Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino have both been at the filmmaking game for a long time, with the former making his cinematic debut in 1967 with Who’s That Knocking at My Door, and the latter delivering his first feature-length offering, Reservoir Dogs, in 1992. However, not only is the latter’s filmography nowhere near as big as the former’s, Tarantino has repeatedly said that his next movie will be his final one. Scorsese has now shared his thoughts on Tarantino retiring from filmmaking after just 10 movies, which included him admitting that the two of them are built differently.
This topic came up while Scorsese was speaking with The Associated Press about his latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, which finally premiered on the 2023 release schedule this past weekend. When the interviewer noted how Scorsese’s continued enthusiasm for making movies means he must be “built differently” from someone like Tarantino, who soon wants to exit the business, the man behind classics like Raging Bull and Goodfellas agreed with that statement, but also laid out the key difference between him and Tarantino:
But he’s a writer. It’s a different thing. I come up with stories. I get attracted to stories through other people. All different means, different ways. And so I think it’s a different process. I respect writers and I wish I could. I wish I could just be in a room and create these novels. Not films, novels. Long stories.
He makes a good point, as Quentin Tarantino has written all of the feature films he’s directed, whereas Martin Scorsese has only written a handful of scripts over his career, and usually as a joint effort with another writer. So in that sense, Scorsese is fully aware that the two of them approach filmmaking differently, and he wishes he had the ability to craft entire stories purely through the written word, like Tarantino can do on top of directing.
While it’s unclear when Tarantino’s last movie, which is called The Movie Critic, will come out, he is currently 60 years old, so assuming production gets underway relatively soon, he’ll be done directing by the time he hits his mid-60s. Meanwhile, at nearly 81 years old, Scorsese is still as enthusiastic as ever about putting together movies, provided that the subject piques his interest. He explained:
I’m curious about everything still. That’s one of the things. If I’m curious about something I think I’ll find a way. If I hold out and hold up, I’ll find a way to try to make something of it on film, but I have to be curious about the subject. My curiosity is still there. I couldn’t speak for Quentin Tarantino or others who are able to create this work in their world.
Regarding The Movie Critic, Quentin Tarantino revealed earlier this year that it will be set in 1977 and be based off a real life critic who wrote reviews for a “porno rag” that Tarantino described as “a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic.” He’s also reportedly interested in having John Travolta appear in it, as well as fellow Pulp Fiction alum Bruce Willis, although the latter would be difficult given his retirement from acting due to frontotemporal dementia. As for Scorsese, with Killers of the Flower Moon out in the world, his next movie is expected to be The Wager, an adaptation of the same-named nonfiction book that will retest him with Leonardo DiCaprio.
Head to your local theater now to see Killers of the Flower Moon, which was awarded 5 out of 5 stars in CinemaBlend’s review. If you want to stream Tarantino’s last movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, you’ll need a Starz add-on for your Hulu subscription.