We were all a little shocked when it was reported last week that Quentin Tarantino would be scrapping The Movie Critic, which was supposed to be his tenth and final film. It remains to be seen what will take the place of The Movie Critic, but THR has a few plot details on what could have been, including a meta-twist which would have seen a young Tarantino making an appearance.
We never really knew all that much about The Movie Critic, only that it would be set in California in 1977 and would be “based on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.” THR’s report states that Tarantino was considering using the project as a way to bid goodbye to his previous movies, which would have existed in the same era as The Movie Critic. “That way, Tarantino could bring back some of the stars of his earlier work to reprise their iconic characters in ‘movie within a movie’ moments,” reads the report, “or to play fictional versions of themselves as the actors who played those characters.” Another idea included some of the characters interacting with a 16-year-old Tarantino, who once worked as an usher at an adult theater.
The film was set to star Brad Pitt, with some saying that the actor would be reprising his role as stuntman Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. As far as the other roles, casting hadn’t gotten too far ahead, but the report states that Paul Walter Hauser, who was reportedly offered a role last year, was “never involved” in the project. Other actors who were being eyed include David Krumholtz and Olivia Wilde, with Wilde actually meeting with Tarantino in person sometime last year.
There had also been rumours that Tom Cruise might make an appearance in The Movie Critic after being forced to turn down a role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but according to sources, it wasn’t going to happen as Cruise hadn’t even met Tarantino.
As for why Tarantino scrapped The Movie Critic, we don’t know, but those close to the director said that he “had grown more excited by other ideas.”