Last night, Quentin Tarantino fans were hit with a shocking bolt from out of the blue. The American auteur, known for his sometimes unpredictable moves, decided to scrap his “Movie Critic” film as his tenth and final film. This decision, unlike his previous one with “The Hateful Eight,” which was leaked and he eventually reversed, seems to be much more permanent.
While THR reported on the news last night, further details have come to light. And what’s emerged, is a portrait of two films that were written. One was “The Movie Critic,” and somewhere along the lines, it evolved into a totally separate and distinct film that would have featured the return of Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth and become a “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood” spin-off film.
Set in 1977, California, “The Movie Critic” and its original inspiration came from a pessimistic movie reviewer that the director had read as a child (seemingly the writer Jim Sheldon, who he mentioned in this podcast interview).
However, sources claim that during the process, it changed course and became a movie in which Brad Pitt would play Cliff Booth once again, the stuntman he played in Tarantino’s ‘Hollywood,’ for which he won an Oscar. It’s unclear if this film was intended to be a ‘Hollywood’ prequel or a sequel set in the 1970s. However, Tarantino had another change of heart and distanced himself from both movies in recent weeks, which might speak to the filmmaker being hard on himself and making sure his tenth and final film is one for the ages.
In order to be eligible for a $20.5 million California Tax Credit, the project was scheduled to film for one day in August before starting production in earnest in early 2025. That is off the table for now.
In 2012, he told Playboy about his idea for retirment. “I want to stop at a certain point. Directors don’t get better as they get older,” he said. “Usually, the worst films in their filmography are those last four at the end. I am all about my filmography, and one bad film f—s up three good ones. I don’t want that bad, out-of-touch comedy in my filmography, the movie that makes people think, ‘Oh man, he still thinks it’s 20 years ago.’ When directors get out-of-date, it’s not pretty.”
Even when he completes one more feature film, Tarantino is expected to be active in the creative industry. He has said that directing plays or limited series may be in his future. In 2021, he published a novelization of ‘Hollywood’ as part of his new career as a writer. One of its discoveries was a better comprehension of Cliff Booth’s past and mental state.
As of right now, it’s completely unclear as to what Tarantino’s next film will be, but it will surely take a bit longer to release now that he is going back to the drawing board entirely. Even though we can expect his final film to be excellent, one can’t help but wonder what ‘The Movie Critic’ would have turned out like and how it would have handled being its own film while also continuing on with the character of Cliff Booth. One would assume it’ll eventually leak, or at least he’ll publish it somewhere.
Context and clarity from the THR writer below.