So far, this decade has brought no new film from Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Terrence Malick, Alfonso Cuarón, Spike Jonze, Lars von Trier, Wong Kar-wai, Michael Haneke, Bennett Miller, or Kenneth Lonergan. These are all top-tier filmmakers who, for one reason or another, have been absent from cinema in the 2020s.
The question many people are asking, though, is about Tarantino and his 10th and final film, which, by the sound of it, isn't coming anytime soon.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show Friday night, Tarantino confirmed he already has a finished script, but it's going nowhere until he's done with “The Popinjay Cavalier,” his West End play starring Sacha Baron Cohen, which opens in March.
I've written a script that I really like, but I want to do the play and see who I am then I'll then go back and spend time with my family and live a little and then see what I want to do.
So there's a script. That's something. It looks as though “The Movie Critic” really is dead and buried, and that this is a brand-new project, and title, but the premise is obviously unknown.
Tarantino also said ‘Popinjay’ began as a screenplay before he realized "it really worked as a play," describing it as "jumping off from the swashbuckling movie genre with a French farce quality to it."
The "live a little" part shouldn't be overlooked. Tarantino and wife Daniella Pick have two kids, with a third on the way. I would imagine that's going to take up a good chunk of his time once the play wraps its run in June. My guess? We're looking at 2028 at the earliest for the 10th film, and that's if ‘Popinjay’ doesn't convince him the stage is where he belongs.
It's been seven years since Tarantino's last film, "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood," and the gap will stretch to eight by next summer, since he won't have a new film out by then. We thought the break he took after "Jackie Brown" was long (six years), but this has easily become the longest dormant stretch of his career. By the time his tenth and final film comes out, whenever that may be, it could very well be his first in ten years.
So there's a script. That's something. It looks as though “The Movie Critic” really is dead and buried, and that this is a brand-new project, and title, but the premise is unknown.