Exploring Quentin Tarantino’s forgotten ‘Pulp Fiction’ prequel
When Pulp Fiction debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, it shook the world of cinema and took home the highly coveted Palme d’Or prize. Quentin Tarantino would eventually scoop the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay after the film itself was nominated for an envious seven Oscars, including Best Picture.
Naturally, the success of a film and its establishment in the pantheon of cinematic greats leads to mostly fan-led suggestions that it ought to have its origins explained. Pulp Fiction is such a stalwart of 1990s cinema that many of its fans want more of its characters, themes and mood.
Tarantino did indeed consider a prequel for arguably his most beloved offering; reportedly, it was to be called Double V Vega, concerning the Vega brothers – Vincent from Pulp Fiction (played by John Travolta) and Vic from Reservoir Dogs (played by Michael Madsen).
“The only thing I did know was the premise,” Tarantino once said. “I had a premise. It would’ve taken place in Amsterdam during the time Vincent Vega was in Amsterdam. He was running some club for Marcellus Wallace in Amsterdam; he was there for a couple of years.”
He added: “At some point during his two years spent running that club, Vic shows up to visit him, and it would’ve been their weekend. Exactly what happened to them or what trouble they got into. I never took it that far. But it definitely would have taken place in Amsterdam, and it would have been Vic visiting him.”
It’s quite a prospect to imagine what that film might have come out like. With such iconic characters in a setting as wild and frivolous as Amsterdam, we can only dream of the kinds of messes that the Vega brother might have gotten themselves into while Vincent was looking after one of Marcellus Wallace’s clubs. The closest we get to the prequel is the scene in the original production when Vincent is talking to Jules about his recent time in Europe, where they put mayonnaise on the fries.
However, we are highly unlikely ever to see anything remotely resembling a prequel. Tarantino has previously stressed that he is not a fan of age-reduction techniques, even though his frequent collaborator Samuel L. Jackson has done it in Captain Marvel. However, it doesn’t feel right that the Vega Brothers would have a return to the screen some 30 years later. Perhaps the time has just gone.
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