It was quite the shock when Quentin Tarantino’s latest project The Movie Critic was abruptly axed, the news happening so suddenly that many have questioned just what the hell happened.
Per the filmmaker, we will soon witness his swan song, with Tarantino wanting to go out with his tenth film and settle into directing retirement. That’s seemingly put a lot of pressure on the legendary writer/director, which has been documented in a new detailed piece from The Hollywood Reporter.
In the story, they dive into his headspace, with Tarantino wanting to go out “on top.” One longtime talent representative familiar with Tarantino’s thinking said, “he has a lot of scripts that he’s thrown away.” With this being the latest project to be tossed in the bin, we knew very little about the actual story , but THR did confirm some wild news that led to The Movie Critic being too much for its own good.
As we reported last year, The Movie Critic was to take place in 1977 California and be “based on a guy who really lived but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.”
Beyond that, all we knew was that Tarantino was looking for a new actor with whom he had never worked before. Paul Walter Hauser was floated around, but all THR notes was that Tarantino said he had an idea of someone who could pull it off but didn’t give a name.” Hauser was reportedly never approached, neither was Tom Cruise, who never “even met with the filmmaker for a role.”
Jamie Foxx, Olivia Wilde, Margot Robbie, David Krumholtz, and John Travolta were also reportedly in talks for roles.
From there, we’d see Brad Pitt’s conversation begin. Tarantino reportedly wanted Pitt to have a role in The Movie Critic, but what we knew about the character profile was that he couldn’t be the titular critic. That sprung the film in a direction that put it more as a sequel to Once Upon A Time in Hollywood than an original film. Going that route, though, put Tarantino into a mindset to pay homage to older films and his work.
THR noted that one idea for the film was “that the Hollywood-set tale could serve as a Tarantino goodbye meta-verse with the director’s earlier movies existing in the same era of The Movie Critic.” That meant the filmmaker wanted to see “some of the stars of his earlier work to reprise their iconic characters” in what they labeled ‘movie within a movie moment,’ or they’d end up playing fictional versions of themselves.
It even reportedly had a scene where some characters could meet in a movie theater and potentially interact with a 16-year-old Tarantino. Was this just too meta for survival?
If there’s one filmmaker who deserves a massive send-off, it should be Quentin Tarantino. His body of work and love of the movies have been more than admirable, but is he getting in his way?
What’s next is the real question, though, and it could be answered very soon. The California Film Commission reportedly said the film is still an “active project” in its tax incentive program, so he could quickly morph this into whatever he wants.
SEE ALSO: How Will Quentin Tarantino Bow Out?
Is it Kill Bill Vol. 3? Is it the Avengers: Endgame of the Tarantino Universe? Only time will tell, but we all want to see what Tarantino cooks up for his swan song. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on rumoured plans for The Movie Critic over on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
