Earlier this month, news broke that Quentin Tarantino was ready to prep and shoot his tenth and final film, “The Movie Critic.” THR’s story about the film describes its plot “as being set in late 1970s Los Angeles with a female lead at its center.” And almost immediately, fans speculated that “The Movie Critic” was about Pauline Kael, the late, great movie critic for The New Yorker who had a brief stint in Hollywood during the movie’s time period.
Now Tarantino’s ready to set the record straight. France24 reports that the director indeed has a script called “The Movie Critic” ready to film later this year, but it’s not about Kael. Here’s what Tarantino said about the film to Cannes Film Festival director Theirry Fremaux in Paris about the new film: “I have finished the script of what will end up being my last movie. I imagine we’ll probably shoot it, I guess, in the fall.” Tarantino then denied the rumors that the movie was a Kael biopic but did confirm the movie’s 1977 setting.
Tarantino’s comments came during the launch of his new book on film criticism, “Cinema Speculation,” in France this week. The director teased other possible future projects during the US part of his book tour, including a limited TV series, but nothing has yet to materialize about that project. That’s typical for QT, someone notorious for announcing projects that he never makes, like the “Bounty Law” spin-off TV series and the “Justified” revival series. Check out this article for those interested in all of Tarantino’s lost, unmade, or possible future projects.
But it looks like “The Movie Critic” isn’t one of those lost projects for Tarantino and will be his last film. So is this bittersweet news? Sure, in a way, but given the unanimously positive response to “Cinema Speculation,” expect Tarantino to keep writing after he retires from directing. And don’t be so convinced QT hangs up his director’s coat in the closet for good after “The Movie Critic.” Tarantino does have a family now, but he’s a cinephile, first and foremost, not a family man. Returning to filmmaking at some point, even to do a limited TV series, may be an itch QT needs to scratch in the future.