Quentin Tarantino finally reveals why he axed his final movie idea

Quentin Tarantino has finally revealed why he abandoned The Movie Critic, which was once tipped to be his tenth and final film.

For years, the iconic director has been adamant that he’ll stop after 10 films, and with Kill Bill counted as one, there’s only room for one more.

Following the success of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019, reports claimed that The Movie Critic would mark his swansong, with rumours of everyone from Paul Walter Hauser to Tom Cruise circling the lead role.

The story was said to centre on a critic writing for an adult magazine in the 1970s.

But in 2023, it was reported that the film had quietly been shelved.

Now, speaking on The Church of Tarantino podcast, the filmmaker finally explained why he lost interest in The Movie Critic.

According to him, the script felt too close to what he had already done with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

He said, “I wasn’t really excited about dramatising what I wrote when I was in pre-production, partly because I’m using the skillset that I learned from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

“How are we going to turn Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969 without using CGI? It was something we had to pull off.”

He continued, “The Movie Critic, there was nothing to figure out. I already kind of knew, more or less, how to turn L.A. into an older time. It was too much like the last one.”

Tarantino added that the film started as a personal challenge.

He went on, “The thing about The Movie Critic is I really, really like it.”

“But the test was: can I take the most boring profession in the world and make it an interesting movie?”

“Who wants to see a movie called The Movie Critic? If I can make that interesting, that is an accomplishment. And I think I did that.”

He also pushed back on speculation that fear over his legacy drove the decision to shelve the film.

He explained, “It’s a little crazy to listen to podcasts and hear all these amateur psychiatrists psychoanalyse… as if they f**king know what they’re talking about,” he said.

“I’m not paralysed with fear. Trust me.”

Rumours previously suggested Brad Pitt’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood character Cliff Booth could have appeared in The Movie Critic.

While that no longer looks likely, Pitt is set to reprise the role in The Adventures of Cliff Booth, a new film directed by David Fincher from a Tarantino script.

As for Tarantino’s tenth and final movie, details remain tightly under wraps. It may be a while before we get the official information on the project.

However, Tarantino has confirmed that it will be different from his last film, leaving fans to speculate about the kind of challenge he’ll set for himself next.