“The Movie Critic” is probably the last Quentin Tarantino film he is currently preparing. When the project was announced, the rumor quickly spread that the legendary Pauline Kael, admired by the cult director “Pulp Fiction”, was the inspiration for the main character of his film. But he denied that in an interview – Columnist Baz Bamigboye clearly.
At a meeting in Cannes, Tarantino revealed that to the journalist another real critic would be the model for the protagonist of his 1977 California film.
But it “is a man who never really became famous. He wrote movie reviews for a porn magazine.”
A movie critic like the “Taxi Driver”
He did not want to disclose the name of the critic and the magazine. In his film, the porn magazine will be called “The Popstar Pages”. The reviewer wrote about normal mainstream movies – but in a porn newspaper. “His reviews were a cross between the early Howard Stern and some Travis Bickle [die Hauptfigur aus „Taxi Driver“] would have written if he had been a film critic”.
Imagine reading Travis Bickle’s diary, according to Tarantino. The real critic was “very, very funny” but “very rough” at the same time. The director of “Inglourious Basterds” explains that he swore and used racist language further.
Tarantino also reveals that as part of the preparation, he researched the life of the role model for the main character. He wrote as if he were 55, but was actually only in his early to mid-thirties and even died in his late thirties – probably because he was an alcoholic. That age is important because Tarantino wants to stay true to it.
Who plays the lead role? It’s going to be a Tarantino debut!
According to Quentin Tarantino, who actually likes to write roles with regular stars in mind, he hasn’t decided on a leading actor yet. He but already have an American actor in mindbut not sure yet if he should really offer the role to this person.
It will end anyway definitely become an American actor with whom he has never worked before. So someone is going to make their Tarantino debut. This is also because stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt are too old for the film critic who, as said, died in his late thirties.
Quentin Tarantino plans to begin pre-production on “The film critic” to start. A theatrical release is expected for the fall of late 2024.