Should have been a game - Kill Bill

Originally announced in 2002, Kill Bill: the game was set to tie in with the second film’s release date around October 2003. Black Label, a games division studio of Vivendi Universal Publishing (VU Games), originally announced they had signed up for the interactive rights To Tarantino’s other work, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’ along with Kill Bill.

Quentin Tarantino was to be involved in the project, named as creative consultant for the game, even providing the studio with footage from the first film. "The combination of our creative and technology teams coupled with Quentin's vision promises to deliver a high-quality interactive entertainment experience," said Jim Wilson, president of Black Label Games. "We are excited to extend this innovative franchise into an action game featuring a unique cast of female characters that will appeal to gamers everywhere."

Project named Kill Bill: The Video game, the story was based around the first film, Kill Bill: Volume 1. Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine and Lucy Liu, the film tells the story of one woman’s revenge against several assassins who each took turns in trying to kill her and her baby. The main character is known as The Bride, the film is shown in non chronological order of her lust for revenge.

What little was shown of the game, the only clip released showed The Bride at the House of Blues – one of the most famous scenes throughout the whole film, which depicts The Bride fighting a bloody onslaught of enemies, known as the Crazy 88.

It was unknown if the actors of the movies were going to provide voice-overs for the game.

As fewer and fewer details emerged about the game, in November 2003, VU Games announced the game was to be put on hold. The website for the game no longer worked and several months later they confirmed the game had been canned.

Little reason was released as to why it had been canned, some blamed poor timing – the game still hadn’t reached the right level of development when the second part to the films was released. Others state that Tarantino no longer wanted to be involved with the project.

Another game, released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 named Wet, is said to have been inspired by Kill Bill, with 70’s music and a Tarantino-esque feel to the visual style.

Interestingly, Reservoir Dogs was released in 2006, but under a different games company.

As Kill Bill is one of my all time favourite films, it would have been amazing to play as The Bride, slashing away through the Crazy 88's. It could have had so much potential - adding more depth to the story of the films. If only the actors would provide their talents and somebody like Capcom could take over - appealing to so many fans of the  female assassin genre, begging the question, Lara Who?

Matthew Greenacre