Well, this is an interesting about-face, and so much for the rumors about the recent start dates. Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has decided to scrap “The Movie Critic” as his final film. He’s changed his mind; he won’t make it, and what he will substitute for his supposed tenth and final film is unclear.
According to Deadline, the rumors are true that Brad Pitt was going to star, and apparently, many of the previous members of Tarantino’s repertory company were eyeing roles, but it’s all moot now, and the film has been scrapped. Update: THR says Pitt would have reprised his Cliff Booth stuntman role from “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” This means someone else would have played the main critic, though it’s very unclear who that would have been or whether the film would be a prequel or sequel to ‘OUATIH.’
Update: in the flurry of news last night, more details have emerged. “The Movie Critic” and the Cliff Booth spin-off were separate projects; read more here.
This isn’t the first time Tarantino has shelved a film. When “The Hateful Eight” screenplay leaked online early, an angry Tarantino, livid with the agents that helped it leak, decided not to make it. Instead, his cooler head prevailed; he rewrote the third act and eventually made the film.
The reasons here are unknown, but Tarantino had recently rewritten the script, which delayed the start of production. One has to wonder if that delay meant certain actors he wanted wouldn’t be available or, if he’s so intent on his next film being his last, perhaps “The Movie Critic” wasn’t the big swansong kick-off he had envisioned, but that’s speculation.
Tom Cruise was also reported to be circling a role, but it’s unknown what part he would have taken. If Tarantino indeed does not eventually make the film, and isn’t having just a crisis of faith about its potential momentarily, one hopes it leaks online so fans can at least read it and understand his intentions.
Not much was known about “The Movie Critic” other than it was loosely modeled off a real-life second-string movie critic who wrote for porno mags that Tarantino admired in the 1970s and 1980s, mentioned by name in several of his podcasts with co-writer Roger Avary (seemingly a critic and porn historian named William Mangold, who is apparently referenced in Tarantino’s “Cinema Speculation” book; he also mentions the critic Jim Sheldon in recent interviews, a name he has also used as pen name on the new Beverly blog).
Filmmaker Paul Schrader recently revealed that Tarantino had asked permission to use his original ending of “Rolling Thunder,” the 1977 revenge film he wrote, which John Flynn directed, but the ending of the movie was changed. Tarantino is known for his revisionist history, changing the fate of WWII in “Inglourious Basterds,” and the fate of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate in “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” and Schrader has suggested he would be doing the same-ish thing and recreating many classic ’70s films within his movie, changing the ending in the case of “Rolling Thunder.”
It will be interesting to see what Tarantino says was the catalyst for his change of heart as the filmmaker is usually supremely confident about all his choices, but perhaps with the “final film” idea looming over his head, his own high expectations got in the way.