Quentin Tarantino has a finished script for his 10th and final film, but cameras won’t roll until he’s finished a West End play and had a break. Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, as IGN reports, he said the screenplay is one he “really, really” likes, though he hasn’t committed to making it.
Norton asked about his “10th” and “final film”, and Tarantino’s answer suggested the retirement plan still stands. “I’ve written a script that I could do that I really, really like, but I have to do the play and see who I am, right?” he said. He then laid out the order of events: finish the play, go home to his family for a while, “live”, and then see what he wants to do next.
The play is The Popinjay Cavalier, his first stage work, starring Sacha Baron Cohen. IGN reports previews start on 23 February 2027, with an opening on 18 March. Variety places it at London’s Phoenix Theatre, describes it as a “swashbuckling comedy” and says a three-month run ends on 13 June. That puts any real decision on the film well into the second half of 2027, and nobody has said what the script is about.
A finished script doesn’t guarantee a film, and Tarantino has been here before. Comic Basics notes that in March 2023 he said he’d finished the script for The Movie Critic, which was expected to shoot that autumn, before reports in April 2024 said he’d changed course. IGN also points to the earlier rumour of a Star Trek film, which Tarantino debunked himself. Studios in general tend to park finished scripts for long stretches, as with the Dungeons & Dragons sequel and Zach Cregger’s Aunt Gladys prequel, though Tarantino’s pause is his own choice.
The wait is also long by his own timeline. IGN says he first mentioned ending his career at film number 10 a few years before The Hateful Eight arrived in 2014, and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood became number nine in 2019.
New Tarantino material is arriving sooner, though without him in the director’s chair. Netflix says David Fincher’s The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, written by Tarantino and starring Brad Pitt, gets a two-week IMAX run from 25 November before it streams on Netflix on 23 December.
Will Tarantino’s 10th film be his last?
That’s still the plan. Tarantino didn’t contradict Norton’s description of it as his “final film”, and IGN reads his answer as confirmation that his next film is meant to be his last.
When could the film start shooting?
There’s no date. Tarantino wants to finish The Popinjay Cavalier first, with previews starting on 23 February 2027, and then take time with his family before deciding. Nothing has been announced about the film’s plot, cast or studio.
What can I watch from Tarantino before then?
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood follow-up that Tarantino wrote and Fincher directed. Netflix lists it for IMAX on 25 November and streaming on 23 December.
