Quentin Tarantino says he will retire after his tenth film

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

While selling his THE HATEFUL EIGHT to international buyers at AFM this week, Quentin Tarantino announced that he plans to retire from filmmaking after this tenth film. He said he’s doing two more movies; so if you’re doing the math while looking at IMDb that also means he’s thankfully counting KILL BILL as one film. We’ve heard this notion of QT retiring before over the years, but he gave a pretty solid argument for why we can believe him this time around.

“I don’t believe you should stay on stage until people are begging you to get off. I like the idea of leaving them wanting a bit more. 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 ten-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 tenth, do a good job and don’t screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career. If, later on, I come across a good movie, I won’t not do it just because I said I wouldn’t. But ten and done, leaving them wanting more, that sounds right.”

I think Kurt Russell who was in attendance spoke for a lot of people when he said: “You don’t actually believe this shit do you?” Tarantino would continue to express his intention to retire after ten films; something I can understand if he wants to leave a fantastic filmography behind with nothing but great movies for people to remember him by.

He also went on to talk about THE HATEFUL EIGHT and the inspirations behind his snowy bloody tale:

“It’s less inspired by one Western movie than by Bonanza, The Virginians, High Chaparral,” Tarantino said. “Twice per season, those shows would have an episode where a bunch of outlaws would take the lead characters hostage. They would come to the Ponderosa and hold everybody hostage, or to go Judge Garth’s place–Lee J. Cobb played him–in The Virginians, and take hostages. There would be a guest star like David Carradine, Darren McGavin, Claude Akins, Robert Culp, Charles Bronson or James Coburn. I don’t like that storyline in a modern context, but I love it in a Western where you would pass halfway through the show to find out if they were good or bad guys, and they all had a past that was revealed. “I thought, what if I did a movie starring nothing but those characters? No heroes, no Michael Landons. Just a bunch of nefarious guys in a room, all telling back stories that may or may not be true. Trap those guys together in a room with a blizzard outside, give them guns, and see what happens.”

With the idea of retiring becoming more and more of a reality for one of our greatest filmmakers, I can’t help but get more excited for what’s to come from QT. There are only three more movies left to go! Panic!

Do you believe Tarantino will retire with a tenth and final film?