If Quentin Tarantino remains committed to retiring from filmmaking after his 10th feature film, then whatever movie the Oscar winner decides to make next will be his swan song from the big screen. Christopher Nolan is disappointed.
“I think it’s dangerous to look at it that specifically,” Nolan recently told The Telegraph about Tarantino’s long-discussed 10-movie retirement plan. “I mean, Quentin has his reasons, and I respect those enormously. But I’m hoping that he won’t stay true to them… I view every film that I do as the last I’ll ever make, and one day I will be right. So every time I want to put everything into the project at hand. I’m never thinking, ‘Well, I’ll save this for the next one.’ I don’t ever want to think like that. I want each movie to be everything.”
Tarantino has spoken for years about his plan to retire after making 10 feature films (the “Kill Bill” movies count as one film in his eyes, as they were developed and shot as a single feature), saying he wants to leave behind a consistently strong and tightly curated body of work.
“And do you believe him?” Nolan asked the “ReelBlend” podcast hosts in 2023 while promoting “Oppenheimer.”
“Quentin’s point has always been that — and he never, very graciously, he’s never specific about the films he’s talking about or whatever — but he’s looking at some of the work done by filmmakers in later years and feeling that if it can’t live up to the heyday, it would be better if it didn’t exist,” Nolan explained at the time. “And I think that’s a very purist point of view. It’s the point of view of a cinephile who prizes film history.”
“I’m not sure that I would trust my own sense of the absolute value of a piece of work to know whether or not it should have been brought into existence,” Nolan added. “I’m a big fan, as is Quentin, of films that maybe don’t fully achieve what they try to, but there’s something in there that’s a performance, or a little structural thing, or a scene, you know, that’s wonderful. And so, yes, I understand. I think wanted to keep a sort of perfect reputation of something, but also kind of don’t want to take anything off the table.”
Nolan and Tarantino’s friend and fellow filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has been a lot more blunt in his criticism of Tarantino’s 10-movie plan.
“I know Quentin [Tarantino] likes to say, ‘I’m making 10 movies and then I’m quitting.’ But I could never do that,” Anderson said back in 2018. “I don’t know how he could say that, or how he could take himself seriously when he says that. This is what I want to do as long as I’m able to do it. As long as I’m able to do it, I’m going to do it. I think things can become peculiar when directors don’t act their age maybe, or seeing them try to keep up with the kids or trying to be hip. That’s never a good look.”
As for what Tarantino has planned for his 10th and alleged final feature remains to be seen. There was a time when “The Movie Critic” was being prepped as his swan song, but Tarantino has since scrapped that screenplay. Even if Tarantino does retire, there are other artistic mediums through which he can continue to put out new content. He’s already authored a few books, and his new play, “The Popinjay Cavalier,” is set to open on London’s West End in 2027.