For years, writer and director Quentin Tarantino has been threatening to retire following the completion of his tenth film. Nearly thirty years into his directing career, his ninth movie — Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — is just weeks from its theatrical release, but despite all the praise it received at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and regardless of its potential success at the box office, Tarantino seems to be considering an early retirement.
“I think when it comes to theatrical movies, I’ve come to the end of the road,” Tarantino revealed to GQ Australia in an interview this week ahead of the movie’s premiere. “I see myself writing film books and starting to write theatre, so I’ll still be creative. I just think I’ve given all I have to give to movies.”
“Well, um, if it’s really well received, maybe I won’t go to 10,” Tarantino added when asked about why he wouldn’t go out on a high note. “Maybe I’ll stop right now! Maybe I’ll stop while I’m ahead. We’ll see.”
Brad Pitt, one of the stars of the movie, also shared his thoughts on Tarantino’s future with GQ Australia:
No, I don’t think he’s bluffing at all. I think he’s dead serious. And I kind of openly lament that to him, but he understands the math of when he feels like directors start falling off their game. But he has other plans and we’re not going to have to say goodbye for a long time.
Whether or not this is the last film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, it seems unlikely that this will be his last Hollywood project. He has been attached to a Star Trek movie, which he says will be R-rated if he ends up signing on to make it. He also mentioned three ideas he had in an interview with NME back in 2016, including “a 1930s gangster movie,” “something contemporary [with] a cool driving montage,” and “a really, really scary horror film.”
