Damn, this is sort of a depressing topic, but, it may explain things to those of us who wondered why Michael Madsen was snubbed for a role in Inglourious Basterds. According to TMZ, there may be some bad blood between Madsen and director Quentin Tarantino

Nothing ruins a good friendship like money — so it’s safe to say Pierce Brosnan and Quentin Tarantino won’t be talking to Michael Madsen anytime soon.

Seems Madsen is in debt to both guys big time. According to bankruptcy documents Madsen filed earlier this month, he owes $25,000 to 007 — but he’s into QT for a cool $1 million!

Pierce and QT shouldn’t hold their breath while they wait for the “personal loans” to get paid back — Madsen is almost a total of $4 million in the hole, and the docs say his net monthly income is $-3,392.

This story is, unfortunately, all too believable, for Madsen’s recent money troubles are no secret. In mid-2007, Madsen placed his Malibu beach home, which he originally purchased in 1999 for $1,995,000, in a sale listing that stated, “the house needs to be sold as quickly as possible and preferably by Wednesday this week” at a price of $9,950,000. At the time, property records showed that the home had been remortgaged and there had been past default on payments. Shortly thereafter, the home did, in fact, go into foreclosure and was placed back on the market at a more realistic $7,800,000.

Well, the money issue explains why Madsen lowered himself to appear in that horrible Christian horror movie, but borrowing money (and, even worse, not paying it back) from the director who launched your career (as Mr. Blonde, no less!) is never a good idea. Not only had Madsen appeared in Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill 2, but the actor also played a role in the more recent Tarantino-produced Hell Ride. Tarantino and Madsen were tight, but all of that seems to have fallen apart just recently. In an August 2008 interview, Madsen was still waiting to hear from Tarantino about a long-rumoured role for Inglourious Basterds:

CH: Are you still attached to Inglorious Bastards [sic]?

MM: Well, that’s a big mystery right now. You’d have to ask Quentin. I know Tim Roth and I were attached to it for two or three years. He told me what my character’s name was, and we talked a lot about it. But seeing he has this deal with The Weinstein Company and now they seem to be going to the studios, I’m not really sure. I’m hopeful there’ll be a role in there for me somewhere.

Obviously, it didn’t happen for Madsen, and maybe it was because Tarantino didn’t wanna get suckered into loaning the guy any more dinero. This problem could also partially account for the fate of that fabled Pulp Fiction prequel, Vega Brothers, which was trashed before it even existed. While it’s rather cruel to speculate upon the source of another person’s misfortune, but what the hell happened to this guy? One can’t help but wonder if he really does have a monkey on his back.