Quentin Tarantino's The Movie Critic Is About A Film Reviewer Who Writes For A XXX Mag

Slowly but surely, details are starting to come our way regarding "The Movie Critic," which is quite possibly going to be Quentin Tarantino's last film as a director. The filmmaker behind "Pulp Fiction" and "Inglorious Basterds" has long said that he wants to retire after his tenth feature, and has held firm on that. It's worth noting that he personally counts "Kill Bill" as one movie, for those wondering how the math checks out. In any event, Tarantino has revealed that his upcoming feature will be about a guy who wrote movie reviews for a porno mag.

Speaking with Deadline at Cannes, Tarantino dished some fresh details on the film, which is about to be in "pre-pre production," as he described it. According to Tarantino, his latest will take place in 1977, will be set in California, and "is based on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag." Tarantino actually had a job as a teenager loading dirty magazines into a vending machine. "All the other stuff was too skanky to read but then there was this porno rag that had a really interesting movie page," he said.

Tarantino wouldn't reveal the name of the magazine or the writer in question. He did, however, discuss the central figure of his new movie a bit, comparing him to a character from Martin Scorsese's filmography.

"Well, he was known if you read the Popstar Pages!! He wrote about mainstream movies and he was the second-string critic. I think he was a very good critic. He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle [Robert DeNiro's character in Taxi Driver] might be if he were a film critic."

That is one heck of a way to describe someone. As for who might take on the role? Tarantino wouldn't give any names but said "I haven't decided yet but it's going to be somebody in the 35-year-old ballpark. It'll definitely be a new leading man for me." He then added, "I do have an idea of somebody I can imagine doing it really well," but wouldn't divulge further. His regular players such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are too old for the part, it seems. Speaking further, Tarantino elaborated:

"The porno rag critic was very, very funny. He was very rude, you know. He cursed. He used racial slurs. But his s*** was really funny. He was as rude as hell. He wrote like he was 55 but he was only in his early to mid-30s. He died in his late thirties. It wasn't clear for a while but now I've done some more research and I think it was it was complications due to alcoholism."

Not much else has been revealed about the film as of yet, though it looks like he's going to remake parts of certain '70s movies within his latest directorial effort. Even with what little we do know, it's interesting to consider that Tarantino's final movie could, in some way, be going back to what helped him form his love of cinema in the first place. Not just the '70s, but the reviews from that dirty magazine that helped to shape his imagination and understanding of film. It seems oddly fitting that Tarantino would potentially end his career using a porno mag as a backdrop. We'll be sure to keep you posted as further details come our way.

"The Movie Critic" does not currently have a release date.