Miramax scooped it up after its premiere sensation and distributed it to iconic status. Originally planning to shoot it himself on black and white film with no-name actors, Quentin Tarantino’s script found its way to Harvey Keitel, who helped raise $1.5 million for the film. In many ways, it launched indie filmmaking towards the ’90s mainstream. Capturing festival-goers and mainstream audiences alike, it landed like a firecracker in 1992 with its plot out of order, its dialogue rattling off the eaves, and its tension bursting at the seams of its mostly single location. Reservoir Dogs’ post-heist-hole-up-gone-wrong was an indie sensation.
This was a time when mini-majors like Miramax, New Line, and Lionsgate ran the show with classics like Buffalo 66, My Own Private Idaho, Night on Earth, and our first pick: Reservoir Dogs. My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Drive were also made and distributed with no studio interference, but our favorites here come from the era of the indie, which fall right into the ’90s and 2000s. More recently, A24 has been curating much of the best indie talent in the digital age and has brought us such incredible films as Uncut Gems, 20th Century Women, Waves, and Eighth Grade.
#Zombie tidal wave free#
This includes America’s first indie studio United Artists - created to free silent stars from the early clutches of the big studios - a company that gave us most of Chaplin’s best, Rebecca, and 12 Angry Men. To start, let’s ignore the exceptions for a moment and focus on those production and distribution companies that don’t have “Sony” or “Disney” on their org chart.