Sources Say Quentin Tarantino Has Scrapped The Movie Critic

UPDATE Apr 18, 2024 1:30 AM CDT

Quentin Tarantino is scrapping The Movie Critic, according to sources who spoke to the Hollywood Reporter and other outlets. The filmmaker planned this year to start shooting the movie, which was to be his tenth film as a director, but has for some reason now decided to go in a different direction for what he says will be the last film he directs. Sources who spoke to Deadline said he "simply changed his mind," per the outlet. He's said to be "going back to the drawing board" to figure out his next movie.

Feb 5, 2024 2:00 AM CST

Quentin Tarantino is working on what will be his tenth film as a director, which he says will be his last—and according to reports in several media outlets, the movie will see the filmmaker reunited with Brad Pitt, who starred in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in 2009 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019. Deadline speculates Pitt will play the title character in the upcoming film, The Movie Critic, which Tarantino has said "is based on a guy who really lived but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for [an adult film] rag." The movie is set in California in the 1970s, but little else is known beyond that, Variety reports. USA Today notes Tarantino had earlier said he'd be working with "a new leading man" who would be about 35 years old.

It's been speculated the film could be related in some way to the life of real-life film critic Pauline Kael of the New Yorker, though Deadline reports that Tarantino's aforementioned comments link the inspiration to a job the director had as a teen loading adult magazines into vending machines and finding one that had "a really interesting movie page." With details so unclear, it's hard to say when production might begin, but Variety looks at Pitt's schedule and figures the middle of this year is the earliest it could start. Tarantino is reportedly aiming for a 2025 release. (More Brad Pitt stories.)