Quentin Tarantino Still Holding Onto That Idea For New Sci-Fi Movie

If Quentin Tarantino remains true to his word and hangs up his hat following the release of his tenth feature film, that means the director has two potential movies left in the tank beyond this year’s bounty hunter bonanza, The Hateful Eight. For a filmmaker that enjoys flitting between genres, the jury’s still out on what we can expect across this purported two-fold swan song, though a recent piece by Vulture offers up some indication about Tarantino’s next creative venture – even if it’s just a kernel of an idea.

After touching upon the status of the long-awaited Kill Bill 3, Tarantino revealed that he is harboring a nascent concept for a science fiction film. Truth be told, the esteemed director didn’t go much into detail, but as one would expect, Tarantino’s vision of what a sci-fi movie ought to be doesn’t necessarily toe the line of the genre’s conventions.

Here’s what the filmmaker had to share about the half-formed ideas incubating in his head.

“I’m not really interested in doing a sci-fi film,” he said. “But there’s one thing in particular that I would be interested in. I can’t tell you what it is, though, because I would literally be telling you exactly what it is. And then I wouldn’t be able to do it, because everyone would talk about it, because it is one thing in particular. It might be science fiction, but it wouldn’t involve spaceships.”

For a director well versed in neo-noir and the fine – if controversial – art of violence on screen, there’s no question that Tarantino would cook up something truly unique in the genre. Throughout the course of his career, the closest the director has come to the true sci-fi has been via appearances in From Dusk to Dawn and Planet Terror, but Tarantino has never helmed a straight-up science fiction film before. Could we see the fan-favorite filmmaker helm a genre piece before he parts ways with cinema? Time will tell.

Then again, with such high praise levelled at Django Unchained – not to mention the fever-pitch excitement surrounding The Hateful Eight – the director is quite comfortable in the Western genre for the time being.

“I do feel that I need to do at least one more Western,” he said. “I think you need to make three Westerns to call yourself a Western director.”

Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight will hit select theaters in 70mm on Christmas Day ahead of a standard release on January 8.