Last year, Quentin Tarantino switched hats from acclaimed filmmaker to acclaimed novelist with his debut novel (based on his latest movie).Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Noveltopped theNew York TimesBest Seller fiction list and earned Tarantino a GQ Writer of the Year award. Tarantino singlehandedly brought back a dying literary genre – movie novelizations – with an immersive expansion of theOnce Upon a Timeuniverse full of new details about the now-iconic characters, a radically restructured narrative, and an abundance of tidbits from cinema history.During the book’s promotional tour, Tarantino expressed interest in novelizing some of his other movies. Throughouthis 30-year directorial career, Tarantino has become notorious for teasing projects in interviews that ultimately never materialize (Killer Crow,Double V Vega,Star Trek, a handful ofKill Billspin-offs), so promises like this should be taken with a grain of salt. But the projects that Tarantino mentions in passing don’t always remain unrealized. He’d been touting a World War II movie for years before he gotInglourious Basterdsoff the ground. So, there’s a chance that more Tarantino novelizations could hit the shelves of bookstores (and the servers of Amazon) in the near future.RELATED:Tarantino’s Self-Confessed Worst Movie Is Actually Pretty GoodIf Tarantino is planning to novelize more of his movies, some would be better choices than others. The character-driven, day-in-the-life quality ofOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood’s storytelling made it an ideal candidate to turn into a novel. But not all of Tarantino’s films are as tailor-made for the novel format. The movies that revolve around plot and character, likePulp FictionandThe Hateful Eight, would translate into prose much more smoothly thanaction-heavy movies likeKill BillandDeath Proofthat largely rely on their dazzling visuals.
Evoking The Crime & Western Novels Of Elmore Leonard
One of Tarantino’s earliest influences was Elmore Leonard, whose refreshingly minimalist crime fiction introduced a young Q.T. to the notion of real-life obstacles getting in the way of genre situations. BeforeTarantino adapted Leonard’sRum Punchfor the screenasJackie Brown, the author’s iconic interconnected crime novels had influenced his first two films,Reservoir DogsandPulp Fiction. With uniquely structured stories, engaging plot twists, and rich characters worth exploring in more depth,Reservoir DogsandPulp Fictionboth present Tarantino with the perfect groundwork to emulate the work of his formative literary inspiration.
As a brutal historical revenge fantasy,Django Unchainedis facilitated more by its blood-drenched action scenes than its plot and character development. But aDjangonovelization would evoke the other genre that Leonard is best known for: the western. In movie form,Django Unchainedacts as an origin story for a gun-toting ex-slave vigilante. Instead of retelling that story, Tarantino could follow on from those origins withDjango’s continued adventuresin a series of sequel novels. These sequels could introduceDjangofans to some of the supporting characters that were cut from the script.
Instead of throwing his hat in the western novel ring withDjango Unchained, Tarantino could novelize his other western,The Hateful Eight. Tarantino has discussed the possibility of adaptingThe Hateful Eightas a stage play with a new cast, which could work out wonderfully, but it’s also a prime candidate for a novelization. AHateful Eightnovel would be a great opportunity for Tarantino to combine the immersive Old West descriptions of Leonard’s western stories withthe twisty plotting of Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries.
Inglourious Basterds As An Alt-History Literary Opus
From the opening dairy farm interrogation to the “Name Game” scene, it would be impossible to capture the tension ofInglourious Basterds’ greatest sequences in a novel, because the acting brings them to life. Without English-speaking actors trying not to slip up in German-language conversation, the “Name Game” scene would just be 20 pages of a standard game night.The genius of Hans Landa’s characteris that, on paper, most of his dialogue would come off as mild and mundane. What makes him one of the greatest villains ever created is that this mundane dialogue is paired with Christoph Waltz’s chilling performance. Tarantino’s dialogue could be copied word-for-word into a novel, but Waltz’s icy Oscar-winning glare would be lost.
One of the most notable things aboutOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood’s novelization is the detours it takes from the movie. The blood-soaked finale appears relatively early in the novel, and Tarantino explores years of its aftermath. AnInglourious Basterdsnovelization could work with a similar approach, leaving the heroes and their most triumphant moments intact while exploring and embellishing the alternate history created by Adolf Hitler’s wildly inaccurate death scene. Over the years,Tarantino’sBasterdsscriptgot so overstuffed that he considered turning it into a limited series. Some of the subplots that had to be cut to streamline the story could be restored in a novelization. Since Tarantino’sHollywoodnovel wasn’t afraid to contradict the movie, aBasterdsnovel could go back to Shoshanna’s original characterization as a WWII-era Beatrix Kiddo, killing Nazi officers and crossing their names off of a list.
Whatever movie Tarantino chooses to novelize next, it could be a while before fans get to see it. His next book isa nonfiction work analyzing the New Hollywood movement. That could be followed byThe Films of Rick Dalton, an in-depth career retrospective of a fictional actor. But after those books come out and theHateful Eightplay debuts and Tarantino gets around to making what he plans to be his final movie, it would be great to read a new version ofReservoir DogsorInglourious BasterdsorDjango Unchainedin novel form.
