Following his introduction in Marvel's Jessica Jones, Mike Colter's Luke Cage has returned today with all of the thirteen episodes of his standalone series on Netflix. Since he was a supporting character in last year's Marvel-Netflix series, we can say that this is the first time the Power Man is at the focal point of a live-action venture.
However, there was a time when Columbia Pictures owned the rights to Luke Cage and they were planning to do a big screen venture with the character. This was in the early 2000s, and the studio had hired John Singleton to helm the standalone movie, Ben Ramsey to pen the script, and Avi Arad to produce it. Actors like Jamie Foxx and Tyrese Gibson were considered for the role of Luke Cage.
But in a recent interview with Yahoo Movies, Quentin Tarantino, director of The Hateful Eight, Inglourious Basterds, and numerous other remarkable movies, reveals that he was interested in making a Luke Cage movie back in the 1990s. Claiming that he is "a huge fan" of The Man With Unbreakable Skin, he says:
I had even considered, after Reservoir Dogs, doing a Luke Cage movie. But I ended up doing Pulp Fiction instead. So I think I might have made the right choice.
While a Luke Cage movie directed by Quentin Tarantino could have been an exquisite product, we still have to admit that he might have made the right decision by doing Pulp Fiction, considering the fact that it earned him his first Academy Award.
When asked whether he is looking forward to seeing Marvel's Luke Cage on Netflix, Tarantino reveals that he might be "one of the pains in their asses", as he loves the way the superhero was presented back in the 1970s. The director explains:
I'm not really that open to a rethinking on who he was. I just think that first issue, that origin issue"¦was so good, and it was really Marvel's attempt to try to do a blacksploitation movie vibe as one of their superhero comics. And I thought they nailed it. Absolutely nailed it. So, just take that Issue 1 and put it in script form and do that.
Critics are speaking highly of the Luke Cage series, but whether it manages to impress Quentin Tarantino remains to be seen!
