According to what was reported by The Hollywood Reporter, The Movie Critic could have been a real meta-cinematic operation. In the canceled film, apparently, we would have seen the most famous characters in Quentin Tarantino’s filmography.
While fans of Quentin Tarantino are still trying to get over the shock that followed the cancellation of The Movie Criticinteresting things pop up backstory which concern the film itself. The latter, which should have marked the farewell of the beloved director to the world of cinema, it would have had a completely new system. At least, that’s what transpired from the pages of The Hollywood Reporter. The rejected feature film, inspired by the figure of a B-grade film critic actually existed, it would have brought together some of Tarantino’s previous works in a single ‘universe’.
We know that The Movie Critic it was supposed to be set in 1970s Los Angeles. Second The Hollywood Reporter, the characters from the director’s first films, destined to co-exist with those of the new feature film. An ambitiously meta-cinematic operation which, however, cannot be denied that it suits the unpredictable style of the eclectic Tarantino. The Movie Critictherefore, would have potentially brought back the stars of titles such as Hyenas or Pulp Fiction. Perhaps as imaginary versions of themselves, or in “film within a film” style situations.
Let’s not forget that the director had intended to include in The Movie Critic scenes from actually existing films, including Rolling Thunder (1977), reshot for the occasion. An expedient with which the author of Jackie Brown he had already tried his hand at Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, adding your own unmistakable touch. Could this idea also include the reinvention of sequences from films he himself directed? It’s crazy enough to be plausible. Another hypothesis is that the characters would have interacted with a future director, perhaps a Tarantino as a teenager.
This theory would also explain the reports regarding Brad Pitt. The actor won the Oscar Prize as best supporting actor thanks to his role as Cliff Booth in Once upon a time in Hollywood. There were rumors that, in The Movie Critic, he would return to take on the role of the energetic stuntman. In light of this information, the thought that the feature film will never see the light of day is perhaps even more disheartening.
So what will be the Quentin Tarantino’s tenth and final film? The director has never hidden his goal of completing his filmography with a tenth title. “If you think about the idea that all films tell a story,” he said in 2019, “and each film is like a boxcar connected to the others, this would be in a way the great climax of all of that. And I could imagine that the tenth it would be a sort of epilogue.”
