Quentin Tarantino has said for years that he intends to retire from filmmaking with his tenth movie, and in recent months, we’ve finally learned some details about this last theatrical offering. Back in March, it was reported that this flick will be called The Movie Critic, and two months later, Tarantino confirmed the title, as well as shared that the story will be set in 1977 and, contrary to what had originally been reported, will not involve real life movie critic Pauline Kael. Now a rumor has surfaced claiming that the filmmaker is looking to include Bruce Willis for what’s described as a “small role” in the upcoming movie.
It’s been nearly 30 years since Pulp Fiction, Tarantino and Willis’ first collaboration, was released, which was followed in 1995 by the former appearing in the latter’s segment from Four Rooms, “The Man from Hollywood.” While those two obviously continued to work on high-profile projects separately in the decades afterwards, Willis retired from acting in March 2022 due to being diagnosed with aphasia, which has since worsened to frontotemporal dementia. However, according to The Express, Tarantino is looking to have Willis cameo in The Movie Critic, although he supposedly has a backup plan ready in case this isn’t possible. According to an unnamed source who spoke to the publication:
Quentin hasn’t approached Bruce’s family yet – and will completely bow to their wishes if they say he’s too sick. If that’s the case, he aims to try to work a brief clip from one of Bruce’s many previous movies into the film.
A spokesperson for the Willis family declined to comment on the possibility of Bruce Willis appearing in The Movie Critic, but this same source said that if this happens, it would be a “fitting end” to his acting career. Willis hasn’t starred in any theatrical movies since Glass and Motherless Brooklyn, both of which came out in 2019, but he did perform in many direct-to-video movies since then, the last of which, Assassin, was released on March 31. So while nothing is set in stone yet and this piece of news concerning should be taken as a grain of salt for now, it would be touching for The Movie Critic to serve as both Willis and Tarantino’s last movie, especially since it would be seen on a much wider scale compared to the actor’s more recent cinematic fare. The source added:
Quentin wants to pay tribute to him with a quick glimpse for his legion of fans back on the big screen where he belongs.
Towards the end of May 2023, Quentin Tarantino explained that The Movie Critic is inspired by a “second string critic” who used to review mainstream movies for “a porno rag,” with the filmmaker describing this individual’s reviews as “a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic. Think about Travis’s diary entries.” Beyond that though, what we can expect from Tarantino’s tenth and final movie remains shrouded in secrecy, including how he allegedly wishes to include Bruce Willis in the proceedings. Meanwhile, the last few weeks have seen Willis’ wife, Emma Hemming Willis, share some sweet social media posts about him, including throwbacks to when he wore a pink suit during an interview promoting Die Hard, as well as when he visited the 20th Century Studios lot in 2018 to see the Die Hard archives with his two young daughters.
We here at CinemaBlend will pass along more updates about The Movie Critic’s development as they come in, including whether or not Bruce Willis will appear in that small role. For now, you can stream Quentin Tarantino’s most recent movie, 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with a Starz add-on to either your Hulu subscription or Amazon Prime Video subscription.
