Quentin Tarantino Reveals His Slam-Dunk ‘Good Movie’ Idea: Adam Driver as Rambo
Quentin Tarantino only has one movie left to make before he retires, and he has one idea he knows would make for a slam-dunk good movie. That idea involves casting Adam Driver as Rambo in an adaptation of “First Blood.” Tarantino said on “The Big Ticket” podcast during his “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” book tour (via /Film) that his “First Blood” would adapt David Morrell’s 1972 novel of the same name and not have anything to do with remaking Sylvester Stallone’s 1982 movie.
“When David O. Russell talked about doing ‘The Fighter,’ he was over himself and over being the auteur,” Tarantino said. “He just wanted to make a good movie that people are going to enjoy. There was something really refreshing about him saying that, and that perspective. If I just wanted to make a good movie, that I knew would be good, I would take David Morrell’s novel for ‘First Blood’ and do the novel. Not the movie that was made out of ‘First Blood.’ I would do the novel.”
Tarantino continued, “Kurt Russell would play the sheriff, and [Adam Driver] would play Rambo. Every time I read it, the dialogue is so fantastic in the David Morrell novel that you’re reading it out loud. It would be so good. But now I want to do more than that. But if it was just about to make a good movie, that’s out there.”
It appears Tarantino wants something more challenging than just a slam-dunk good movie like “First Blood” for his final feature. The director revealed at the end of June that he briefly considered making his last movie a “Reservoir Dogs” reboot. Tarantino promised fans he would not be rebooting his feature directorial debut, but it could find life on the stage.
“I’ve decided if I wanted to do something like [a ‘Reservoir Dogs’ reboot], I would do it more on stage. I think that would be cool,” Tarantino told ReelBlend podcast in July. “It’d be a great stage play. My thought process was, ‘Well, if it’s a strong piece of material, it would work doing it any time.’ It does seem timeless. And then just with a new group of actors, that would have a new life.”
Tarantino continued, “It would also have a new life by the fact that I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing when I did ‘Reservoir Dogs.’ And now I know what I’m doing a little bit more…I think I was thinking at the time when I was considering doing it as a movie, making it an all-Black cast. That’s what I think would have been my twist on it, as far as making it a different movie.”
With “First Blood” out of the running, Tarantino fans will have to keep waiting to find out what his last directorial effort will be.