Who stars in Quentin Tarantino's The Movie Critic? Tarantino's supposed final project explored

Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino are reuniting for what is claimed to be the director's final project, The Movie Critic. Tarantino has officially announced that this movie will be his last, marking his tenth directorial venture, and Brad Pitt will once again take the lead in this cinematic farewell.

The Movie Critic marks the fourth time Pitt and Tarantino have joined forces, after their work together on the director's films such as Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, along with Pitt's appearance in Tarantino's 1993 movie True Romance. While details about the upcoming film remain largely under wraps, here's everything we currently know about The Movie Critic.

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Who stars in The Movie Critic? Plot explored

The Movie Critic is set in 1977 in Los Angeles and follows a critic who works for a fictional magazine, The Popstar Pages. The film critic in the movie is named Jim Sheldon, and there is strong speculation that the character draws inspiration from William Margold, an actual film critic whom Tarantino, in his book Cinema Speculation, referred to as the "first-string film critic for the sex rag the Hollywood Press.”

Additionally, there are speculations linking the character to Pauline Kael, the late influential New Yorker writer and one of the most influential film critics of her time. According to Tarantino, the film is “based on a guy who really lived but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.”

Tarantino continued,

“All the other stuff was too skanky to read, but then there was this porno rag that had a really interesting movie page."

Commenting on the protagonist, he said,

“He was very rude, you know. He cursed. He used racial slurs. But his shit was really funny. He was as rude as hell. He wrote about mainstream movies, and he was the second-string critic. I think he was a very good critic. He was cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic. Think about Travis’ diary entries.”

According to Tarantino, the leading character of the movie is “somebody in the 35-year-old ballpark” and “a new leading man for me.” Given this piece of information from the director himself, it does not seem likely that Brad Pitt will be playing the titular character. However, the actor will be involved in some capacity in The Movie Critic.

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Is The Movie Critic really Quentin Tarantino's last movie? When and where is it happening?

Tarantino himself has confirmed that he will be retiring from direction after his tenth movie. This makes The Movie Critic his final project behind the lens. This was shared by him in 2012 when he said,

“I want to stop at a certain point. Directors don’t get better as they get older. Usually the worst films in their filmography are those last four at the end. I am all about my filmography, and one bad film fucks up three good ones. I don’t want that bad, out-of-touch comedy in my filmography, the movie that makes people think, ‘Oh man, he still thinks it’s 20 years ago.’ When directors get out-of-date, it’s not pretty.”

The movie will likely be shot in California, as Tarantino shares a unique bond with the place,

“I started directing movies here and it is only fitting that I shoot my final motion picture in the cinema capital of the world. There is nothing like shooting in my hometown; the crews are the best I’ve ever worked with, and the locations are amazing. The producers and I are thrilled to be making #10 in Los Angeles.”

The Movie Critic will begin filming by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, 2025.