Quentin Tarantino Scraps Film ‘The Movie Critic,’ Which Would’ve Been His Last

Quentin Tarantino will no longer be making The Movie Critic, the film he previously said would be his last as a director.

Variety confirmed Wednesday that the director had passed on the project, which would have been his 10th film, and revealed that sources said he wouldn’t be rewriting the project either.

Back in February, Brad Pitt had been supposedly tapped for the movie — the collaboration would have reconnected the actor-director duo after working together on 2009’s Inglorious Bastards and 2019’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. Movie Critic was reportedly set in 1977 and followed a movie critic who wrote reviews for a porn magazine. (It was rumored Pitt would have reprised a version of his role as Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time, per Variety.)

At Cannes last year, Tarantino refused to answer questions about the film, but said, “I can’t tell you guys [anything] until you see the movie. I’m tempted to do some of the character’s monologues right now, but I’m not going to. Maybe if there were less video cameras. You just have to wait and see.”

Variety had also reported last September that Tarantino had gotten a $20.2 million subsidy from California for the film, which was identified as “#10,” referring to the director’s 10th movie.

“I love shooting in California,” Tarantino said in a statement at the time. “I started directing movies here and it is only fitting that I shoot my final motion picture in the cinema capital of the world. There is nothing like shooting in my hometown; the crews are the best I’ve ever worked with, and the locations are amazing. The producers and I are thrilled to be making #10 in Los Angeles.”

It’s unclear if he’ll use the approved subsidy for a different film.