Quentin Tarantino talks about the notion that he might stop making films after his 10th movie while also stating that if he’s going to be forced to shoot digitally maybe he should just make the transition to television instead…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Quentin Tarantino will release his ninth film (eighth if you count ‘Kill Bill’ as one movie) this Christmas when ‘The Hateful Eight’ finally lands in theaters.
Tarantino nearly scrapped the project after his original script for the movie got released prematurely online, but ultimately after a few rewrites, the prolific writer/director moved forward with his second straight Western with a massive cast including Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Dern.
‘The Hateful Eight’ will roll out in a glorious 70mm release after the film was shot on 65mm film with cameras that were originally used for the classic movie ‘Ben Hur’. Tarantino has always been a huge supporter of filmmaking the way it was done for years before digital became the way of the world.
The digital age is one of the reasons why Tarantino has talked openly about finishing his film career after 10 movies and he doubled down on that number when speaking at San Diego Comic Con this year although he left plenty of room to change his mind as well.
“We’ll see what ends up happening. That wasn’t so much a mission statement, more me trying to have a serious discussion about an artist’s vitality in public in a world where that’s not really a good thing to do. I do kind of like the idea of 10 and done, there is kind of a neat thing about that,” Tarantino said.
“I do like that, we’ll see what happens. You have to keep in mind if I go by my normal route of the last 20 years, I usually make about three movies a decade. So this is No. 2 for this decade. So even if I were to end on 10, that’s still a decade and a little bit more to finish that up. However — if things change like I can’t shoot on film or if I can’t release to some degree or another, I don’t even know if I’m going to make 10, however, we’ll see what happens.”
Tarantino says the idea of giving up filmmaking after only 10 movies is also in part because he doesn’t want to keep writing and directing for the sake of doing it. He’d rather churn out films that he’s proud to have his name attached to and on the day he actually retires, fans would be clamoring for more and not applauding his exit.
“I might just say the hell with that and make 15, who knows. But I do like the idea of getting out and leaving you wanting a little bit more,” Tarantino said.
“I like the idea of getting out while it’s still good. I don’t want to be out of touch and if everything changes then I guess I am out of touch and it’s time for me to step aside and let other people take the rope.”
In classic Tarantino fashion, however, he also hinted that if making movies on film is truly dead, maybe the way he transitions to the digital format is by tackling television instead.
Television has become an incredibly popular format for many film stars and film directors over the past few years with dozens of critics preferring the work on the small screen as opposed to what Hollywood has been producing for the big screen recently.
Tarantino knows that his movies are always epic, drawn out features and maybe if he transitioned to television he could finally tell a story the way it was intended instead of editing it down to fit a two to three hour time limit for the theater.
“The thing I don’t like about digital projection is to me it’s just HBO in public. Just watching television in public. So if that’s what movies become then I could move to television,” Tarantino teased. “So maybe there’s 10 movies and maybe I have three miniseries in me. As long as the movies are and I just shoot it all and make it for television and it’s all good.”
“All my scripts get cut down anyway so if I could just write a story and it ends up being eight hours then all good!”
For now it’s all just speculation on Tarantino’s part, but imagine the work he could put in if teamed up with HBO or another premium cable network on an epic event series made for television.
