Tarantino's Tenth: New Film Momentum and West End Play

Quentin Tarantino is steering toward a fresh course. Fans who have been waiting for his promised tenth film can breathe — but not yet. A new chapter is forming around a stage play in London and a mysterious movie that, according to longtime cinematographer Robert Richardson, will be "entirely new."

Richardson spoke with Screen Daily, dropping the kind of detail that excites cinephiles without spoiling the engine behind the project. He says principal photography is slated to begin at some point next year, while pre-production is expected to ramp up in summer 2027. The catch? Tarantino wants the script for his West End play, The Popinjay Cavalier, finished and staged before he throws himself fully into directing again. The play is due to open in early 2027 — a deliberate detour, if you will, before he climbs back into the director's chair.

Why the detour? Tarantino has long insisted that his directorial career will conclude with his tenth feature. He originally moved toward a historical project called The Movie Critic, even entering pre-production in January 2024 and courting names like Brad Pitt. But he pulled the plug, admitting the film had started to echo Once Upon a Time in Hollywood too closely — same city, same late-1960s backdrop — and he didn't want to repeat himself.

So he pivoted. The Popinjay Cavalier became priority. And when a filmmaker writes plays, novels and scripts, the boundaries between mediums blur. Tarantino has said he won't rush what could be his final movie. He intends to finish the play first and only then commit fully to the new film.

There are other whispers, too. Reports have suggested a six-part miniseries about 1930s gangsters, co-written with Sylvester Stallone, is on the table. Both Tarantino and Stallone have stayed silent since the initial news, so for now it remains a tantalizing rumor — the sort that keeps industry chatter lively but offers no certainties.

Meanwhile, Tarantino's recent moves have already made waves. Last December he released the four-hour Kill Bill cut titled The Whole Bloody Affair after reclaiming rights from The Weinstein Company. That restored version, including a short animated sequence previously excised, scored a rare 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and pushed global box office past the $12 million mark. Critics celebrated. Audiences, too.

And the Tarantino universe continues to expand in unexpected directions. This November sees an IMAX release of The Adventures of Cliff Booth — a Brad Pitt-led spin on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood written by Tarantino but directed by David Fincher, marking the first time in decades another director has filmed one of Tarantino's screenplays. It’s a curious crossroads: Tarantino's voice, filtered through another auteur's lens.

What all of this adds up to is less a tidy plan and more a creative chess game. A West End premiere, a postponed but now reinvigorated film project, a restored classic back in circulation, and rumors of television work. Patience has become part of the appeal. Tarantino is chasing novelty, not nostalgia. And for a director who has promised to bow out at his peak, that careful, almost theatrical approach feels oddly right.

Will this be the tenth and final movie he intends to leave behind? The pieces are moving into place, and now it's a matter of watching how he stages his exit.