Quentin Tarantino fans are used to waiting around for the director to get moving on some of the projects he’s talked about publicly – we’ve been waiting nigh upon a decade for some forward motion on Inglorious Bastards, his proposed WWII epic. One of the projects that I think most of us have given up on long ago was the sequel to Pulp Fiction focusing on the Vic and Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta and Michael Madsen. It turns out that Madsen himself hasn’t given up hope, and he tells me that QT has approached him with a story concept that could make a movie happen.
Last week I got on the phone with Madsen to talk about the 15th anniversary DVD of Reservoir Dogs (which is coming a year early) and the new Reservoir Dogs video game, and I took the chance to grill him on various upcoming projects. He brought up the Vega Bros movie, something I would never have even thought to ask about.
Madsen: I’d like to do The Vega Brothers. I hope that one comes together some day.
Q: Hasn’t Quentin said that wouldn’t happen?
Madsen: Well, first he said he would do it, then he said he wasn’t going to do it. Then he called me and said, ‘You know, I’ve figured out a way to do it. It can’t be a prequel because you and John don’t look the same. It wouldn’t make sense as a sequel because you’re both dead.’ And he gave me an idea that would be really outrageous – that John and I would be the twin brothers of Vic and Vincent. We come from Amsterdam to LA to avenge the deaths of our brothers. I think that’s pretty interesting. For me, I’d love to do it.
Will it happen? Tarantino talks a lot – the guy can’t keep his ideas to himself. But not all of those ideas ever go anywhere. Although who knows – maybe QT will want to resuscitate John Travolta’s career a SECOND time.