I could definitely be wrong, but I heard that Tarantino first showed Reservoir Dogs to Harvey Keitel and that's what got the movie off the ground. I'm not sure if he had other elements attached at that point or not though...

Reminds me of Kevin Spacey's story of one of his big breaks, when he stole an invitation to a party and met someone who gave him a key role. At a recent Q&A screening of Newlyweds (Jeff Goldsmith interview), Ed Burns talked about giving Robert Redford a tape of Brother's McMullen for Sundance when he was a lowly PA at Entertainment Tonight. (Redford remembered that exchange years later, though Ed was never sure if McMullen got into Sundance because of it). You have to take chances, can't always wait on luck or opportunity!

@Ben Jacoby, you're right about Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino's acting teacher was married to someone who Keitel pretty well.

I heard tale of someone leaving a script on the porch of Keanu Reeves' house and he read it and got the movie made. Anyone else hear about this? Johnny Mnemonic maybe.

"Whoa. First script in three years. I still got it!"

I don't know the status of this project, but earlier this year I heard about a writer who called up Jodie Foster's agent and pitched him a project he was writing. He wasn't asking for her interest as an actress, but as a director. The script was about a little known true story that took place during WWII. I think it involved a romance between a Jewish girl and a Nazi deserter. Apparently she liked the script and was able to option the script and/or find some development money somewhere. It's interesting that he took a slightly different approach than just pitching a script to an actor. Think about all the directors he could've approached, but he chose an actor who is trying to establish herself as a director and who is probably not at the top of the list for choice directing projects. He researched and found that she had an interest in WWII and had a couple of her own WWII era projects fall apart.

Forgot to add that I know the writer did not send the script directly to her, but he was able to get past the gates by pitching to her talent agent who had no reason to say no to a possible directing project.

Pretty clever, the Jodie Foster story. I believe Paul Thomas Anderson did the same thing as Tarantino, but with Baker Hall, although they'd already worked together in Cigarettes and Coffee and he already had a foot beyond the gates. Also I believe there's this story about the Fast and Furious writers with Brad Pitt and their first unproduced script, but not sure.