Quentin Tarantino Refutes Rumors About Scrapped Film The Movie Critic

Quentin Tarantino is setting the record straight about his supposed final film, The Movie Critic. Tarantino made a return appearance on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, where the pair talked extensively about Tarantino’s long-spanning career, and where it could be headed next. Naturally, the supposed final destination of Tarantino’s directorial career will be The Movie Critic, a meta-minded film about a film critic working at a less-than-reputable publication.  

Back in April, reports started coming out that The Movie Critic would not be Tarantino’s final film. This about-face turn came after months of hearing that The Movie Critic would be casting the likes of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in major roles – and that it could be the Tarantino Universe Avengers, bringing back actors and/or characters from other Tarantino films for surprise appearances. 

However, during the Club Random discussion, Tarantino refuted the idea that anything we’ve heard reported online is valid in any way: 

“If you’re Joe Schlomoka, and you’re some sort of transient celebrity reporter of some kind, if you hear ‘Quentin is going to make a Star Trek movie,’ or ‘Quentin is going to do a movie called The Movie Critic’ or Quentin is going to do any f*cking thing, it’s a little bit like when that guy wrote that Howard Hughes biography that ended up being a hoax… The thing is, they can say anything: ‘Oh Quentin is going to cast Tom Cruise – it’s for sure! Quentin is going to cast Tom Cruise as the movie critic!’

Tarantino did not confirm any of the reports that The Movie Critic is dead; he didn’t confirm that any of the reported progress on the film (including casting) was valid, either. In fact, Tarantino went so far as to say one of the casting rumors was more of a statement about fan psychology, than an actual scoop: 

“The thing that’s kind of funny about The Movie Critic was they started saying I was going to cast that actor, Paul Walter Hauser… But what’s funny about it is I think they just think he looks like a critic, so that’s why they picked [him],” Tarantino explained with a laugh. “But my point being, though, is they write it in, you know, ‘Showbiz Daily’ or something, and then that gets picked up in 140 [other] pieces.”

Indeed, that’s a fair assessment of how modern entertainment “journalism” (read: blogs and influencers) works. Even our own ComicBook archives are filled with the same reports about The Movie Critic that Tarantino is mocking. The filmmaker was willing to concede that the rumor mill would probably stop churning if he ever decided to address the misinformation – but he won’t: 

“Because I’m not shutting that down – because I’m not all connected – then that’s just reported as if it’s true: and it is true for a couple of weeks, because no one knows anything better, because I’m not filling them in.

That all said, Tarantino sees Internet rumors (true or not) to be a helpful promotional tool (at best), and/or a great way to keep a celebrity’s ego inflated: 

“It’s not a bad thing! Actually, the egomaniac in me thinks that the idea that 142 articles can be printed about just speculation of what I’m going to do, I appreciate that a lot, and that means I’m in a good place. The egomaniac Elvis guy part of me goes ‘Yeah, right on!’”

At this point, the true status of Quentin Tarantino’s The Movie Critic is still unknown.