The master of dialogue, samurai swords, and cool guys in sunglasses has ostensibly put an indefinite hold on what he has said will be his 10th, and final, feature film, The Movie Critic.
This comes as a major shock for several reasons. Firstly, there were already talks that Taratino wanted Tom Cruise in the film, but due to scheduling conflicts, this appeared easier said than done, which resulted in QT regular, Brad Pitt, landing atop the pile. Secondly, the film even secured a California tax credit (making it cheaper to film in the Golden State, something which, if you’ve ever planted a video camera anywhere in LA, you’ll know that it takes about 30 seconds before a cop rolls up and asks for a permit; should you not have one, it’ll cost you an arm and a leg), but Tarantino delayed filming due to his own need to rewrite the script.
But now, according to a source close to the auteur in question, Tarantino has had a change of heart and is scrapping the film entirely, and moving on to a different project. #wellthatsucks
For those unbeknownst to the plot of The Movie Critic, Tarantino said the film was inspired by an Adult magazine writer in the 70s who, aside from writing smut, also wrote surprisingly impressive film reviews, but with a vitriolic flair, as if Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver) was a film critic, set in 1977 Los Angeles.
“He wrote about mainstream movies and he was the second-string critic,” Tarantino said in an interview about the man who became his inspiration for The Movie Critic. “I think he was a very good critic. He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic. Think about Travis’ diary entries.”
Apparently, the reason for Tarantino’s rewrites was so that Brad Pitt could reprise his Oscar-winning role as Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood, or, as he’s done in the past, summon real characters in a fictional world.
However, what may summon a bit of optimism, is that this isn’t the first time Tarantino has claimed to scrap a movie completely, only to go back and finalise it for audiences. Such an instant came during the leaked script of The Hateful Eight. But after an open reading of the script in front of a live audience, Tarantino conceded, and, thankfully, made the film anyway.
As the film was supposed to take place in 1977, just one year after the release of Taxi Driver, which Tarantino has continuously picked as one of his top 3 films to bring to a deserted island (the other two being Blowout and Rio Bravo), one can’t help but think that Tarantino would love nothing more than to pay homage to one of his favourite characters from one of his filmmaking idols. With that said, if you watch the clip above, Tarantino gushes over Brian DePalma saying, “As we all know, Brian DePalma is the greatest director of his generation,” and that is just something QT and I will have to vehemently disagree upon.
Either way, fingers crossed that QT returns to The Movie Critic, because from what we know so far, it sounds great.
Fingers crossed.
