Quentin Tarantino’s films are bursting with star power. Since his feature film debut Reservoir Dogs, the auteur filmmaker has been able to sign big names and legendary actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Kurt Russell.
While most of them are happy as soon as the director calls Tarantino also got a few baskets. For example, Laurence Fishburne and Will Smith turned down roles. The legendary Rambo and Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone is also known to turn down Tarantino’s role offers.
Sylvester Stallone and Quentin Tarantino often disagree
Regardless of mutual reputation or respect, the two Hollywood legends apparently have very different views. Stallone and Tarantino seem to be old acquaintances, but there wasn’t enough to work together.
In an interview with the Canadian magazine Maclean’s, Stallone cited his iconic character Rambo as an example of the two’s different views. In the novel, the main character dies. A circumstance that Stallone wanted to change for the film.
I thought that wasn’t the right message. There had been nearly 200,000 suicides among returning Vietnam veterans. I said, ‘Why don’t we take him to the edge without destroying him?’ Quentin Tarantino said: ‘You’re a coward, you should have killed him!’ I said, ‘Quentin, you’re a lunatic. I want to do some sequels, bro.’
Even though Tarantino made his opinion very clear to him, that didn’t change the fact that he would have loved to cast Stallone. So far he has made two offers for this.
Tarantino offered these roles to Stallone – and was rejected
First Tarantino offered him that Role of Louis Gara in Jackie Brown who later played Robert De Niro. He didn’t reveal why he didn’t want to play this role. For the second opportunity, Death Proof – death proof, However, he gave a reason.
And with Grindhouse, the character that Kurt Russell plays, I said: ‘That doesn’t work. I have two daughtersand this guy has a hobby: putting teenagers in his car and driving them into a wall. This won’t work.’
It remains unlikely that the two stars will come to an agreement again and that we will see a Tarantino film with Stallone, especially since Tarantino wants to retire soon.
There are still many films that the director would have liked to make. From Star Trek to a Django sequel to his own James Bond, he has rejected numerous ideas over the decades. At least as a screenwriter he could remain with us film fans.