Quentin Tarantino has led the kind of career many promising filmmakers would relish. Having started with My Best Friend's Birthday, a film that had its final reel destroyed in a lab fire, it's been boiled down to a 34 minute short movie from salvaged footage. Then came the short version of Reservoir Dogs that inspired his first feature-length film, a heist called Reservoir Dogs. From this point, he's directed Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Deathproof, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The Hollywood Reporter broke a news story with sources saying that Quentin Tarantino's tenth and final film, "The Movie Critic", has been written and is set to be directed. It's suggested that in keeping with Tarantino's foray into Hollywood's past that this film will be set in LA in the '70s and loosely based on renowned film critic, Pauline Kael. More speculation around the tenth and so-called final Tarantino film suggests it will centre on Kael's career when she made the leap from criticism to filmmaking.

Tarantino is almost 60 years old and while the director has been at the cutting edge since 1992 with two Oscars and several nominations to his credit, he's admittedly starting to feel a bit out of touch. While most filmmakers may be scratching their heads about how the industry has changed in recent years due to the boom of streaming services, demise of video stores and recalibration of cinema, Tarantino may be feeling it twice as hard - having spend most of his life in this space. Maybe this explains the nostalgic undertones of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which explored the golden age of Tinseltown with only a few moments that recall the edgy filmmaker's trademark flair.

Perhaps the project titled "The Movie Critic" will be Tarantino's attempt to go back to the roots of the movie industry at a time when film critics wielded much more influence and power. Kael was referenced numerous times in the Charlie Kaufman "trip" I'm Thinking of Ending Things, demonstrating just how much of an effect the critic's funny, entertaining and showbiz reviews had on pop culture and the medium. After Kael's impassioned defence of Bonnie & Clyde, it was film-star-slash-director-slash-producer Warren Beatty who invited The New Yorker critic to collaborate on James Toback's Love & Money at Paramount in 1979.

Just this year, longtime New York Times film critic A.O. Scott is moving from film criticism to book review, signaling a change of direction for the writer but possibly also a change of seasons for a profession made famous by the likes of the late Roger "Two Thumbs Up" Ebert and Pauline Kael. Born in California and written a number of unproduced plays, the opportunity to collaborate on a film script must have presented just the spark of creativity she was missing. At the same age as Tarantino is now, Kael accepted Beatty's offer to work with her friend, James Toback, on his second feature after writing a glowing review of his first film. Heading to Los Angeles with a leave of absence from her job at The New Yorker, Kael entered a different chapter of her career. Unfortunately, the experiment failed.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stirred things up nicely and serves as a good precursor of what can be expected from The Movie Critic. While this excitement around Tarantino's tenth and final film is hitting the headlines, it's interesting to note that Kill Bill: Vol. 3 is still listed as in development. Has Tarantino still got his finger on the trigger with this one or is he stuck in the middle? The famed filmmaker probably wants to register his tenth film as something more than tying up a trilogy, so The Movie Critic makes sense.

Perhaps, just like The Rolling Stones, there will be a few reunion movies after the tenth hits the screen. Whatever happens, Tarantino isn't about to exit the scene without going out on a high note. Having witnessed the nuttiness of Bullet Train, which echoes some of Tarantino's earlier work with a touch of Guy Ritchie too, one wonders if The Movie Critic will be the one to remember him by.