Quentin Tarantino Won’t Now Make ‘The Movie Critic’

While the writer/director has made no official comment on why he’s decided to scrap the movie, reports are that Tarantino simply changed his mind.

Oscar® nominee, Quentin Tarantino arrives on the red carpet of The 92nd Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 9, 2020. Credit/Provider: Nick Agro / ©A.M.P.A.S. Copyright: ©A.M.P.A.S.

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Quentin Tarantino won’t now make ‘The Movie Critic’.
Brad Pitt had been attached to star.
The filmmaker will now target something else as his final movie.

Though it seemed as though Quentin Tarantino had found the movie that he wanted to make as his final film before retiring (at least from directing for the big screen), it appears he has had a change of heart about exactly which film.

According to Deadline, he is now pulling back from that idea –– the film, not the concept of retirement. He won’t now direct ‘The Movie Critic’.

What has happened with ‘The Movie Critic’ so far?

Quentin Tarantino accepts the Oscar® for original screenplay for “Django Unchained” during the live ABC Telecast of The Oscars® from the Dolby® Theatre, in Hollywood, CA, Sunday, February 24, 2013.

Tarantino began hinting about his next (and potentially final) movie back in 2023. He’d been inspired by the work of a movie critic in a pornography magazine that the director had seen in his younger days.

Here’s what he said to Baz Bamigboye at Cannes:

“He wrote about mainstream movies, and he was the second-string critic, he says 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 [Taxi Driver’s] Travis Bickle 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.”

That fueled a concept about a film critic in 1977, though Tarantino didn’t offer any other details.

He worked on the script after the writers’ strike and then turned his attention to casting…

Who was attached to appear in ‘The Movie Critic’?

Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.' Photo: Sony Pictures.

So far, one person had been associated with the movie: Brad Pitt, who starred in (and won an Oscar for) ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ was on board to appear in the film. But even that was wrapped in mystery –– would Pitt play a new role, or reprise ‘Hollywood’s Cliff Booth, the stuntman who also happens to be something of a movie buff himself?

We may never know, now. Tarantino has hit pause on movies before –– he famously backed away from ‘The Hateful Eight’ after a script leak, only to return after a charity reading saw it earn raves –– but this feels like him simply deciding that his apparently final movie was worth more than ‘The Movie Critic’ could bring.

Will Quentin Tarantino really retire?

Quentin Tarantino on the set of 'Django Unchained.'

Tarantino has spoken before about his plans to step back from filmmaking:

“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***s up three good ones. 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.”

Tell that to Ridley Scott! And Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese…

But in truth, all signs are pointing to Tarantino more switching focus to other projects, including potential TV series, plays and books.