During a live Q&A session for buyers at the American Film Market, the legendary filmmaker said that his current project, The Hateful Eight, could also be his last one. Deadline is reporting that Tarantino is debating his retirement after making his tenth film. According to Tarantino, there comes a time in every director’s life when they have to step down and let younger minds take over.
“I don’t believe you should stay onstage until people are begging you to get off. I like the idea of leaving them wanting a bit more,” Tarantino said.“I do think directing is a young man’s game, and I like the idea of an umbilical cord connection from my first to my last movie. I’m not trying to ridicule anyone who thinks differently, but I want to go out while I’m still hard. … I like that I will leave a 10-film filmography, and so I’ve got two more to go after this. It’s not etched in stone, but that is the plan. If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don’t screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career.”
This is not the first time Tarantino announces his plans for early retirement. In 2009, at the U.K. launch of Inglorious Basterds, he expressed his appreciation for directors that retire at a certain age. Three years later, in 2012, he gave an interview for Playboybefore the Django Unchained premiere in which he said that “I just don’t want to be an old-man filmmaker. I want to stop at a certain point. Directors don’t get better as they get older. Usually the worst films in their filmography are those last four at the end. I am all about my filmography, and one bad film f**ks up three good ones."
But if there’s one thing we know about retirements, is that sometimes people change their minds. I mean does Michael Jordan or Michael Phelps ring a bell? For example, at the same Q&A session, Tarantino also said that “If, later on, I come across a good movie, I won’t not do it just because I said I wouldn’t. But 10 and done, leaving them wanting more — that sounds right.”At the event, the panel also included The Hateful Eight stars Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell, who both expressed their doubts about Tarantino being able to stay out of the filmmaking business. Kurt Russell asked the audience “You don’t actually believe that shit, do you?”, while Samuel Jackson was curious about “What’s Quentin going to do with himself if he’s not doing this?”
Also, fans are counting on his fight against digital filmmaking to keep him in the industry. It’s a known fact that Tarantino is a hardcore fan of old school filmmaking and he’s putting a lot of effort in trying to stop the momentum of digital filmmaking. The Hateful Eight will be shot in 70 mm in what the director hopes to be a reminder that compared to film, digital filmmaking is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. “I know this business has gone digital, even more in foreign countries than in America where it’s 90%. Digital presentation is just television in public, we’re all just getting together and watching TV without pointing the remote control at the screen. I have worked 20 years, too long to accept the diminishing results of having it come into theaters with the quality of a f*cking DVD, shot with the same shit they shoot soap operas with. It’s just not good enough for me,” Tarantino said.
And finally, one last reason for fans not to worry so much would be story behind The Hateful Eight. Following the Django Unchained premiere, Tarantino announced working on a new Western movie, not related to Django. The script leaked in January and the director immediately announced his plans to drop the movie. However, things changed in the meantime and filming is scheduled to start this month, with a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Channing Tatum, Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen and Tim Roth.
So is he for real? Will Tarantino really retire after The Hateful Eight? Is this just a move to create buzz about the movie? Who knows, but one thing’s for sure, we’re all counting the days until it hits cinemas and see what Tarantino’s farewell movie will be like.
