Quentin Tarantino made his first big feature filmmaking splash in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs, and in the years to follow, he delivered hits like Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to the masses. Well, for a few years now, Tarantino has repeated that his tenth movie will likely be his last one, but we’ve barely learned anything about it. Fortunately, today finally brings some concrete details about what we can expect from Tarantino’s last time in the movie directing chair.
According to sources who spoke to THR, the script that Quentin Tarantino wrote is called The Movie Critic, and while specific story details are being kept under lock and key, it will reportedly take place in the late 1970s and star a female lead. It was also stated that Tarantino is planning to shoot The Movie Critic this fall, and while the project hasn’t been snatched up by a studio yet, it could find a studio home or be acquired by buyers “as early as this week.” Considering Sony distributed Once Upon a Time in Hollywood after Tarantino dissolved his relationship with the Weinsteins, perhaps The Movie Critic could end up there as well.
THR’s report speculated that The Movie Critic could be about Pauline Kael, a movie critic who wrote for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991, along with stints at other publications beforehand. If The Movie Critic is indeed focused on Kael, the movie’s late 1970s setting would coincide with when she was offered a position by Warren Beatty at Paramount, only to leave the job after a few months and return to writing film criticism and reviews. Of course, given Tarantino’s penchant for altering history in flicks like Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, even assuming that The Movie Critic is based on Kael’s life, it wouldn’t be shocking if he took creative liberties with how these real-life events unfolded.
In any case, at least we have a partial picture to work with regarding Quentin Tarantino’s last movie, though hopefully the filmmaker himself can confirm these details, if not provide more information, relatively soon. With nine movies under his belt (this is if you count the two Kill Bill installments as one whole movie, which Tarantino does), whatever The Movie Critic ends up being about, this will be the final cinematic story he directs, to the point that Tarantino confirmed in 2021 that there will be a title card reading “The Last Film by Quentin Tarantino.” Tarantino had also previously said in 2022, a few months ahead of The Fabelmans’release, that he would not follow in Steven Spielberg’s footsteps and make his last movie about his own life.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more news concerning The Movie Critic or whatever it ends up being called, and we’ll also let you know if Quentin Tarantino changes his mind and decides to make Movie #11. Until then, plan your trips to the theater later this year with our 2023 movie release schedule.
