Director Quentin Tarantino Is No Longer Pursuing The Movie Critic As His Final Feature
As Samuel L. Jackson's bounty hunter says in "The Hateful Eight," "Let's slow it down. Let's slow it wayyyyy down." That's the vibe right now when it comes to what was originally going to be filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's 10th and final movie, "The Movie Critic." Although it initially seemed that the film was on a smooth, steady track to getting made fairly soon, Tarantino has changed his mind and decided to drop it altogether, according to Deadline.
As reported earlier this year, "The Movie Critic" would have re-teamed Tarantino with "Inglourious Basterds" and "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" star Brad Pitt as well as that film's distribution studio Sony. It would've been a film about "Travis Bickle if he were a film critic," according to comments the filmmaker made last year about the script.
Even though a rewrite of the script delayed the initial production schedule, right now the only reported reasons Tarantino has made this decision are solely his own and have nothing to do with any external factors. One can certainly postulate that this is a case of the filmmaker second-guessing himself given the enormous weight of importance he's given to his next project. As he's said numerous times, he believes that his next film should be his last, and likely wishes to go out with a bang instead of a whimper. Perhaps "The Movie Critic" just didn't have the climactic juice the director hoped for.
Never say never again
With all of that said, there's still a good chance we might see "The Movie Critic" ride again, with or without Tarantino at the helm. After all, the very film quoted at the top of this article, "The Hateful Eight," was initially due to be made in early 2014, only for Tarantino to change his mind and shelve it in January of that year due to the script being leaked and his interest subsequently waning. That mood didn't last, however, because shooting on "The Hateful Eight" eventually took place almost exactly a year later, in January of 2015, with the film released in December of the same year.
So is this latest ceremonial dropping of "The Movie Critic" a similar situation? Fans are certainly aware of Tarantino's fickleness when it comes to announcing, working on, and then abandoning potential films; lest we forget his dalliance with the "Star Trek" franchise. This could be one of those situations, to be sure. It may also have to do with whatever rewrites took place with the script. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pitt may not have been playing the titular movie critic but would have been reprising his "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" role of stuntman Cliff Booth. While that's not at all out of pocket for Tarantino, who has a history of peppering his films with shared universe elements, it may indicate that the central role of the critic had changed and was yet to be filled. Perhaps it was casting issues that soured Tarantino on the project.
Whatever the case may be, it seems likely that this isn't the last we've heard of "The Movie Critic," especially as this is a Tarantino project that came very close to being filmed as opposed to merely being scripted and forgotten. It could always turn up in novel form, as the screenwriter continues to enjoy his career writing both fiction and non-fiction books. Or it could be resurrected if he happens to find the perfect actor to portray that title role. For right now, all we can do is follow the mantra of "From Dusk Till Dawn's" Seth Gecko: everybody be cool.