While many directors have embraced the streaming world, it’s safe to say that we won’t see Quentin Tarantino making a movie for Netflix anytime soon.
While speaking with Deadline, Quentin Tarantino took aim at streaming services where it feels like the projects exist to feed the content machine instead of being remembered. “I mean, and I’m not picking on anybody, but apparently for Netflix, Ryan Reynolds has made $50 million on this movie and $50 million on that movie and $50 million on the next movie for them,” Tarantino said. “I don’t know what any of those movies are. I’ve never seen them. Have you? I haven’t ever talked to Ryan Reynolds’ agent, but his agent is like, ‘Well, it cost $50 million.’ Well, good for him that he’s making so much money. But those movies don’t exist in the zeitgeist. It’s almost like they don’t even exist.“
Not to continue picking on Ryan Reynolds, but Quentin Tarantino does have a point. Will movies like 6 Underground or Red Notice be remembered as anything other than big-budget misfires?
Quentin Tarantino also spoke about going out on top with his final film, The Movie Critic. “I like the idea of giving it my all for 30 years and then saying, ‘OK, that’s enough.’ And I don’t like working to diminishing returns,” Tarantino said. “And I mean, now is a good time because I mean, what even is a motion picture anyway anymore? Is it just something that they show on Apple? That would be diminishing returns.” That’s part of the reason why Tarantino will likely be doing his last movie with Sony. “I’m probably going to be doing the movie with Sony because they’re the last game in town that is just absolutely, utterly, committed to the theatrical experience,” Tarantino said. “It’s not about feeding their streaming network. They are committed to theatrical experience. They judge success by asses on seats. And they judge success by the movies entering the zeitgeist, not just making a big expensive movie and then putting it on your streaming platform. No one even knows it’s there.“
Speaking of The Movie Critic, Quentin Tarantino recently teased that the film is set in 1977 California and “is based on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.”
Do you agree with Quentin Tarantino about streaming movies? What made-for-streaming movies will continue to be remembered years down the road?