Quentin Tarantino made his official directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs, but this could have been entirely different thanks to the decision of another iconic director. Quentin Tarantino’s first movie is the unfinished comedy My Best Friend’s Birthday, from 1987, but Reservoir Dogs is considered his official directorial debut. Released in 1992, Reservoir Dogs is a crime movie that introduced the world to Tarantino’s visual and narrative styles, and it went on to become a classic of independent cinema, as well as a critical success.

Reservoir Dogs introduces viewers to a group of thieves, all of them with code names based on colors, who are preparing for a heist. However, this goes terribly, and the surviving thieves meet at a warehouse, where they learn there’s a rat among them. Reservoir Dogs is now regarded as one of the best independent movies of all time and as one of Tarantino’s best and most defining works. However, this could have been completely different had another iconic director made a different decision.

Quentin Tarantino Offered True Romance & Reservoir Dogs To Tony Scott

Tony Scott Was Given Two Tarantino Scripts To Choose From

Quentin Tarantino writes and directs his movies, but he has also written some that were directed by others. One of them is the romantic crime movie True Romance, directed by Tony Scott. True Romance follows newlyweds Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette), who, after stealing a shipment of drugs, find themselves running from the mafia. Although it was a box-office failure, grossing $12.6 million against a budget of $2.5 million, True Romance was well-received by critics and is regarded as one of Tony Scott’s best movies.

However, if it wasn’t for Tony Scott, Tarantino’s first movie could have been True Romance, and Scott could have brought Reservoir Dogs to life. Back in 1991, Tarantino made his way onto the set of Scott’s The Last Boy Scout, as one of his friends was working there as an ᴀssistant. Tarantino looked up to Scott, and so he took his chance by cornering Scott and pitching both Reservoir Dogs and True Romance to him. Scott agreed to take a look at the scripts, and when he was done, he wanted to direct both (via Independent).

However, Tarantino told Scott that he could only do one, and so he went for True Romance. Tarantino sold the script for $50,000, which he then used to fund Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino’s debut movie arrived a year before True Romance and was a huge success, and they both rank high on Rotten Tomatoes, with Reservoir Dogs holding a 90% critics score and True Romance a 93% critics’ score.

Reservoir Dogs Wouldn’t Have Been Possible Without 1 Of Its Main Actors

One Of Reservoir Dogs’ Main Actors Helped The Movie Get Made

Even though Tarantino had already planned to make Reservoir Dogs on a budget of $30,000 and the money he got from True Romance definitely helped, he still needed some extra help. When producer Lawrence Bender gave the script of Reservoir Dogs to his acting teacher, whose wife then gave it to Harvey Keitel, he liked it so much that he signed as co-producer, so the project could find funding a lot easier. Thanks to this, Reservoir Dogs raised $1.5 million, and if that wasn’t enough, Keitel also paid for casting sessions in New York.

Keitel was also cast and played Mr. White, who looked after the injured Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) until a shocking reveal. Reservoir Dogs also marked the first collaboration between Tarantino and Keitel, as he later played Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction and Jacob Fuller in From Dusk Til Dawn, written by Tarantino but directed by Robert Rodriguez. Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut could have been different had Tony Scott chosen differently, and that could have also changed the rest of his career.

Source: Independent.