Chapter Three: The Long Hard Writing Mission

With what would become Inglourious Basterds consistently defeating Tarantino between 2000 and 2002, he announced that he was putting it on hold again.

"It was some of the best writing I've ever done. But I couldn't come up with an ending,” he told USA Today.

Briefly, he flirted with an idea that would eventually form part of the final movie – two maverick units of American soldiers with a habit of scalping Nazis.

Despite Tarantino regular Michael Madsen claiming that he’d be starring in the film and that it would be out in 2004, Tarantino shoved it to the back burner in favour of working on Kill Bill.

Madsen never seemed to let go of the idea, blabbing to FilmFocus in 2005 that he’d still be starring, alongside Sandler, Tim Roth and, er, Eddie Murphy. Nothing ever came of that version – though we’d still love to have seen it.

Once the long slog of working on Bill was over, QT told press types he’d be back to work editing down the massive, three-film-length war epic, describing the characters as “not your normal hero types that are thrown into a big deal in the Second World War.”

But it still didn’t happen…