Tarantino's The Movie Critic Could Have Had A Metaverse Element - Report

New details have come to light pertaining to Quentin Tarantino's The Movie Critic, which was supposed to be his 10th and final film before the director abandoned those plans and decided to make something else instead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, one of the ideas that Tarantino was considering was that it would be a "goodbye metaverse" movie featuring characters from his other movies.

"That way, Tarantino could bring back some of the stars of his earlier work to reprise their iconic characters in 'movie-within-a-movie' moments, or to play fictional versions of themselves as the actors who played those characters," THR said.

The report also said Tarantino considered having The Movie Critic feature a movie theater where characters could interact with an aspiring filmmaker--a 16-year-old Tarantino.

As for who could have appeared in The Movie Critic, THR said reports that actor-wrestler Paul Walter Hauser filming a scene for the movie were inaccurate and he was "never involved." John Travolta, Jamie Foxx, and Margot Robbie--all of whom appeared in previous Tarantino movies--were also rumored for The Movie Critic, as was Tom Cruise. As fans may recall, Cruise was originally looked at to play Brad Pitt's character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. However, the report said Cruise never met with Tarantino for a part in The Movie Critic.

Olivia Wilde, meanwhile, met with Tarantino, according to THR, but it's unclear if it was a general meeting or specific to The Movie Critic. David Krumholtz, who appeared in Oppenheimer, was reportedly in the mix to be in The Movie Critic as well.

The California Film Commission granted Tarantino's production company more than $20 million in credits to film in the state, and The Movie Critic remains an "active project" on the commission's books. It's unclear how this matter could resolve itself.

As for why Tarantino chose to abandon The Film Critic, we don't know. THR's sources said Tarantino had "grown excited by other ideas" and decided to move on. A source said Tarantino regularly throws away scripts, so that happening again with The Movie Critic is no surprise.

The report goes on to say that whenever Tarantino decides to make his next movie, he'll once again partner with Sony Pictures. Prior to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino made most of his movies with Harvey Weinstein's The Weinstein Company.

In 2021, Tarantino said 2019's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was his big "epic" and that his next film will be more of an "epilogue" to his career.

"The weight was really on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That's kind of like my big epic. That's like my big wrap-up-the-career kind of epic," he explained. "And I think I did it. I don't know what the next story is going to be. I'm imagining it will be more epilogue-y. Like [Once Upon a Time in Hollywood] is the big one, and then whatever I end up doing for that last one...more of an epilogue, as you're wrapping up the career."

Regarding his forthcoming retirement, Tarantino said in a previous interview that he believes that "most directors have horrible last movies," and he doesn't want this to be true for himself.

"Usually their worst movies are their last movies," he said. "That's the case for most of the Golden Age directors that ended up making their last movies in the late '60s and the '70s, then that ended up being the case for most of the New Hollywood directors who made their last movies in the late '80s and the '90s. I mean, most directors' last films are f**king lousy."