Years prior to Marvel becoming an independent studio and housing many of their character' rights, Luke Cage was almost brought to the big-screen in a Heroes for Hire movie with critically acclaimed filmmaker Quentin Tarantino at its helm. Revealing so to MTV News, in anticipation of his upcoming Django Unchained movie, Tarantino also revealed that Academy Award-nominated What's Love Got to Do with It actor Laurence Fishburne would have played Marvel's Power Man.
“After 'Reservoir Dogs,' I had considered doing a 'Luke Cage, Hero for Hire' movie. [Producer] Ed Pressman owned the rights at that time, and we talked about it. I talked to Larry Fish [Laurence Fishburne] about being Luke Cage, and he really liked that idea. Then I ended up writing 'Pulp Fiction.'” Since then, nothing has quite tempted Tarantino back into the realm of comic superheroes, largely because he'd rather make one up himself:
“My feeling is if I wanted to do something like that, I'd want to create the superhero myself.” In a separate and much older interview, Tarantino explained why he loved the character.
“My favorite hero, the hero I wanted to be, was Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, which was basically the Blaxploitation comic book. [Luke Cage] later became Power Man, but in the beginning he was, like, the black super hero. I collected comic books and it was kind of cool, because back then if you lived in the suburb or if you lived in a project, it didn't matter, you probably had about six kids in the general area that collected comic books. You could literally go to the kid's house and never having met him and bring your comic books with you, knock on his door, and you open the door, 'hi, my name is Quentin, are you Ken? I heard you collect comic books. I collect comic books too. Can I see your collection and I will show you mine?' 'Oh yeah, come on in.' It was a ritual. You show out yours, you have your best ones, and you lay them out and everything and you kind of look at them. And then he would lay out his and you'd look at them and go 'ooh and ahh' about your stuff and maybe you'd talk about trading. You could literally go into a kid's house you never knew before and start a friendship. You're happy that someone cares. You are happy to show them. So I did that, but the entire time I remember it was like 'Why do you like Luke Cage? He's black. Why do you like Luke Cage?' Black kids 'Why do you like Luke Cage. He's black.' I wasn't allowed to have Luke Cage be my favorite character. That wasn't allowed. That wasn't made for you. It can't be your favorite character. Only to grow up and find out that Nick Cage took his name from Luke Cage. His name is Nicolas Coppola. And when I found that out I went 'Oh my God, how cool!” Marvel Studios currently has a script, penned by Ben Ramsey, for a
Luke Cage movie that would evidently tie into their ever-growing cinematic universe. However, the potential film's current stage is unknown, especially considering ABC recently passed on the
AKA Jessica Jones TV series that would have featured the Power Man prominently. So, what do you think?
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.