Brad Pitt is reportedly joining the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film The Movie Critic. Since Tarantino has labeled this his last movie, it could mark his third and final collaboration with Pitt.
Tarantino has long stated that he will retire after his 10th movie due to his desire to preserve his legacy and refrain from becoming an out-of-date director. While he first started speaking of his retirement over a decade ago, now the time has come when his 10th film is in sight. He has spent the past three decades in the industry and is the filmmaker behind classic hits such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Meanwhile, he has confirmed that his plans to retire have not changed over the past few years. He told HypeBeast last year, “It’s just that I’ve been making movies for 30 years, and I’m ready to quit.” His projects always tend to pique interest, but this is especially true for The Movie Critic, as audiences will be excited to see what his final film holds.
Although no studio is attached to the film yet, and Tarantino has been keeping details largely under wraps, the film received an exciting update recently.
Brad Pitt is reportedly in talks to star in The Movie Critic
Deadline broke the news that Pitt is in talks to star in Tarantino’s The Movie Critic. While the news has not been officially confirmed by Pitt or Tarantino, he is allegedly close to signing on, though it’s unclear if he will play the lead role or not. The outlet also reported that Sony Pictures will likely be the film’s distributor. The casting news is quite surprising as Tarantino’s past statements about the plot seemed to rule out Pitt and the director’s other long-time collaborator, Leonardo DiCaprio, for the lead role.
An official synopsis of the film has not been provided. However, Tarantino did briefly explain to Deadline the surprising inspiration for his movie. The titular “film critic” is actually a real-life movie critic who wrote movie reviews for a porn magazine. Tarantino became acquainted with the man’s writing, given that one of his jobs as a teenager was reloading a porn magazine vending machine. While he didn’t find much of the content intriguing, he grew to like this cynical critic’s “rude” and “very, very funny” writings. Later, he began researching the reviewer’s life and learned that he sadly passed away in his 30s, despite writing as if he were someone much older, likely due to alcoholism.
The director decided to create a movie inspired by this critic, though he has opted not to reveal the writer’s identity nor which outlet he wrote for. What is notable about the plot and main character is that a younger man will be necessary for the lead role. Hence, it seemed unlikely Pitt would be chosen for that role. Now that Pitt is joining the film, it either means he’ll be playing a different character or that the film’s direction has changed amid reported rewrites. No one has been officially cast in The Movie Critic, though Tarantino was also rumored to be eyeing Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya, Richard Jewell) for the lead role.
It has been confirmed that the movie will be filmed in California and production is expected to start soon. Since filming hasn’t commenced yet, The Movie Critic isn’t expected to release until 2025 at the earliest. More updates should be forthcoming once production gets underway.
(featured image: Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty)
