Tarantino enthusiasts have known for some time now that a film centering on the Vega brothers, the suit-wearing crooks featured separately in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, was once believed to be a serious possibility. Now, thanks to some coronavirus-inspired comments from Reservoir Dogs star Michael Madsen, we have some more detailed insight on the film that unfortunately never blossomed into existence.
Speaking with the Hollywood Reporter on Monday, Madsen—i.e. Vic Vega/Mr. Blonde in Tarantino's 1992 debut—explained that the would-be film was originally set to take place in Amsterdam. This lines up with the backstory of John Travolta's Pulp Fiction character Vincent Vega, the brother of Vic.
"We were supposed to be in Amsterdam, criminally," said Madsen, also an alum of Kill Bill, The Hateful Eight, and 2019's Once Upon in Hollywood. "The picture was going to start out with the two of us being released from prison in different states. And we open up a club in Amsterdam."
As Madsen further explained, the years stacked up, ultimately resulting in Tarantino moving on to other projects while the scrapped prequel's stars grew too old for the reprisals to make sense.
Still, Tarantino apparently offered up another take on the idea a few years back. According to Madsen, QT once told him about an alternate (and notably non-prequel) idea he had in which Vic and Vincent's twin brothers meet up after their siblings have died.
"It was very complicated, but when Quentin starts discussing an idea, it's very easy to go along with it," Madsen said.
Madsen, meanwhile, recently brought back a classic Reservoir Dogs sequence in the spirit of urging everyone to take social distancing seriously:
