Quentin Tarantino may be set to direct his final movie this fall, as the esteemed writer-director is reportedly gearing up to conclude his legendary career with The Movie Critic.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tarantino’s forthcoming film, which the director has previously teased will be his last, is expected to be set in late 1970s Hollywood with a woman protagonist.
“It is possible the story focuses on Pauline Kael, one of the most influential movie critics of all time,” THR notes. “Kael, who died in 2001, was not just a critic but also an essayist and novelist. She was known for her pugnacious fights with editors as well as filmmakers. In the late 1970s, Kael had a very brief tenure working as a consultant for Paramount, a position she accepted at the behest of actor Warren Beatty.”
Since reiterating in July 2019 his long-discussed plan to retire, Tarantino has teased multiple potential films as his swan song. In December of that year, fresh off saying that he would be steering away from a rumored Star Trek film, Tarantino revealed Kill Bill: Vol. 3 was “definitely in the cards.”
“I do have an idea of what I would do with it,” explained QT, who turns 60 later this month. “That was the whole thing was conquering that concept of exactly what’s happened to the Bride and what do I want to do because I wouldn’t want to just come up with some cockamamie adventure. She doesn’t deserve that. You know, the Bride has fought long and hard but now I actually have an idea that could be interesting. I wouldn’t do it for a little bit. ... It would be, like, at least three years from now or something like that but—look—it is definitely in the cards.”
The Movie Critic has not been picked up by a studio, though the Hollywood Reporter noted Quentin “has a tight relationship with [Sony’s] Tom Rothman,” as the studio distributed Tarantino’s latest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—also an L.A. period piece—in 2019.
