Quentin Tarantino Working on his 10th & Possibly Last Film

Quentin Tarantino has long said he would eventually stop making films, even offering a specific timeline for his retirement—either 10 films or by the time he was 60. Well, he’s made nine films thus far, and he turns 60 later this month. So, as he preps his new film, there’s widespread speculation that this will indeed be Tarantino’s final film.

The auteur behind some of the most iconic features of the last thirty years, from Pulp Fiction to Inglourious Basterds to his surprisingly lovely (but yes, still bloody) portrait of Tinsel Town in 1969 in his 2019 hit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is nearing the moment where he’ll share his latest screenplay to potential buyers. This process requires studio executives to travel to the office of Tarantino’s agent in Beverly Hills and read the script in the conference room. This secretive process was put in place after the script for Tarantino’s 2015 film The Hateful Eight got leaked.

This is the same approach Tarantino took with Once Upon a Time, in which he’ll want both a healthy theatrical release window and eventual ownership of the film’s copyright. With Sony Pictures’ Once Upon a Time, Tarantino struck a deal that will revert the copyright back to him after 20 years.

The Hollywood Reporter scoops that the film is titled The Movie Critic and will be set in Los Angeles in the late 1970s with a female lead, but any further details are being kept under lock and key. THR speculates that the film could focus on the legendary movie critic, essayist, and novelist Pauline Kael, who worked briefly as a consultant for Paramount in the late 1970s—a position she took after a prompt from Warren Beatty. Kael was a brilliant and fearless writer and critic, and THR writes that Tarantino is known to have an abiding respect for her.

Tarantino has the ability to cast pretty much anybody he wants for decades now. Margot Robbie, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Brad Pitt starred in Once Upon a Time, and he’s got a longstanding partnership with Samuel L. Jackson, along with a slew of other massive stars. If The Movie Critic is indeed Tarantino’s final film, there is likely not a single actor alive who wouldn’t leap at the chance to be a part of the movie.

Who will end up with the project is anyone’s guess, but Tarantino has a good relationship with Sony and boss Tom Rothman. That film garnered 10 Oscar nominations, two wins, and made more than $377 million worldwide. There’s always immense interest in any Tarantino film, but his last? Movie lovers far and wide will make sure they see it, and our guess is they’ll want to see it in the theater.

For more stories on Tarantino, check these out:

Quentin Tarantino Eyeing TV Project, Reveals Which Comic Book He’d Adapt

Deconstructing Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s With his Cinematographer Robert Richardson

Creating the Look for Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood

Featured image: Quentin Tarantino, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt on the set of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Photo Credit: Andrew Cooper

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The Credits

The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.