Pulp Fiction, the movie that made Quentin Tarantino a household name and is widely viewed as his masterpiece (we see it that way, as we included it the official WTW 100 best movies of all time list), celebrated its 30th anniversary on October 14. Not surprisingly, the occasion was marked with numerous opinion pieces, look backs and Samuel L. Jackson reciting his famous Ezekiel 25:17 monologue.
This makes it the perfect time to watch Pulp Fiction again, which you can do so on Paramount Plus, Prime Video or Pluto TV (for free) in the US; on Paramount Plus and Netflix in the UK. But while we celebrate the Tarantino classic, this moment has me thinking about what is next for the director, as his next movie will be his 10th and, allegedly, final movie.
Tarantino has long said that he intends to retire from directing once he makes his 10th movie. In an interview with Deadline from 2014 he said: "If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don't screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career." He did qualify that it's not etched in stone and if he came across a project he was passionate about he would consider directing it, but that ultimately he would be content with 10 movies making up his filmography.
If you're counting on IMDb and asking, "wait, hasn't Tarantino already directed 10 movies?", you're not technically wrong. From Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino has seen 10 different movies of his be released in movie theaters. However, the director counts Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 as one movie (even though they were released about six months apart). So, we can argue semantics all we want, but in his mind he's done nine.
So where do things stand on Quentin Tarantino's final movie? There have been plenty of rumors and a false start already, so read on below for everything that we know about Tarantino's self-proclaimed swan song.
What's going on with Quentin Tarantino’s final movie?
Over the years Tarantino has talked about many different ideas that we would like to do that could ultimately serve as his 10th and final movie. But the closest we've gotten to a definitive answer came with his short-lived project The Movie Critic.
First announced in March 2023, The Movie Critic seemed well on its way to be the 10th Quentin Tarantino movie. He had a script that was going to be set in 1970s Los Angeles about a person who wrote movie reviews for a porno magazine; Tarantino said he based it on a real-life individual. However, the script reportedly was reworked and eventually brought back Cliff Booth, the stuntman portrayed by Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (and won the actor an Oscar); Pitt was never officially attached, nor was any other actor.
It had been expected that The Movie Critic would have begun production in August 2024 to earn a California tax credit, but The Hollywood Reporter shared in April 2024 that Tarantino was moving away from the project entirely. The Hollywood Reporter then elaborated on Tarantino's decision with a feature that added more details about potential meta aspects of the movie (working in some of Tarantino's own movies, characters or past stars) and rumors of additional actors meeting with Tarantino or being considered for parts, including Olivia Wilde, Oppenheimer's David Krumholtz and Tom Cruise (though the story refers to a source that Cruise had not met with Tarantino).
Ultimately, the article cites those close to Tarantino said his decision to shelve The Movie Critic was because "he had grown more excited about other ideas." What could some of those ideas be?
Over the years there have been reports that Tarantino was interested in doing a Star Trek movie (he apparently wrote a script, but it does not appear to be moving forward at this time). He's also discussed doing continuations or spinoffs of some of his own movies, including Kill Bill Vol. 3, a mash-up featuring Jamie Foxx's Django and classic character Zorro, and a Vega brothers movie that would follow John Travolta's Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction and Michael Madsen's Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs, who was later revealed to be named Vic Vega. While those ideas sound fun, Tarantino is one of the most original filmmakers ever, so I hope he tackles something new with his next project.
Right now, we really don't know what Tarantino is thinking about doing for his final movie. But he has expressed multiple times the pressure he feels to get the movie right so as to go out on as high a note as possible. Given that self pressure, expect the Oscar-winning filmmaker to take his time finding the right story. But expect that whatever it turns out to be, it'll be a highly anticipated movie event.
