

In the mid-1990s, Quentin Tarantino became one of the most sought-after directors of his time. After the huge success of Pulp Fiction, the filmmaker suddenly had a larger budget at his disposal and set his sights on the film adaptation of a novel that had been causing outrage for decades. Even though Tarantino had a finished script and a top-class cast in the meantime, he had to The Killer Inside Me throw in the towel at the end.

Quentin Tarantino wanted to film The Killer Inside Me with Brad Pitt and Uma Thurman

The novel The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson * caused a sensation when it hit bookshelves in the USA in 1952. As Den of Geek reports, Tarantino was a big fan of the author’s works and included an homage to Thompson’s novel The Getaway in From Dusk Till Dawn.

Sony Pictures

Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

He had more extensive plans for The Killer Inside Me and cast Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis and Uma Thurman, among others. However, after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, Hollywood film studios were reluctant to a script of this brutality So Tarantino dropped the project and turned to other films.

The thriller is about Texas Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford, who falls in love with the prostitute Joyce and enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with her. When the two try to make a fresh start in another city, Ford’s true face as a psychopathic murderer comes to light.

The Killer Inside Me was finally made into a film in 2010 – but not by Tarantino

Almost a decade later, the novel was taken up by director Michael Winterbottom and made into a film with Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba in the lead roles. The Killer Inside Me was shown at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlinale in 2010 and caused the expected outcry. The depictions of violence against women were particularly criticized.

Watch the trailer for The Killer Inside Me here:

The Killer Inside Me – Trailer (German) HD

On Rotten Tomatoes, the thriller has an audience score of 40 percent against a press rating of 56 percent. The Moviepilot community rates the film with only a slightly more lenient 5.9/10 points.

The Killer Inside Me is not currently available as a subscription from any streaming provider. However, the film can be bought or rented from Magenta TV, Amazon, Apple TV and Google Play.

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