Unveiling Tarantino's Hidden Gems: 9 Must-See Films Quentin Written or Produced

Although Quentin Tarantino has long been a living legend, his legacy is not limited to his work as a director.

There are many films in which Tarantino was involved as a writer or producer, and his style is evident in each of them.

1. True Romance, 1993

In the early 1990s, when Tarantino was making his way in Hollywood, he wrote two scripts with the idea that selling one would give him the money to bring the other to the screen. Suddenly, it was clear that both scripts had equal sales potential, and Tarantino had to choose which one to save for himself.

He chose the one called Reservoir Dogs — and he was right. The second script fell into the hands of Tony Scott, who turned it into a romantic action movie.

The wild tale of love between two misfits — comic book salesman Clarence and call girl Alabama — was a box office flop, but a huge critical success and an instant cult hit. True Romance was one of the first examples of Tarantino's style in 1990s cinema, with dialogue filled with pop culture references, juicy slow-motion action scenes and a retro soundtrack.

2. Killing Zoe, 1993

Roger Avary helped Tarantino write the screenplay for True Romance and co-wrote Pulp Fiction. During the filming of Reservoir Dogs (which was about a bank robbery), producer Lawrence Bender asked Avary if he had a script about a bank robbery. Avary said he did, and wrote it within a few weeks. When Tarantino learned that his friend was working on a movie, he helped him with money and became one of the executive producers.

The story centers on Zed, a safecracker who arrives in Paris, where a team of professional robbers is preparing a daring heist of gold from a bank on Bastille Day. The carefully planned operation goes awry when the police arrive, and the gang realizes they must either fight their way through the cops or surrender and spend the rest of their lives in prison.

And for Zed, the situation is further complicated by the fact that he recognizes one of the bank employees as a casual acquaintance he spent the night before the robbery with.

3. Natural Born Killers, 1994

Long before he began work on Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino wrote the screenplay for Natural Born Killers. He originally planned to direct the film himself, expecting to make it on a modest budget of $500,000, but none of the producers he knew were interested in the project at the time. Tarantino eventually sold the script, and it reached Oliver Stone, who was impressed with it and assembled a team to make the film.

Stone ended up making one of the most provocative films of the 1990s. Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis became stars, and their portrayals of Mickey and Mallory became the exemplary duo of psychopaths in love. But the truth is that the cult film of the 1990s and one of the most striking projects associated with Tarantino actually has almost nothing in common with the original idea of its author.

The final version of the script was significantly rewritten, so Tarantino can be considered the progenitor of Natural Born Killers, but the traces of his influence are minimal.

4. From Dusk Till Dawn, 1996

From Dusk Till Dawn was the first script for which Tarantino was officially paid — and he worked brilliantly for every dollar he received. The project did not reach the shooting stage until ten years later, but it was worth the wait. By then, Robert Rodriguez had become the director, and he fully realized the potential of Tarantino's script.

From Dusk Till Dawn turned out to be a perfect horror-action movie. Rodriguez not only preserved all of Tarantino's irony in the film, but also invited him to play a prominent supporting role. It turned out to be an impeccable decision: the nervous psychopath Richie Gecko remains Tarantino's most impressive performance to this day.

5. Curdled, 1996

Although Tarantino's main project in 1996 was From Dusk Till Dawn, he managed to finance a curious project that surprisingly few people remember today. It was the thriller Curdled. The action of this movie also takes place in the Tarantino universe, and even the Gecko brothers appear in it.

The plot tells the story of Gabriela, who works as an unusual cleaner: she has to clean houses where murders have been committed. The woman also has a peculiar fetish: Gabriela loves stories about serial killers and carefully collects newspaper clippings about various murders.

Her finest hour comes when, on her next assignment, Gabriela realizes that the client who called her is a cruel maniac nicknamed the Blue Blood Killer, so named because his victims are rich and successful women.

6. My Name Is Modesty, 2004

Modesty Blaise is not a household name these days, but she has a rich legacy: comic books about her have been published regularly since the 1960s. The first film adaptation of her adventures appeared in 1966, and ten years after Pulp Fiction, Tarantino produced a new one.

A gang breaks into the casino where Blaise works to rob the well-protected vault. Taking the staff hostage, the robbers search for someone who can open the lock, while Modesty tells the gang leader the story of her life. Of course, this is all part of a cunning plan: while the conversation is going on, Blaise is distracting the guys with the guns in order to turn the situation in her favor at the crucial moment.

7. Hostel, 2005

While most of the films that Tarantino has financed have been auteur projects that simply needed financial help, in the case of Hostel, it's safe to say that without Tarantino, the film would hardly have happened at all.

After horror director Eli Roth made Cabin Fever, he met Tarantino and they discussed the concept of the next film together. And although Roth already had many tempting offers from studios eager for him to make a remake of a horror classic, Tarantino was in favor of making a movie based on an original idea.

Roth told Quentin about a website he had found on the dark web that advertised a "murder vacation": clients would travel to Thailand, where they would be given a chamber where they could torture their chosen victim. Tarantino liked the idea and immediately asked Roth to write a draft, which eventually became the basis for Hostel.

8. Daltry Calhoun, 2005

In the long list of films Tarantino has produced, Daltry Calhoun is the least obvious. Released in 13 theaters, it barely made any money at the box office and was panned by critics. At first glance, it might seem that Tarantino missed the boat by investing in an indie family drama that lacks witty dialogue and any sort of pretentious style. However, Daltry Calhoun is actually a touching movie about a fairly serious issue that has not received the attention it deserves.

The movie begins with businessman Calhoun learning that he has a teenage daughter with his ex-wife, about whom he knows absolutely nothing. Stunned by this turn of events, Calhoun quickly realizes that this is not just a courtesy visit: his ex-wife is terminally ill, and someone needs to take care of the girl.

9. Hell Ride, 2008

Like Hostel, this film was conceived by Tarantino in the early 2000s, when he convinced his friend director Larry Bishop that he needed to make a movie about outlaw bikers. Bishop is best known for his roles in the biker action films of the 1960s and 1970s that Tarantino watched in his youth.

In the mid-2000s, Bishop appeared in a small role in Kill Bill: Volume II, and soon succumbed to the persuasion to make a good old-fashioned biker action movie, with Tarantino serving not only as the ideological inspiration, but also as one of the producers.

Hell Ride is a fun action movie about the battle between two biker gangs: the totally crazy The 666ers and the more sane The Victors. This whole tough bunch travels long deserted roads on luxurious motorcycles, weaving intrigues and fighting with each other.