Quentin Tarantino‘s ninth movie, ‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood’ opens next week, and you may recall that Tarantino has been saying for years that he only wants to make a total of ten movies.  Does that mean he only has one more project coming?  And if so, will that be the ‘Star Trek’ movie he has been tentatively attached to make for a couple of years now?  After all, how would it look for one of the most innovative filmmakers alive to go out on a franchise (or franchise-adjacent) flick rather than one of his original creations?

While promoting ‘Once Upon a Time…’ on the Reel Blend podcast, he was asked about his self-imposed limit and how ‘Star Trek’ might fit into his plans, and he explained that a “loophole” would probably allow for him to make that movie AND one last original flick.

“I guess I do have a loophole, [if] the idea was to throw a loophole into it. Which would be [to go], ‘Uhhh, I guess Star Trek doesn’t count. I can do Star Trek … but naturally, I would end on an original.’ But the idea of doing 10 isn’t to come up with a loophole. I actually think, if I was going to do Star Trek, I should commit to it. It’s my last movie. There should be nothing left-handed about it. I don’t know if I’m going to do that, but that might happen.”

So it sounds as though Tarantino plans to commit to that ten-picture limit, and that should he do so, ‘Star Trek’ would likely be out, so that he can end on an original note.

Technically, ‘Once Upon a Time…’ is his ninth movie, if you don’t count his black and white student film ‘My Best Friend’s Birthday’ and the two anthologies ‘Sin City’ and ‘Grindhouse’.  BUT that is also counting ‘Kill Bill’ as two separate movies.  So another potential loophole would be to combine them into one, and that would leave him with two movies left to make.

Then again, this isn’t a rule or a law.  It’s just some idea he cooked up for himself.  He’s only 56.  I find it hard to believe he will make one more movie and call it quits forever, but we’ll see.

‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood’ will be released on July 26.