Quentin Tarantino’s next movie is happening (but there's a catch)

Quentin Tarantino’s grand plan to bow out after his tenth film has become almost as famous (and oddly stressful) as his actual films. For years, fans and industry folk have been speculating wildly about what this last directorial hurrah would look like—especially after Tarantino teased in 2023 that his final feature was well underway. Cue all sorts of wild theories: Would he bring back his old characters? Would we see John Travolta, Uma Thurman, or Samuel L. Jackson slipping back into their most iconic roles? Maybe even a multiverse of fictional actors who played those characters. As it turns out, none of that is happening.

The wheels fell off in 2024 when Tarantino abandoned his latest script, saying The Movie Critic was 'too much like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.' That’s that, then. Progress has apparently ground to a halt on this all-important ‘tenth film’, but don’t get the idea that Tarantino’s been putting his feet up.

While waiting for lightning to strike again, Tarantino’s kept busy bouncing between writing, producing, and the odd bit of TV. Now, he’s doing something you might not expect (unless you have a truly encyclopaedic Tarantino knowledge): stepping into a proper acting role in Jamie Adams’s next film, Tangled Up in Blue. Not just a blink-and-miss-it cameo—he’s actually part of the main cast, right up there alongside Kylie Minogue, Allison Williams, RZA, and Sofia Boutella. Variety has confirmed this one, so it’s not just rumour-mongering.

That Cast

• Quentin Tarantino (yes, really)
• Kylie Minogue
• Allison Williams
• RZA
• Sofia Boutella
• Plus Welsh actors Karen Paullada, Julian Lewis Jones, Craig Russell, and Siwan Morris

The plot is still a bit of a black box, but there are already set photos floating around of Tarantino and Minogue filming together in Wales. In fact, this is Tarantino and Jamie Adams’s second project together—Adams has just had Only What We Carry premiere at Tribeca, with Tarantino involved.

What’s with the Dylan Reference?

Tangled Up in Blue isn’t just named after any old song—it's Tarantino’s all-time favourite. The Bob Dylan track from 1975 is famously dense: it’s about complicated romantic entanglements, told with a jumbled timeline across different perspectives. If you’ve seen more than two Tarantino films, you’ll know that sort of fragmented, elliptical storytelling is right up his alley—think Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds, The Hateful Eight. It’s not confirmed whether the film’s story will follow the song that closely, but you have to assume some connection is there.

Worth noting: Tarantino is almost obsessive about dialogue and specificity, and so is Dylan in that song. It’s a bit poetic, really, if you’re into that sort of parallel.

How Did They Rope Him In?

If you know anything about Tarantino, you’ll know he’s been famously choosy about what jobs he takes. He’s said no to directing some big offers—Speed, Men in Black, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.—so it’s genuinely surprising he signed on here. Jamie Adams, the director (who previously did Songbird and She Is Love), said he hardly expected a reply when he sent Tarantino the offer. Instead, two weeks later, they were on a Zoom call hashing things out.

By Adams’s own account, the conversation wandered all over—film, TV, what they’re into personally. Adams said it was like 'Disneyland for filmmakers.' Classic Tarantino, he started giving ideas for his character, but Adams thought he’d lost Tarantino’s interest when the meeting wrapped up. Turns out, Tarantino was fully on board. He was even 'excited that he was going to be directed.' That’s a bit surreal, when you think about it.

For the curious, Adams revealed Tarantino is playing a wealthy benefactor in the film.