Movies - TV
Quentin Tarantino Almost Remade the 1970s Thriller The Outfit
By JEREMY SMITH
Richard Stark’s Parker books are pure, unsentimental crime novels with stiletto-sharp prose, so it’s no surprise that Quentin Tarantino is a huge Stark fan. While the filmmaker once adapted an Elmore Leonard crime novel into the film “Jackie Brown,” Tarantino never tried his hand at a Parker adaption, but he did once consider it.
In his new book, “Cinema Speculation,” Tarantino dishes randomly on his movie preferences, and talks about John Flynn’s no-frills film adaption of Stark’s book, “The Outfit.” As Tarantino recalls, “I considered doing an adaption of the book in the late nineties, with Robert De Niro as Parker… And just writing that now makes me wish I would have done it.”
“The Outfit” is the third book in Stark’s series about career criminal Parker, and is at the climax of the story arc that begins with the first book of the series, “The Hunter.” The book is macabrely funny, and while there’s nothing wrong with Flynn’s adaption, Tarantino surely would have added another dimension to the story if he had ended up making the film.