We learned a little more about the cancellation of The Movie Criticsupposed to be Quentin Tarantino’s final film, and it looked like it was going to be pretty complicated.
“Not all films should be made”. This is what Quentin Tarantino declared during the Adobe Max creative conference in 2016, like a prophecy on the destiny of The Movie Critic, his last abandoned film. Indeed, the filmmaker finally put aside what was to be his swan song, to everyone’s surprise and for the moment without explanation on his part.
The project was originally intended to focus on a film critic working for a fictional pornographic magazine in the late 1970s, and then evolved after a flurry of rewrites into a sort of spin-off of his ninth film, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Brad Pitt was to return in the role of Cliff Booth, while many rumors announced that Tom Cruise would be part of the cast. Even more recently, other new information on the cancellation of The Movie Critic were revealed.
“Tell them we’re canceling everything.”
The movie critic, not the good ending for Tarantino?
According to The Hollywood ReporterQuentin Tarantino simply wasn’t motivated enough to direct The Movie Critic, the filmmaker having had a lot of difficulty developing a pleasant scenario and story. One of its partners also declared:
“I don’t remember ever seeing him rewrite a script so much. He had never pushed back a start date so many times [de tournage]with a film project already in mind.”
People close to Tarantino also pointed out that he was “more and more excited about other ideas. He threw out a lot of scenarios…” Inasmuch as “pure artist”he would have felt under pressure, obliged to end with a film at the height of his career and the legacy he would leave behind. And The Movie Critic was obviously not the best candidate.
“Get in the trunk Quentin, you’ll be safe in there.”
Towards a Tarantino Cinematic Universe?
Always according to The Hollywood Reporter, The Movie Critic could also have served as a farewell metaverse for Tarantino, which would have introduced certain elements from his older films set in the same era. This would have allowed him to bring back some iconic stars from his previous works (either as real characters, or as characters taken from his other feature films and considered fictional in the world of The Movie Critic). An additional idea was to include a movie theater where these individuals could interact with an aspiring young author – like Tarantino was initially.
Despite all these very interesting proposals, the director of Kill Bill would not have been convinced of the appeal of his film, firstly because the basic premise was less “sexy” than for many of his previous projects, and perhaps also out of fear that his farewell would turn into a form of homage to himself. The different casting choices were also apparently complicated for Tarantino, even if many big names seemed ready to film one last time with him: in addition to Pitt and Cruise, we can mention John Travolta, Jamie Foxx and Margot Robbie.
The look of “I don’t want to ruin my end of career”:
In preparing for his film, Tarantino surrounded himself with reliable and familiar collaborators. We could have found Stacey Sher, who produced The 8 Bastards And Django Unchainedas well as Victoria Thomas, who served as casting director for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, The 8 Bastards And Django Unchained and who had apparently already started contacting certain actors.
Concerning financing, the California Film Commission had also allocated more than 20 million dollars to be able to film inside the state, which again shows how the production of The Movie Critic was advanced. According to one of the sources of The Hollywood Reporterthe project is not completely dead, the Commission having been in contact with a representative of Tarantino who did not “not informed of a shutdown or withdrawal or anything.”
He’s going to make it his last movie, don’t worry
The filming of The Movie Critic was to begin soon, with a first sequence this year, then enter full production in early 2025. From now on, one question remains unanswered: what ending for Quentin Tarantino? The filmmaker spoke of his retirement in 2009, and he said he wanted to stop directing before the age of 60, although he turned 61 in March. Note also that The Movie Critic is not Tarantino’s first aborted project, he had already abandoned the idea ofA Star Trek R rated, Kill Bill 3 and a team film between Django (from Django Unchained) and Zorro…
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