Summary

• Quentin Tarantino's 10th film The Movie Critic may be his last, leaving numerous unproduced projects shelved forever.
• From a James Bond movie to a Django/Zorro crossover, Tarantino had many exciting projects in the works.
• While The Movie Critic could be Tarantino's final film, fans will always wonder about what could have been.

Quentin Tarantino is set to shoot his 10th film The Movie Critic this fall, and if it really is his final movie, then there are a lot of unproduced Tarantino projects that will never see the light of day. Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, The Movie Critic will revolve around an eccentric film reviewer making the rounds in the New Hollywood era. For a while now, Tarantino has asserted that he’ll retire from filmmaking after his 10th movie, because he believes that directors get worse with age, and he wants to avoid the same fate.

Since The Movie Critic will be Tarantino’s 10th directorial feature, it could very well be the last film he ever directs. Over the years, Tarantino has mentioned a lot of unproduced projects in various stages of development. If he retires from directing movies after The Movie Critic, then these projects are doomed to remain unrealized forever. From a James Bond movie to a Django/Zorro crossover movie to an R-rated Star Trek movie, there are a ton of mooted Tarantino projects that may never get made if The Movie Critic is his final film.

10 Casino Royale

Tarantino's 1960s Take On A Bond Classic

After the critical failure of Die Another Day, the producers of the James Bond movies were looking to shake up the franchise with a new creative direction. Around this time, Tarantino expressed interest in adapting the first ever Bond novel, Casino Royale. However, Eon had no interest in hiring Tarantino for the job. They also had different thoughts on casting, since Tarantino wanted to keep Pierce Brosnan as 007 and Eon wanted to recast the role for a fresh reboot.

Casino Royale has been adapted twice on film, first as a spoof in 1967, and then as the Daniel-Craig-led 007 reboot in 2006.

Tarantino’s version of Casino Royale would’ve been set in the 1960s and likely would’ve featured his signature graphic violence and profane, verbose dialogue. Eon did make Casino Royale as the next Bond movie, but they hired Martin Campbell to direct it in a contemporary setting. A Tarantino-helmed Bond movie is a classic Hollywood what-could-have-been story.

9 Killer Crow

The High Points Of Django Unchained In The Setting Of Inglourious Basterds

Before he upended the Manson murders in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino originally planned to conclude his historical revisionism trilogy with a movie called Killer Crow. This would’ve followed the style and themes of Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained a lot closer than the loose hangout comedy feel of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Killer Crow would bring the racial subject matter of Django Unchained into the World War II setting of Inglourious Basterds.

Tarantino teased that Killer Crow would revolve around a Basterds-esque platoon of Black troops. After being betrayed by the U.S. military, they would go on a warpath to Switzerland and massacre white soldiers along the way. He may have given up on this project due to its similarities to Inglourious Basterds – Tarantino tends to avoid repeating himself – but it sounds like a great movie.

8 Less Than Zero Remake

A More Faithful 1980s Movie Adaptation

In 2010, Bret Easton Ellis announced that Tarantino had been trying to secure the film rights to his debut novel, Less Than Zero. Less Than Zero was previously adapted into a movie in 1987, two years after it was initially published, but that adaptation bears little to no resemblance to the original novel. Tarantino’s potential adaptation would be a lot more faithful to Ellis’ book.

In 2012, Ellis provided an update on Tarantino’s Less Than Zero remake, saying that he was still interested in adapting the book, but the movie was no closer to actually happening. Jackie Brown and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood have both proven that Tarantino could make a great hangout movie, and Less Than Zero’s source material has the potential to be the ultimate hangout movie. Sadly, Tarantino’s remake may never get made.

7 Forty Lashes Less One

The Story Of Two Desperate Men Facing Death

Tarantino tends to self-generate his material, but he has written and directed one movie adapted from another writer’s work: Jackie Brown, based on Rum Punch by Tarantino’s favorite author, Elmore Leonard. In the early 2000s, Tarantino began work on an adaptation of a different Leonard novel: Forty Lashes Less One. The story revolves around two men facing death in a dangerous Yuma prison.

There have been various updates on Tarantino’s Forty Lashes Less One adaptation over the years – at one point, he’d started writing the screenplay; at another point, he was retooling it as a miniseries for television – but there’s been nothing concrete. Jackie Brown was a pitch-perfect Leonard adaptation, and a Tarantino prison movie sounds like a lot of fun. Forty Lashes Less One could still happen as a miniseries, since Tarantino is open to working in television after retiring from filmmaking.

