18 So Cool Facts About “True Romance”

Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 18 So Cool Facts About True Romance.  Here are three of my favorites… [Beware of Spoilers!]

2.TONY SCOTT WANTED TO DIRECT BOTH TRUE ROMANCE AND RESERVOIR DOGS.
Because he was still new to the business, Tarantino knew he couldn’t direct both movies. So he gave both scripts to Tony Scott and told him to pick one. Though Scott wanted both of the films, he ended up choosing True Romance, leaving Tarantino to make Reservoir Dogs.

7. TOM SIZEMORE GOT JAMES GANDOLFINI IN THE MOVIE.
Sizemore was initially cast as Gandolfini’s character, Virgil. But he wasn’t comfortable with a scene that required him to beat up Patricia Arquette, so he asked to play Cody Nicholson instead. When Scott asked Sizemore who should play Virgil instead, he suggested Gandolfini, a then-unknown actor whom he knew from the New York theater world.

16. SCOTT CHANGED TARANTINO’S ENDING.
Quentin had Clarence die; Scott decided that the movie deserved a happier ending. The only other difference between Tarantino’s script and Scott’s interpretation was presenting the movie linearly; Tarantino wrote True Romance as a nonlinear adventure, similar to the style ofReservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.