Quentin Tarantino's Original Pulp Fiction Cast List Will Surprise You

The First Trailer For Tarantino's Hateful Eight 

Had Quentin Tarantino got his original wish, Pulp Fiction would have looked like a very different film…

According to a newly leaked document on Reddit, many of the stars from QT’s whip-smart, ultra-violent 1994 classic weren’t even first, second or even third choices, as the directer looked to capitalise on the breakaway success of Reservoir Dogs.

Monochrome-clad murderers Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield would have been played by Michael Madsen and Eddie Murphy respectively; John Cusack would have been Vincent’s drug dealer Lance; while Matt Dillon, Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage and Johnny Depp were all ahead of Bruce Willis in the running for prize-fighter-with-a-conscience Butch.

Can you imagine watching some bloke who looks a bit like Axel Foley delivering Ezekiel 25:17, with none of the gravitas of Samuel L Jackson? Would then-jobless John Travolta have had his second coming? No.

Well that’s not all: if the document is to be believed, Mia Wallace herself - Uma Thurman - was way down in the pecking order behind Virginia Madsen, Marisa Tomei, Patricia Arquette and Phoebe Cates - that’s right, the girl from Drop Dead Fred.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, who has just wrapped with the director on The Hateful Eight, was, according to the document, under consideration for both Jody and Honey Bunny. The latter role went to Amanda Plummer, who was always Tarantino’s first choice, with Tim Roth also his first choice for the small-time thief’s partner in crime, Pumpkin.

It seems the only first choices for Tarantino were Tim Roth as hold up man Pumpkin, and Christopher Walken as Captain Koons, the former Vietnam POW with a pocket watch in need of a thorough cleaning.

Both good choices of course, but the thought of the rest being replaced in some alternative universe would be too much to stomach for some fans of the film. 

We’re just delighted the Royale with Cheese wasn’t replaced with a Burger King Whopper.

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