Hollywood POD: No Pulp Fiction

As many people know, Pulp Fiction, while not being Quentin Tarantino's first feature film was the film that put him on the map, it more or less made him a household name. Now in it's pre-production phase at tri-star the studio decided to cut the film due to the controversial themes in the film as well as the unconventional narrative style, however the producer; Lawrence Bender, managed to sell it to Miramax where the film finished being made. So let us assume that Bender is unable to make the sale, not terribly hard to do, considering how unconventional the film sounds on paper Miramax may decide that the title is too hot to touch, or that the narrative is too convoluted to follow. As such it stays at Tri-Star and either A.) doesn't get produced, or B.) has so much fighting between the studio and Tarantino that it either ends up in development hell or C.)Does get produced but suffers from too much interference a la Alien 3 style and flops at the box office.

With these possibilities, what do you think happens? What becomes of Uma Thurman, and John Travolta? Do their careers sink into obscurity? Or do they somehow manage to find a way to acheive fame and fortune some other way? Does Tarantino still become popular or does he sink into obscurity also? Or does he do what David Fincher did and stay away from hollywood for a while only to return later? Does this have any effect on Robert Rodriguez' career or does he still become as successful without his partnerships with Tarantino? How about the film industry in general, do dark antihero's still become as popular as they did OTL?

So what do you see as the butterflies from this POD?
 

Hendryk

Banned
I would argue that Quentin Tarantino made a name for himself with his first movie, "Reservoir Dogs", which was a pretty big international hit. Without "Pulp Fiction" those people who only watch mainstream movies might have taken longer to hear about him, but among the real cinema fans he already had the necessary street cred to keep his career going.

John Travolta, now that's another story. At the time "Pulp Fiction" was released, he was joking in interviews about how, if he hadn't got that part, his next movie would have been "Look Who's Talking 4" with talking furniture...
 
Tarantino has boasted that if he hadn't received the funding for his debut feature (Dogs), then he was willing to film it guerilla-style, on 16mm.

As it was, Reservoir Dogs was a pretty professional looking production, and was groundbreaking in it's own way in mixing highbrow cinema with pop culture.

Anyway, eliminate Tarantino making Pulp Fiction and you change the look of nineties cinema a little bit, but you don't stop the indy-crossover film revolution.

If Tarantino and Bender are adament that Pulp Fiction can only be made with a multi-million dollar budget, and a rejection by Miramax stops them from going into production, I wonder if QT's career goes into a decline like Soderberg's did for a time after Sex, Lies, and Videotape?
 
Top