The Pulp Fiction director has confirmed he will retire after making one more film, doubling down on the 10-movie retirement plan he has previously revealed. Many still debate whether or not Tarantino’s 2019 release Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, the Oscar-winning epic of Hollywood’s Golden Age seen by many as one of the director’s best works, was his ninth or 10th film. This is because some people – including the filmmaker – take Kill Bill volumes one and two to be a single film.
So why does Tarantino want to retire if he’s at the top of his game? Well, precisely for that reason. Appearing as a guest on the chat show Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, Tarantino said he wants to quit “because I know film history and from here on end, directors do not get better”. “Working for 30 years doing as many movies as I’ve done is not as many as other people, but that’s a long career,” Tarantino said. “And I’ve given it everything I have.”
But that’s not to say he will be done telling stories after he hangs up his director’s cap. The filmmaker had appeared on Maher’s show to promote his new novel Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, based on the film, and has previously revealed how he intends to be “a man of letters” after he retires. “I kind of feel this is the time for the third act [of my life], to just lean a little bit more into the literary, which would be good as a new father, as a new husband,” Tarantino told Rolling Stone in 2020. “I wouldn’t be grabbing my family and yanking them to Germany or Sri Lanka or wherever the next story takes place. I can be a little bit more of a homebody, and become a little bit more of a man of letters.”
