Quentin Tarantino Finally Reveals Why He Scrapped His Tenth Movie

It’s been six years since we last had a Tarantino film hit theaters with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Despite the film grossing nearly $400 million and winning two Oscars, the prolific filmmaker has been quiet since. In 2022, Tarantino teased his next project that would mark his first foray into television—an eight-episode mini-series titled The Movie Critic, set in 70s Los Angeles. Though he claimed that The Movie Critic would have nothing to do with his last film, Tarantino had cast Brad Pitt, whom he worked with on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But now, according to Tarantino, The Movie Critic has been scrapped, and the auteur opened up as to why on an episode of The Church of Tarantino podcast.

“It was too much like the last one,” he explained, referencing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which takes place in 1969 Los Angeles. “I wasn’t really excited about dramatizing what I wrote when I was in pre-production, partly because I’m using the skill set that I learned from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood [of] ‘How are we going to turn Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969 without using CGI?’”

Many of Tarantino’s films have sweeping period settings such as World War II Germany in Inglorious Basterds and the antebellum South in Django Unchained. But returning to previously charted territory ultimately compelled Tarantino to scrap the project. “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.”

While there may have been a lack of filmmaking challenge with The Movie Critic, the story itself and its subject seemed to be a nut Tarantino struggled with cracking.

“The thing about The Movie Critic is I really, really like it. But there was a challenge that I gave to myself when I did it. ‘Can I take the most boring profession in the world and make it an interesting movie?’” Tarantino said. “Who wants to see a TV show about a fucking movie critic? Who wants to see a movie called The Movie Critic?”

What’s Next for Quentin Tarantino?

The filmmaker has famously said that he would direct a total of ten films, making his next project his final one. Even though The Movie Critic may not be moving forward, Tarantino is still keeping busy. He’s writing and producing a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood spinoff film The Adventures of Cliff Booth for Netflix. However, fellow legendary director David Fincher is helming the project, and Brad Pitt is reprising his Academy Award-winning role as the Hollywood stuntman and fixer Booth.

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Quentin Tarantino Confirms Long Wait for His Final Film

Tarantino is also planning to mount a stage play on London’s West End next year before he returns to directing for film—but don’t accuse him of avoiding the medium.

“It’s a little crazy to listen to podcasts and hear all these amateur psychiatrists psychoanalyze as if they fucking know what they’re talking about about what’s going on with me, about how I’m so scared, alright, of my 10th film,” Tarantino lamented before doing an impression of the fans themselves. “‘Oh my god! Oh my god! I’m so fragile about my legacy. What’s going on? I’m paralyzed with fear!’ I’m not paralyzed with fear. Trust me.”

Given his track record, what ever Tarantino’s next directing project will be, whether it’s his last film or not, will likely be worth the wait.