Quentin Tarantino Pivots from Filmmaking to the Stage for Next Project: “I’m Writing a Play”

Quentin Tarantino Pivots from Filmmaking to the Stage for Next Project: “I’m Writing a Play”

Quentin Tarantino is pivoting away from filmmaking for his next project.

The auteur sat for an exclusive chat with esteemed journalist, host and film insider Elvis Mitchell at his Main Street suite presented by Darling & Co. that was packed to the gills. The room, filled with festival insiders, filmmakers and press, hung on Tarantino’s every word during the lively chat. And he leaned into the thirst surrounding the seemingly never-ending fever to know what he’s doing next.

“If you’re wondering what I’m doing right now,” said the beanie-clad Tarantino in clips that surfaced on X. “I’m writing a play. It’s probably going to be the next thing I end up doing.”

But he didn’t rule out the possibility that his play could be mined as a big-screen adaptation. “If it’s a fiasco I probably won’t turn it into a movie. But if it’s a smash hit? It might be my last movie.”

Tarantino’s “last movie” inspired a swarm of headlines last year as it was widely reported, including by The Hollywood Reporter, that his project The Film Critic would be his big-screen final bow, following Once Upon a Time in Hollywood starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.

As THR reported, the decision came as a shock given the project was expected to film at least one sequence in 2024, and then go into production in early 2025 with A-list talent attached, including Brad Pitt, in what would have marked a third reteaming with Tarantino.

During his Mitchell chat, Tarantino explained why he’s been so hesitant to get back behind the camera — his two children — as first reported by Variety. “I’m in no hurry to actually jump into production. I’ve been doing that for 30 years. Next month my son turns 5, and I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. When I’m in America, I’m writing. When I’m in Israel? I’m an abba, which means father,” he told Mitchell, who also snagged a coveted chat during the festival this year when Bill Murray popped in for what one insider told THR was a reflective, engaging and career-spanning conversation.

He said he’s at least going to wait until his son is 6 years old. “The idea of jumping on a voyage when they’re too young to understand it is not enticing to me. I want to not do whatever movie I end up doing until my son is at least 6. That way he’ll know what’s going on, he’ll be there and it will be a memory for the rest of his life.” Certainly for his die-hard fans, too.