Tarantino’s Most Dangerous Villain Yet? Director’s Last Film Reportedly To Be ‘The Movie Critic’
Quentin Tarantino has one more movie in him, and it’s reportedly about a director’s worst enemy (or best friend, depending.)
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood helmsman is putting together what sources say could be his final directorial project.
The Movie Critic is the name of the script that Tarantino wrote and is prepping to direct this fall, according to those sources. Details about the project are spare, but sources describe the story as being set in late 1970s Los Angeles with a female lead at its center.
It is possible, says THR, that the story, while not a bio-pic, could be based on real-life critic Pauline Kael, one of the most influential movie critics of all time. Kael died in 2001, and was more than just a critic; she also wrote film essays and novels.
In true anti-hero style, she was known for battling with her print editors and filmmakers alike. In the late 1970s, Kael took a consultant gig at Paramount as a favor to actor Warren Beatty, which seems to coincide with the setting of the script. Tarantino is known to have a deep respect for Kael, making the odds of her being the subject of the film more likely, speculates THR.
The proposed film hasn’t been picked up by a studio yet, but could be shopped to studios or buyers as early as this week, according to sources. One frontrunner could be Sony, which distributed is last film, 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and also gave him a deal whereby copyright is returned to him after time.
Tarantino is known for the claim that he had a finite number of movies in him, saying he wanted to direct 10 films or (and?) retire by the time he was 60. So far, he has made nine – but only if you count the two Kill Bill movies as one. He turns 60 later this month.
But even if the filmmaker never directs another cinematic project, he may one day be hard at work for the small screen. During a promotional tour for his recent book Cinema Speculation, Tarantino said he had written a 10-episode television series, possibly based on the Bounty Law show featured in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It is not known when or if we will see that if he chooses to shoot The Movie Critic next.