Quentin Tarantino keeps hinting in interviews that after his tenth film, he’s going to retire from writing and directing movies for good. For the record, his forthcoming western, The Hateful Eight, is actually his eighth film, so if he keeps to his word he’s got two more films to go before he calls it quits. (Tarantino counts both volumes of Kill Bill as one movie, by the way, before someone out there corrects my math.) But just because Q.T. is thinking of leaving movies behind, that doesn’t mean the world of television isn’t beckoning for him to come onboard.
In a recent interview with the French edition of Premiere Magazine, Tarantino mentioned that he still has plans to bring the Elmore Leonard novel Forty Lashes Less One, for which he has held the film rights to since the year 2000, to life. Like his most recent two films, Forty Lashes Less One is also a western, but he thinks that this project is maybe better suited for television instead. He told Premiere the following:
“It always takes me a while before thinking about the future. That said, I own the rights to this book (I’ve) wanted to adapt for a while, and the time may have come for me to tackle (it). This is Forty Lashes Less One, (written by) Elmore Leonard…which could be my third western. (I’m) considering (taking the) project to TV, in the form of a mini-series of four or six hours.”
A Tarantino-directed television mini-series sounds almost like an inevitability at this point. He likes to make long movies, for one, and this allows him to be as indulgent as he wants in terms of length. And then there’s the reality that the movie business is changing, and it’s harder and harder to get funding from the studios for big budget R-rated films that aren’t four-quadrant blockbusters based on well-known properties, even for someone like Tarantino. Television has welcomed the likes of Martin Scorsese and Steven Soderbergh recently, it only feels like a matter of time before Q.T. joins the pack. Whether it’s HBO or Netflix or whoever who gets him, we’ll all be luckier for it.
Whatever ends up happening with Tarantino and television, I still hold out hope that he and Uma Thurman reunite for a big screen sequel to Kill Bill. By my calculations, little Nikki must be approaching eighteen soon, and ready to get revenge on Beatrix Kiddo for killing her mother, Vernita Green, in the original film. C’mon, who doesn’t want to see Kill The Bride? There’s still time to make it happen Q.T.!
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HT: Premiere Magazine via Birth.Movies.Death
IMAGE: Ken Taylor/Lionsgate and Miramax Films
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