Quentin Tarantino Confirms Retirement Rumors: Two More Films and Out

Quentin Tarantino has doubled down on his pledge never to make another film past his tenth — meaning his next two films will be his last.

“Drop the mic. Boom. Tell everybody, ‘Match that shit,'” he said Thursday to much applause at Adobe Max, a creativity conference held by the software giant inside the San Diego Convention Center.

But before Tarantino gets to work on his next full-length scripted film — which he teased earlier this year as potentially being a “Bonnie and Clyde-esque” tale set in 1930s Australia — the 53-year-old director told the crowd inside Hall H that he is focused at the moment on a historical nonfiction project.

For four years, Tarantino has been been immersed in studying the year 1970, one he considers the most pivotal in the history of cinema. How the project eventually takes shape is not yet entirely clear. “It could be a book, a documentary, a five-part podcast,” he says.

Ann Lewnes, CMO of Adobe, conducted Thursday’s interview. She asked Tarantino, dressed in a blue denim shirt over a black T-shirt and jeans, how he personally defines success.

“Hopefully, the way I define success when I finish my career is that I’m considered one of the greatest filmmakers that ever lived. And going further, a great artist, not just filmmaker,” he said. The audience laughed and applauded.

Tarantino also shared some of the secrets of his creative process: Each new script involves a tour through his personal record collection, stored in a room designed to evoke a vintage record store.

“So much of [the movie’s language] revolves around a sound or a song,” he said. “Before I’ve started, I’m seriously thinking about the music. I’m listening to a track and picturing everyone at the Cannes Palais just loving it.”

After back-to-back hits for his longtime studio home, The Weinstein Company — 2008’s Inglourious Basterds ($120 million domestic gross) and 2012’s Django Unchained ($163 million, a career high) — last year’s Hateful Eight stumbled domestically.

The nearly three-hour whodunnit, set almost entirely inside an Old West general store, disappointed at the box office, bringing in just $54 million in the U.S. It fared much better overseas, adding $101 million to its global take.

Other keynote speakers at Adobe Max included fashion designer and Project Runway judge Zac Posen, who showed off the illuminated gown he designed for Claire Danes that caused a sensation at the Met Ball.

And war photographer Lynsey Addario delivered an emotional talk based on her memoir, It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War. The book was the subject of a fierce Hollywood bidding war. Warner Bros. won the rights, with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star in a package that includes director Steven Spielberg.

Related Stories

Related Story

Producer Roundtable: Matt Damon, Frank Marshall and 4 More on Firing Themselves, Keeping Scorsese on Schedule and Their Worst Jobs