Quentin Tarantino has dabbled in a range of genres throughout his career but he’s still keen to explore new ground as the filmmaker has expressed interest in making a horror movie.
The Pulp Fiction director made the comment during the promotional tour for his newest creation Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, a film which in itself is hard to pin down to a particular genre.
Perhaps part period drama, part thriller, the movie is probably best described simply as a Tarantino film. The director has been known to push the boundaries of classic definitions – Kill Bill, for example, was basically an amalgamation of every genre there is.
He’s covered westerns and WWII epics, neo-noir crime thriller and martial arts and he still wants more for his final film.
According to The Independent, at the press tour Tarantino said:
If I come up with a terrific horror film story, I will do that as my tenth movie. I love horror movies. I would love to do a horror film.
The filmmaker is no stranger to using spectacular amounts of blood in his films so I’m sure he’d be more than capable of coming up with a gory horror, though if his previous creations are anything to go by there’s really no predicting what he’d produce.
The writer and director went on to explain how there are elements of horror in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, focusing on the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
Tarantino continued:
I do actually think that the Spahn Ranch sequence is the closest to a horror sequence.
I do think it’s vaguely terrifying. And I didn’t quite realize how good we did it, frankly, until my editor told me. He goes, ‘The Spahn Ranch sequence is a horror film… It’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with a budget.”
The 56-year-old has explained in the past he planned to direct 10 films before retiring from the role of filmmaker, however, in an interview with GQ in July he admitted he might ‘quit while [he’s] ahead’ depending on how Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is received.
He said:
If it’s really well received, maybe I won’t go to 10. Maybe I’ll stop right now! Maybe I’ll stop while I’m ahead. We’ll see.
It seems Tarantino will have a few movies to choose from if he does go ahead with his 10-film plan; in an interview with CinemaBlend last month he spoke about the possibility of a Star Trek film being his last. The movie has reportedly been penned by The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith but would be directed by Tarantino.
The director explained:
I guess I do have a loophole, [if] the idea was to throw a loophole into it. Which would be… ‘Star Trek doesn’t count. I can do Star Trek … but naturally I would end on an original.’
But the idea of doing 10 isn’t to come up with a loophole. I actually think, if I was going to do Star Trek, I should commit to it. It’s my last movie.
There should be nothing left handed about it. I don’t know if I’m going to do that, but that might happen.
Elsewhere, he said his final film will be ‘epilogue-y’, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Whatever Tarantino decides to do, hopefully it will allow his epic career to go out with a bang!
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is set to be released on August 14.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.