Tarantino says the script for his tenth film is written — but he will wait before making it
Quentin Tarantino has confirmed on The Graham Norton Show that he has finished writing the script for what he has long said will be his tenth and final feature film, but he will not pursue it until his West End play The Popinjay Cavalier has closed and he has had time with his family.
Quentin Tarantino has finished writing his tenth feature film. The director, who has said for years that he plans to retire from feature filmmaking after his tenth movie, confirmed the script exists during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, his first on the programme in more than a decade.
He was clear, however, that finishing the script does not mean filming is close. Tarantino said he likes the script, but first wants to stage his play and take time to be with his family and, in his words, live a little, before deciding what to do next. That sequencing matters for fans: the tenth film is written, not announced, and there is no production timetable in this news.
The play in question, The Popinjay Cavalier, is described as a swashbuckling comedy and is due to open at London's Phoenix Theatre next March, after previews in late February, starring Sacha Baron Cohen. It is scheduled to run for three months, closing on 13 June. Tarantino has explained that the piece began as a screenplay before he concluded it worked better as theatre.
The delay also explains why speculation about the final film should be treated carefully. Tarantino gave no title, subject or casting for the tenth feature in the interview reported this weekend, and nothing in the report turns earlier rumours into a confirmed production. What has changed is only the state of the script: it is, by his own account, written and liked by its author.
His most recent feature remains Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, released in 2019 with Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. That long gap is part of the story: whenever the tenth film does move forward, it will arrive as the closing chapter Tarantino has been promising since long before this script was finished.
Source: Variety