Deadline is reporting that Quentin Tarantino will be reuniting with Brad Pitt for his final film, “The Movie Critic”. We’re not entirely sure if it’s for the titular role, but the outlet believes that it might be.
This will be the third Tarantino film for Pitt. Most recently, Pitt won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood”, and he also starred in “Inglorious Basterds.” Sony Pictures will be distributing the film, with Stacey Sher producing, and a 2025 release being eyed.
Last year, I mentioned how production on Tarantino’s 10th film was all ready to go, with a late September shoot set up and then the SAG-AFTRA strike started. I was told this “completely derailed” the momentum.
A few actors who were supposed to be part of the film, mostly supporting roles, had to drop out. The lead was still there. During this break, Tarantino did some rewrites on the script, which has now been corroborated by Deadline. A late 2024 or early 2025 production start is being eyed.
Although no other official casting has been announced, the rumored actors that are said to potentially be a part of this film, which is said to be an “ensemble,” includes the likes of Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Walter Hauser and John Travolta.
Filmmaker Paul Schrader also recently revealed that Tarantino would be doing some revisionist history, as he has with most of his films since “Inglourious Basterds”:
“Quentin will insert extracts from films from the 1970s. And he will also make his own versions of films from that era. He asked my permission to shoot the ending of [‘Rolling Thunder’], by John Flynn, as I had written it in the original screenplay—before it was completely rewritten and watered down.”
Set in 1977 California, “The Movie Critic” is said to revolve around a critic who writes movie reviews for a porno rag called The Popstar Pages. Tarantino described the protagonist of the film as “a guy who really lived but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag […] He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic,” the director added.
There have been rumors pointing towards real-life ‘70s Hollywood Press film critic Jim Sheldon being the main character, some others believe it might actually be Sheldon’s colleague William Marigold. Tarantino has admitted to passionately reading both of these critics during his childhood, in ‘70s California.