Earlier this month, Quentin Tarantino hinted at the imminent end of his moviemaking career (yet again). “Most directors have horrible last movies,” he told the Pure Cinema Podcast, joking that he should retire while he’s ahead, with the Oscar-winning Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Now, the Pulp Fiction filmmaker has spoken about his retirement once again, after Bill Maher broached the subject on his eponymous talk show, Real Time with Bill Maher. In a clip, Maher questions the “nonsense” that Tarantino only has one more movie left in him, saying: “You’re too young to quit. You’re at the top of your game.”
“That’s why I wanna quit!” Tarantino replies. “Because I know film history, and from here on in directors do not get better.”
“I don’t have a reason that I would want to say out loud that’s gonna win any argument,” he adds, defending his often-stated position. “But at the same time, working for thirty years, doing as many movies as I’ve done, that’s a really long career. And I’ve given it everything I have.”
Asked whether he thinks he’s accumulated skills and improved as a filmmaker as time’s gone on, Tarantino goes on to reflect on how he would approach his debut feature, Reservoir Dogs, differently if he made it now. “That’s kind of a ‘capture time in a moment’ kind of thing’,” he says. “But actually I have considered doing a remake of Reservoir Dogs as my last movie.”
Presumably sensing the enthusiasm-slash-outrage that such a statement would cause online (especially given Hollywood’s insufferable obsession with reboots), the director goes on to add a disclaimer: “I won’t do it, Internet. But I considered it.”
Luckily for Tarantino fans, even if his tenth film does mark his retirement from the director’s chair, that doesn’t mean it’s the last we’ll be hearing from him, as he’s previously announced plans to move into other mediums, such as television. He’s also recently penned a novelisation of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which he describes as a “complete rethinking” of the film.
Scheduled for release on June 29, the book was promoted with unseen footage from the film earlier this week. You can watch that here, and see Tarantino in conversation with Bill Maher below.
