Quentin Tarantino returns to The Movie Critic: “There was nothing to invent”

The filmmaker tells what he had in mind and why he decided to give up. For now.

It will therefore not be his latest film.

And besides, Quentin Tarantino did not even want The Movie Critic Or his 10th feature film. Initially, the director of pulp Fiction had first imagined it as a mini-series in eight episodes.

Podcast guest The Church of Tarantinohe says:

“When I finished (writing the series), and I knew I had done it, I was then in front of the difficult work to go up and do it. And I didn’t want to do it. It may not be the right word. But I said to myself: if I like that so much, could it not be a film? Isn’t that a film? And this simple question made me want to go further. “

Result : The Movie Critic was completely rewritten in the form of a feature film scenario, which Tarantino says he was “thrilled”.

The filmmaker nevertheless specifies that the project was not a direct extension of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. No crossover, no cliff booth – the character embodied by Brad Pitt. “It has never been the case, never, never, never,” he insists. “But it is the same city, except that we are in 1977 instead of 1969. And, frankly, what I understood in pre-production is that I was very excited by writing … But not really by staging what I wrote.”

So why did you abandon the project?

Tarantino explains that, usually, there is always a real technical challenge to take up in his films: transform Los Angeles into Hollywood 1969 without special effects for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywoodfire a cinema in Inglourious Basterdsor even orchestrate the legendary sequence of Crazy 88 in Kill Bill.

“With The Movie Criticthere was nothing to invent. I already knew more or less how to transform it into the city of the past. So, basically, it was too close to the previous one. “

Quentin Tarantino considered The Movie Critic like a “Spiritual suite” De Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. He adds that he could always return to the project one day, the scenario being already written. He is also very happy with it:

“The thing with The Movie Criticis that I really like, really what I did. Because I had launched a challenge: can I take the most boring profession in the world and make it an interesting film? Who wants to see a TV series on a fucking film critic? Who wants to see a film called The Movie Critic ? That was the test. If I can make the story of someone who spends his life captivating to watch movies, then it’s a success. And I think I succeeded. “

So maybe one day …