“He was so popular then”: when Quentin Tarantino almost directed ‘8 Mile’
Close your eyes and imagine a Quentin Tarantino-directed version of 8 Mile, and it should near short-circuit your mind as this is one of those Hollywood stories that you can only be glad didn’t come to fruition, because it honestly sounds like a massive disaster waiting to happen.
Let me set the scene: It was the early 2000s, and Tarantino was one of the industry’s biggest figures following the groundbreaking success of his indie crime thriller Reservoir Dogs, which was violent enough to shock Wes Craven out of the cinema, followed by the multi-million dollar triumph that was Pulp Fiction. His movies were effortlessly cool, despite him being anything but, rich with niche cinematic references and aestheticised crime, where wiping away a drug-induced nosebleed was the height of cool; it had audiences scrambling to live inside his uniquely directed vision of the world.
With story credits for True Romance and Natural Born Killers under his belt, the filmmaker had quite the impressive resumé on him by this point in the ’90s, one that stemmed from years of educating himself on everything from deep-cut foreign films to pulpy B-movies that he discovered while working in a video store. People were dying for him to direct their screenplays, because not only would it likely secure box-office success, but real artistic flair, too. So, when 8 Mile, Eminem’s story of rising through Detroit’s competitive hip-hop scene, was being optioned for a director, Tarantino was a natural contender, even though he looks like he knows fuck all about rap music.
The rapper’s manager, Paul Rosenberg, reflected on the choice to consider Tarantino during an interview with Vibe, acknowledging that there would’ve likely been a clash between his style and what was imagined for the film, admitting, “We reached out to [Quentin Tarantino]—he was so popular then. But looking back, his movies are so stylised; I don’t think that would’ve worked with this subject matter”.
The movie sees Eminem play a young man trying to find success as a white rapper in a hip-hop scene predominantly made up of Black musicians, in a highly autobiographical potrayal of his journey cracking the music industry. No matter the lead being a white man, as Tarantino’s exploration of race has divided critics over the years, perhaps it was best that he kept his distance from the project. In the end, Curtis Hanson directed the film, although British filmmaker Danny Boyle was also considered briefly, which is equally as hard to wrap your head around as having Tarantino at the helm.
8 Mile became a huge success, though, winning the rapper an Oscar for ‘Lose Yourself’, while box office earnings were overwhelmingly positive. Meanwhile, Tarantino was busy working on the real passion project of Kill Bill which would see light in 2003, boosting his career even further. The Eminem film might’ve grossed more at the box office at $242.9million compared to Kill Bill’s $153.3m, but Tarantino had Kill Bill Vol 2 up his sleeve, which grossed an additional $153.3m, so it was all good.
He didn’t need 8 Mile to keep his place in Hollywood secure, and with Kill Bill he got to do what he does best: direct from a script he himself had written.
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