Quentin Tarantino Wants to Make a TV Spinoff of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Will Quentin Tarantino retire from filmmaking after his 10th film, as he’s threatened to do so many times? Will that 10th film be the long-touted R-rated Star Trek he’s said to be cooking up? We don’t know.

But maybe, just maybe, the director will start a new chapter of his career in television. According to a new interview with Deadline, Tarantino has already written several episodes of a potential spinoff of his new film, next week’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

The show in question would be Bounty Law, the fictional ‘50s Western show in which Leonardo Dicaprio’s character Rick Dalton stars as Jake Cahill. Tarantino doesn’t think that he’ll be able to land DiCaprio for the potential show, though he’s certainly open to the possibility.

Here’s what Tarantino told Deadline about the show:

From watching the different old Western shows and everything, I did it to get in the head of Bounty Law. 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. 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.

Later in the interview, Tarantino says that he’ll “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.”

There’s a couple other interesting nuggets throughout the interview, like the revelation that the director watches Riverdale, or several anecdotes that he shares about knowing the late Burt Reynolds, who had been set to appear in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood before his passing last September.

While still playing coy about whether he’ll direct his Star Trek script, Tarantino does mention that “there is a gangster element” to the film, suggesting it might resemble a “Pulp Fiction in space.” You can almost envision Samuel L. Jackson in pounds of makeup, shouting “Klingon, motherf*cker, do you speak it?” to which a thousand nerds will shout, “yes!”

In any case, you can read the whole interview here and check out Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s latest trailer here.