Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino plans ‘swashbuckling’ play for London’s West End
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Quentin Tarantino’s foray into theatre comes after his ninth feature film, Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood (2019).
PHOTO: MIRAMAX
Derrick Bryson Taylor
NEW YORK – A new play written and directed by American film-maker Quentin Tarantino will open in London’s West End in 2027, the companies developing the production announced on March 11.
The play, The Popinjay Cavalier, is set in 1830s Europe. According to a short news statement, it is a “rambunctious comedy of deception” inspired by the “swashbuckling” epics of stage and film.
Sonia Friedman Productions, a veteran producing company with multiple Tony wins, and Sony Pictures Entertainment are both involved in the effort.
Details regarding casting and a creative team, as well as a specific theatre, will be announced at a later date, the news statement said.
Representatives for Tarantino, Sonia Friedman and Sony Pictures Entertainment declined to comment beyond the statement.
Tarantino’s foray into theatre comes several years after the release of his ninth feature film, Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood, in 2019.
The 62-year-old director has long hinted that he will retire after making 10 films, arguing that film-makers have only a finite number of good movies in them. His fans have anxiously awaited news of a 10th film. A project known as The Movie Critic was reported to have been abandoned in 2024.
“I want there to be an umbilical cord from my first film to my last film,” he told talk-show host Conan O’Brien in 2016. “I like the idea of doing a body of work, 10 movies and then ‘Okay, that’s it – that’s what I have to say.’ And let that filmography just stand for itself.”
Last week, American actress Rosanna Arquette, who starred in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), criticised him in an interview with The Times of London for repeatedly using a racial slur in that film.
“I cannot stand that he has been given a hall pass,” Arquette, 66, said. “It’s not art. It’s just racist and creepy.”
Tarantino said in a letter on March 9 that he remembered Arquette being thrilled to be a part of Pulp Fiction.
“But after I gave you a job, and you took the money,” he said, addressing Arquette, “to trash it for what I suspect is very cynical reasons, shows a decided lack of class, no less honour.” NYTIMES