6 Django/Zorro

A Comic Book-Inspired Crossover Follow-Up To Django Unchained

In 2015, Dynamite Entertainment published a comic book entitled Django/Zorro, which acted as both a sequel to Django Unchained and a crossover with the Zorro character. In June 2019, Tarantino became interested in adapting the sequel comic into a sequel movie. He even hired Jerrod Carmichael to co-write the script with him. It was likely intended to be his follow-up to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

By December of 2019, Tarantino had lost interest in the Django/Zorro movie and was instead looking to make a smaller-scale standalone movie as his next project. This smaller project is probably what became The Movie Critic. It would’ve been a delight to see Jamie Foxx reprise his role as slave-turned-bounty hunter Django Freeman, and bringing in the legendary Zorro for a team-up would be the icing on the cake.

5 Double V Vega

Uniting Two Characters From Reservoir Dogs And Pulp Fiction

Tarantino connected Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction in the same fictional universe by writing John Travolta’s Pulp Fiction protagonist Vincent Vega to be the brother of Michael Madsen’s Reservoir Dogs villain Vic Vega (better known as Mr. Blonde). The filmmaker planned to bring the two characters together in a spin-off movie that would’ve been called Double V Vega. It would’ve revolved around Vic visiting Vincent in Amsterdam, where he would’ve been watching over a nightclub for notorious L.A. mob boss Marsellus Wallace.

Double V Vega was unlikely to get made anyway. It would’ve had to be a prequel, since both Vega brothers died in their respective movie appearances, and the actors quickly got too old for that to be convincing. Still, Tarantino could revive this concept as a novel or a comic book or an animated movie.

4 An R-Rated Star Trek Movie

A 1930s-Style Gangster Mash-Up Sci-Fi Movie

In 2017, Paramount made the surprising announcement that Tarantino had pitched an R-rated Star Trek film and that it was actually going ahead. Tarantino was working with producer J.J. Abrams to develop the project and The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith was hired to write the script. Initially, this was expected to be Tarantino’s final film after Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which certainly would’ve been a big swing to end his directorial career on.

The project seems to be dead, since there have been no solid updates in a while, but some plot details have been revealed. It was a time travel story that would’ve planted the Enterprise crew in a 1930s-style gangster movie. The idea of Tarantino making a Scarface-style old-school gangster movie within a hard-R Star Trek movie was too good to be true.

3 John Brown Biopic

Tarantino's Favorite American Historical Figure

Tarantino generally dismisses the biopic as a genre, claiming that they’re just an easy way for actors to win Oscars, but there is one biopic that he’s always been interested in directing. In 2009, Tarantino expressed interest in making a movie recounting the life story of his favorite American historical figure, John Brown. Brown led the abolitionist movement years before the Civil War, spilling white blood to send a powerful message to slavers.

Of course, Tarantino previously tackled the ugly history of American slavery in Django Unchained, but that was an action-packed spaghetti western. A John Brown biopic would be a more serious slavery movie from Tarantino, in the vein of 12 Years a Slave, while still maintaining his uniquely rough and gritty portrayal of violence. Perhaps Tarantino could tell Brown’s story as a TV miniseries.

2 First Blood Remake

A More Faithful Adaptation Of David Morrell’s Novel

In 2021, Tarantino expressed interest in directing a more faithful adaptation of David Morrell’s novel First Blood. First Blood was, of course, adapted for the screen in 1982 and ended up launching Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo franchise. Tarantino wanted to stick closer to the book. He said he would cast Adam Driver as Rambo and Kurt Russell as the corrupt sheriff chasing him through the woods.

Tarantino compared his approach to David O. Russell’s direction of The Fighter. With The Fighter, Tarantino felt that Russell got over being a precious auteur and just focused on making a good movie. Tarantino said that if he were to do the same, he’d adapt First Blood. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Stallone playing Rambo on the big screen, but it would be a joy to see Tarantino’s take on the Rambo story.

1 Kill Bill: Volume 3

The Revenge Trilogy Ender Set Up In Part 2

Ever since the release of Kill Bill: Volume 2 concluded his two-part martial arts epic, Tarantino has often teased that Vernita Green’s daughter Nikki Bell deserves revenge just as much as the Bride did. A proposed Kill Bill: Volume 3 would see an older Nikki coming after Beatrix Kiddo to avenge her late mother. Tarantino has often said that Kill Bill is his Dollars trilogy, so Kill Bill: Volume 3 would’ve been The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of that trilogy.

With its ability to bring back fan-favorite characters and mix in homages to all kinds of exploitation subgenres, Kill Bill: Volume 3 would’ve been a perfect choice for Quentin Tarantino’s final movie. He undoubtedly has something great up his sleeve with The Movie Critic, but a third Kill Bill film would’ve been a fitting finale for the Tarantino-verse. The Bride’s last stand would’ve been an awesome cinematic swansong.