As he does the press tour for his literary debut, a novelization ofOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood,Quentin Tarantinohas been clarifying his highly publicized comments about retiring after 10 movies. SinceOnce Upon a Timewas the director’s ninth work, his fans are getting a little antsy about the prospect that he may only ever direct one more movie. In recent appearances on podcasts likeWTF with Marc MaronandThe Joe Rogan Experience, Tarantino hasconfirmed his intentions to retire after 10 movies, but he’s leaving a little flexibility in case the right story comes up.
There’s been a lot of speculation about what Tarantino’s final movie might be.Kill Bill: Volume 3is a popular candidate, while the rumors that floated around about an R-ratedStar Trekmovie could suggest an interesting change of pace for the filmmaker. Inan interview onCBS Sunday Morning, Tarantino admitted that he has “no idea” what his next film will be, but he did give fans a rough idea of what to expect.
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Tarantino doesn’t have an idea he’s ready to commit his final movie to yet, but he does know the kind of project he’s looking for. He told CBS correspondent Tracy Smith, “If I had to guess, I would thinkOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodis sort of the epic at the end of the career. If I had to guess, I would think the tenth film would be more epilogue-y.” One might’ve expected Tarantino to go out with a bang, ending his career on a large-scale epic that tops everything that came before, but arriving on the heels ofhis sun-drenched magnum opushas made that an impossibility. So, instead, Q.T. will position his final film as a smaller-scale postscript to put a stamp on the end of his filmography.
Retiring after 10 movies isn’t an arbitrary thing. It’s a conscious effort by Tarantino to avoid falling into the trap that all directors eventually fall into. Legendary filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola started out their careers with masterpiece after masterpiece, but they’ve since littered their once-great filmographies with a bunch of forgettable movies. Tarantino wants to quit while he’s still got it, before he loses touch, and that makes perfect sense.
Ending on a smaller “epilogue-y” movie as opposed to the kind of three-hour revisionist extravaganzas he’s become known for would be a neat way to round out Tarantino’s filmography. Hestarted out with a tight 90-minute movie,Reservoir Dogs, so it would bookend the career nicely to end on another tight 90-minute movie. If he takes this route, there are two genres that Tarantino has talked about tackling for a while that work perfectly with tight runtimes: horror and hangout.
Despite the excessive violence of his films, Tarantino has yet to make a full-on horror movie. He wrote, produced, and starred in the vampire-infestedFrom Dusk Till Dawn, but it was directed by his friend Robert Rodriguez.Death Proofis set up like a slasher, but it’s ultimately more of a road movie than a horror movie. There are a few unsettling scenes throughout Tarantino’s filmography, likethe basement scene inPulp Fictionand the Spahn Ranch sequence inOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood, that suggest he’d be perfect for the horror genre.
It’s an idea that’s crossed Tarantino’s mind before. Hetold Time Out, “I would love to make a really, really scary horror film, likeThe Exorcist. But I don’t know if me taking my sense of humor and putting it in the backseat just to hit a tone of dread from beginning to end is the best use of my talents or my time.” He doesn’t necessarily need to eradicate his signature dark humor entirely.The Shining,Get Out, and theEvil Deadmovies all have plenty of big laughs (dark laughs), but never at the expense of the terror.
If Tarantino doesn’t feel like making a humorless horror movie or he doesn’t find the right story for one, then he could instead make a plotless hangout movie likeDazed and Confused.Jackie BrownandOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodare sometimes referred to as hangout movies, because there’s a lot of hanging out inJackie Brownand the middle act ofOnce Upon a Timeis just a random day in the lives of its characters, but those movies are both ultimately tied down by traditional plots and external conflicts. In a proper hangout movie, where nothing happens except characters talking, the focus would be squarely onarguably Tarantino’s greatest asset: his dialogue.
A few years back, Bret Easton Ellistold Vicethat Tarantino had shown some interest in directing an adaptation of his debut novel,Less Than Zero. The book was previously adapted in 1987, but it was extremely unfaithful.Less Than Zerowould make the perfect foundation for a Tarantino-helmed hangout movie. Like any great hangout movie, it has no plot; it just follows a bunch of college kids in the winter of 1984 as they come home for the holidays and reconnect. Ellis wrote the novel when he was still a college student himself. Making the final movie an adaptation of somebody else’s work would fit in nicely withOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodbeing Tarantino’s definitive cinematic statement, becauseLess Than Zerois technically Bret Easton Ellis’ literary statement.
It’s entirely possible that Tarantino will eventually come up with an idea for his final movie, start writing it, and it’ll turn into his biggest epic yet and he’ll end up capping off his filmography with an even larger-scale opus thanOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood. But a smaller, tauter, grittier movie seems like the perfect way for Tarantino toleave his fans wanting more. Whatever Tarantino’s final movie is, he’ll surely provide something wildly entertaining and delightfully subversive.
