Reservoir Dogs – WTF Happened to this Movie?

WTF Happened To This Movie? – The JoBlo series that looks at troubled productions, curious creative decisions, box-office failures, surprising successes, and cult favorites!

While we await filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s tenth and (supposedly) final film, let’s go back to his beginnings with Reservoir Dogs. While not a box office success upon release in 1992, this low-budget crime thriller made by an enthusiastic video store clerk was a festival favorite and home video phenomenon and marked the emergence of a filmmaker who would change the shape of indie cinema and establish a new kind of cool.

But, it wasn’t an easy road to Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino’s nascent career had a few false starts by this point, and the low-budget film was almost made as a 16mm black and white film with a $30,000 budget had the script not found its way into the hands of star Harvey Keitel. Once filming began, Tarantino found himself butting heads with one of the legendary stars (Lawrence Tierney), but in the end, the film went to the Sundance Film Festival, and the right folks saw it. Soon, QT’s career was on the ascent so let’s go to work and find out “WTF Happened to RESERVOIR DOGS!”