Just a few short months ago, The Movie Critic was on track to be immortalised as Quentin Tarantino’s 10th and final film with whispers of a stacked cast headlined by Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. But now, Deadline reveals the legendary director has “simply changed his mind,” and decided he’ll return to the drawing board.
“Tarantino was going to have Brad Pitt as the principal star, which would have marked their third teaming after Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” writes Justin Kroll of the prolific entertainment publication.
“There were rumours that many from the casts of his past films might take part, and Sony was preparing to make the film after doing such a superb job on the last one.”
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(Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise aside, earlier rumblings indicated that noted Tarantino collaborators Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and John Travolta were onboard; in addition to Richard Jewell actor Paul Walter Hauser cast as the titular movie critic.)
“Word is that Tarantino had rewritten his script, which delayed the start of production. But this is his 10th and final film, and Tarantino simply decided The Movie Critic will not be it.”
Not that it matters now, but for those of you who are still curious, The Movie Critic would’ve followed an “irreverent critic in 1970s California who reviews mainstream movies for a porno magazine called The Popstar Pages.” And contrary to earlier assertions, it wouldn’t have been about The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael.
Tarantino himself previously explained: “It is based on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.”
“He wrote about mainstream movies and he was the second-string critic. I think he was a very good critic. He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle [from Taxi Driver] might be if he were a film critic… Think about Travis’s diary entries.”
“But the porno rag critic was very, very funny. He was very rude, you know. He cursed. He used racial slurs. But his s**t was really funny. He was as rude as hell… He wrote like he was 55 but he was only in his early to mid-30s. He died in his late thirties. It wasn’t clear for a while but now I’ve done some more research and I think it was it was complications due to alcoholism.”
The Academy Award-winning talent behind Pulp Fiction has long maintained he’ll walk away from feature-length endeavours after 10 films and retire by the time he turns 60 (a birthday which arrived last year); the key phrase here being “films,” considering he’s reportedly penned a play as well as a limited series said to be in development with Netflix.
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“I want to stop at a certain point. Directors don’t get better as they get older. 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**ks up three good ones,” the auteur told Playboy back in 2012 (via Entertainment Weekly).
“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.”
Up until now, the conversation surrounding his would-be swan song has also involved producing Kill Bill 3, a bats**t insane Django/Zorro crossover, as well as a since-cancelled R-rated Star Trek flick. But in keeping with the trend set by Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, knowing Tarantino, we’re probably in for another comparatively lowkey and “wholly original” love letter to cinema.
Though who knows… perhaps he’ll backflip and return to the project once he finds that missing ingredient as in the case with The Hateful Eight.
