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.
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.