Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Jun 4

Tarantino Calls Hollywood a 'Flavourless Sausage Factory' as 2019 Remains His Last Film

Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Jun 4

Tarantino Calls Hollywood a 'Flavourless Sausage Factory' as 2019 Remains His Last Film

Q: Is Tarantino’s West End play a creative detour or the true final act of his legendary career?

Tarantino’s West End play looks more like a creative detour than the true final act of his career, though it could shape what comes next. The clearest reason is that Tarantino has not abandoned his long-stated plan to end his directing career with a 10th film. “The Popinjay Cavalier,” a swashbuckling comedy headed for the West End in 2027, is being framed as a major new challenge in theater, not as a replacement for that final movie. He has said the play will take up roughly a year and a half to two years, which points more to a delay than an ending. That said, the play is not a minor side project. It arrives at a moment when Tarantino has sounded unusually disillusioned with modern movies, calling much of contemporary Hollywood “flavorless” and saying he often prefers reading to watching new releases. Even his praise for Netflix’s “The Rip” stands out because it is such a rare exception. That broader frustration helps explain why theater may now feel creatively energizing. The play also fits his stated desire to work in “uncharted territory.” He declined to direct “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” despite writing it, because he wants his final film to feel distinct. That suggests the stage may be a testing ground for whatever artistic spark leads him back to cinema. So, for now, the evidence points to a detour with unusually high stakes: not the end itself, but potentially the project that determines what his true final act will be.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 4

Sight and Sound published Quentin Tarantino's broadside against contemporary Hollywood, where he said new releases are routinely sunk by implausibilities, audience pandering, miscasting and "plain stupid shit."
The director said the post-pandemic movie landscape now inspires "contempt" more than generosity, adding that he has seen little that recaptures the "magical land of enjoyment" that once made cinema his favorite art form.
The Rip on Netflix was his main exception, and he also singled out Steven Spielberg's West Side Story and Kevin Costner's Horizon chapters 1 and 2 as recent films he admired.
Tarantino has not released a film since 2019's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, scrapped his planned 10th feature The Movie Critic in 2024, and is now preparing West End play The Popinjay Cavalier for 2027.