Summary

• Quentin Tarantino's next project, The Movie Critic, was confirmed to be his last film as a director, following his plan to retire after directing 10 movies.
• Tarantino scrapped The Movie Critic and will now reserve his final directing effort for something else.
• Brad Pitt had been cast in The Movie Critic, but his role was unknown.

Quentin Tarantino was working on his final film, The Movie Critic, but the award-winning cinematic titan has now canceled the project. Tarantino famously plans to retire after directing 10 movies. Since he counts the two-part Kill Bill as one movie, he currently has nine films under his belt, making The Movie Critic his last. If Tarantino keeps his word about his retirement from filmmaking, his next will be the final movie of his career, making The Movie Critic news all the more sought after.

Quentin Tarantino movies have almost become a sub-genre, with slick crime thrillers like Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, martial arts movie Kill Bill, slasher Death Proof, and war thriller Inglourious Basterds all feeling uniquely his. After westerns Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, Tarantino left behind genre conventions and made a film about filmmaking itself — Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The iconic writer-director was set to continue that theme with his final project, The Movie Critic.

The Movie Critic Was Canceled

The Timeline Of The Scrapped Movie

The Movie Critic was first informally announced in 2022 and it took over a year for details about its plot to finally begin leaking out through Tarantino and other sources. The director is notoriously stingy with his stories, and the 1970s-based story was largely shrouded in mystery. Casting rumors swirled throughout the process, and names like Tom Cruise and Paul Walter Ha were floated but never confirmed officially. In early 2024, Brad Pitt was announced as part of the cast, though nothing was revealed about his character and he seemingly wasn't playing the eponymous character.

In a move that shocked many, Tarantino revealed in early April 2024 that he was pulling the plug on The Movie Critic and that the project would be officially scrapped. The Movie Critic is far from the first abandoned project in Tarantino's career, but there was added pressure because it was supposed to be his 10th and final film. An unnamed representative for Tarantino eventually revealed why The Movie Critic was scrapped, and it was chalked up to the director's desire to "go out on top."

A timeline of events is as follows:

Who Would Have Been In The Movie Critic Cast?

Brad Pitt Was Cast In An Undisclosed Role

The only name attached to the cast of The Movie Critic was Brad Pitt, and though the A-lister added a lot of star power, little was known about his role and he wasn't likely playing the lead. There were rumors of Paul Walter Ha being in talks for the lead role before the SAG-AFTRA strikes, but no news surfaced even after the conclusion of the strikes.

When it comes to ing roles, Tarantino tends to work with a lot of the same actors. The Movie Critic would have been Tarantino’s last chance to work with frequent collaborators like Tim Roth, Christoph Waltz, and Samuel L. Jackson. Intending to retire from filmmaking after The Movie Critic was finished, Tarantino was likely eager to include as many of his favorite collaborators as possible in the cast. Since The Movie Critic took place in the film industry in L.A., there would have been ample opportunities for actors to cameo as Hollywood legends.

The Movie Critic Story Details

A Lonely Movie Critic Was The Focus Of The Canceled Project

The Movie Critic story details were not known specifically, but Tarantino has spoken a lot about the central character in the story. Tarantino drew inspiration from a real movie critic he followed in the 1970s who wrote reviews in porno magazines. Tarantino suggested the character's reviews would be vulgar and funny while comparing them to the journal entries of Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver. This suggests the central movie critic may be slightly unhinged, and opens up a lot of possibilities for the plot.

Another interesting reveal about The Movie Critic came from filmmaker Paul Schrader who suggested that Tarantino was remaking movies from the 70s for his new movie. Schrader revealed (via Indiewire) that Tarantino called him and asked "Can I redo the ending of Rolling Thunder?" Rolling Thunder is a revenge movie Schrader wrote in 1977 which Tarantino often spoke highly of. The idea that Tarantino is remaking scenes from these movies and changing them is very fun and could be similar to what he did with his imagined episode of Lancer in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It is also another example of Tarantino having fun playing loose with history.