Pulp Fiction movie director is soon to quit the big screen in favour of literary permanence.
Quentin Tarantino has for years said he will make only 10 films and then quit movie-making.
That in itself is upsetting to hear personally, but meanwhile, we have a new page-turner in the offing – his personal, historical look at cinema.
Due out in October, film history book Cinema Speculation will combine “film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history”.
The HarperCollins book’s synopsis reads: “In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive.
“For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans, and all movie lovers, could have hoped for.
“Organised around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
“At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognisable immediately as QT’s and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the art form ever.”
Tarantino sees writing books as a way to remain creative and has been, from the start, strict at stopping at 10 films. Kill Bill Vol 1 and Vol 2 are treated as one film before you get your Casios out…
In 2021 he adapted his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood into a “brutal and hilarious” novel, and now wants a return to pen and paper.
Tarantino still has not announced any plans to shoot his final movie, but fans can look forward to some production news from The Hateful Eight director this autumn.
Tarantino used to work in a video shop and was later hired as a screenwriter for a horror-action film, From Dusk till Dawn, in 1996.
Before that, in 1992, Tarantino released one of his most memorable films, Reservoir Dogs, at the Sundance Film Festival, and went on to make the remarkable Pulp Fiction in 1994.
He is known for writing and directing movies that depict violence and lengthy dialogues. His works pay homage to the exploitations in the 1970s and are inspired by the spaghetti western film genres.