There has been a heaping helping of speculation and debate about what should be Quentin Tarantino’s final directorial feature. Lately, it’s been about whether or not the 10th film from the director should be ‘Star Trek’ or something original. But what we failed to really discuss is the reality that Tarantino is only retiring from film, and there’s this whole other realm we haven’t considered — television.
Speaking to Deadline, Tarantino actually said that he’s currently in the middle of writing scripts for a TV series that is a spin-off of his upcoming film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” The series, titled “Bounty Law,” is one of the projects that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton stars on in the film. It appears that Tarantino had so much creative energy when creating this fictitious Dalton-starring series that he decided to go ahead and actually write episodes of the series.
READ MORE: Quentin Tarantino Is Willing To End His Career Directing A ‘Star Trek’ Film
“From watching the different old Western shows and everything, I did it to get in the head of ‘Bounty Law,’” said Tarantino. “I ended up starting to really like the idea of Jake Cahill, as a character. I really started loving those half hour ’50s Western scripts. The idea that you could write something like 24 minutes, where there was so much story crammed in those half hour shows, with a real beginning and a middle and an end.”
He added, “Also it was kind of fun because you can’t just keep doubling down and exploring. At some point, you’ve got to wrap it up. I really liked that idea. I’ve written five different episodes for a possible ‘Bounty Law’ black-and-white half hour Western show.”
Of course, if this was a true spin-off of ‘Once Upon a Time,’ the series would star the Rick Dalton from the film, specifically DiCaprio. But considering the Oscar-winning actor isn’t the first person to leap at TV projects and is notoriously picky about his films, even, Tarantino isn’t convinced that DiCaprio will be down for the series.
Nevertheless, this isn’t deterring the filmmaker from keeping the creative juices flowing.
“If he wants to do it that would be great,” said the filmmaker. “I’m not planning on that but I have an outline for about three other episodes. So I’ll probably write about three other episodes and then just do it. Direct every episode. They’re a half hour long. I wouldn’t mind doing it for Netflix but I’d want to shoot it on film. Showtime, HBO, Netflix, FX. But I also like the fact that I built up this mythology for ‘Bounty Law’ and Jake Cahill.”
It sure does sound like this will be a reality sooner rather than later. Of the networks and platforms that Tarantino namedrops, there isn’t one that wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to have a series written and directed by the acclaimed filmmaker. If only he can convince DiCaprio to come aboard.
