Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has spoken about why he jettisoned his original plan to make “The Movie Critic” his tenth and final directorial effort.
Back in April last year, came the news that Tarantino had changed his mind and abandoned the project, one which he had been tinkering with for a while.
The film was far enough along that California had approved a $20 million tax credit, and timetables were set with the project to shoot some scenes in 2024 with most of it to film in early 2025.
Now, the filmmaker has finally opened up about why he opted to scrap the project. Appearing on an episode of The Church of Tarantino podcast, he confirmed rumors that he originally wrote The Movie Critic to be an eight-episode television show:
“I think when I was done [writing the show], and I knew I had done it, and now I was faced with the hard work in front of me of setting it up and doing it, I didn’t really want to do it that much. That’s too strong a word to say. But it was more like, if I like this so much, could it be a movie? Is it really a movie? And that was just enough of a question that it made me want to investigate.”
Tarantino then rewrote it to be a movie script, and he was ‘happy’ with it. He also made it very clear that the script never had any crossover with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and that includes rumours of Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth character being in the film. In fact, the similarity with ‘Once’ is kind of what turned him off making the project and there was little challenge in it:
“That [Cliff Booth being in the film] was never the case, ever ever ever. But it is the same town except in 1977 as opposed to 1969. And, frankly, to tell you the truth, it was pre-production that made me realise that I was so excited about the writing, but I wasn’t really that excited about dramatising what I wrote.
It was like, well, yeah, I love this script, but I’m still walking down the same ground that I’ve already walked, and there are no questions. I mean, there are a few things, as far as like certain sequences and everything. But as far as, like, you know, how is this ship going to sail, which is always a question in my mind. There was no question that the ship would arrive at port. There’s no question that we won’t sink. There’s no ceiling for me to hit the head of my talent on.
And it just kind of unenthused me as we went forward until I finally just pulled the plug. This last movie, I’ve got to not know what I’m doing again. I’ve got to be in uncharted territory and have an idea how I’m going to pull it off, but not really know. And there has to be something to achieve.”
Separately, he wrote the script for Netflix’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” film, which David Fincher is currently directing. Tarantino is involved as a producer on the movie and says he may contribute:
“I’m moving back and forth between here and Israel, so I won’t be on the set every day and everything. But, yeah, I’ll be around if they need me to do something, you know, I will.”
He also says he wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix gives it an awards-qualifying limited theatrical release, but doesn’t expect a major theatrical run as: “[it’s] not their business model, so I don’t hold it against the company for not following what’s not their business model.”
