Director Luc Besson claimed in a recent interview that he gave Quentin Tarantino the idea to retire after 10 movies, a fact that has been widely publicized in recent years. Tarantino’s next film, The Movie Critic, is expected to be his last, and he has stated numerous times that he plans to retire after his 10th movie. Besson, who made his feature directorial debut in 1983 with Le Dernier Combat, has been privy to many of the same Hollywood offers Tarantino has, and used the idea of making only 10 films as a way to stay true to himself and his creative vision.
Speaking on The Discourse Podcast, Besson explained that “I said that after [I’d made] like six or seven movies. And it was a way for me to concentrate and say, ‘If I have only 10 bullets, I have to be careful with the last three.'” Though Besson did not stick to his plan – DogMan, which premiered in 2023, was his 21st film – he claims that the idea of only making 10 films served as a blueprint for Tarantino’s own career and helped him to stay true to himself.
Besson continued to discuss how he felt many of the lucrative plans he was offered from Hollywood would stifle his creative vision, and the pressure to conform to the “Hollywood machine” was a constant struggle. However, having the goal of making only 10 films gave him the motivation to resist the “sirens” of Hollywood sequels and create the films he truly wanted to make.
Currently, Besson is filming a new project titled Dracula: A Love Tale with Christoph Waltz and Caleb Landry Jones. However, he has said that his own retirement may soon be on the horizon, and he plans to make only three more films after Dracula before leaving the industry. Though Besson’s influence on Tarantino’s decision to make only 10 films might not be well-known to many fans, it’s clear that the idea resonated with many directors and has become a symbol of creative freedom and authenticity in an industry that often prioritizes the bottom line
Read the full article on NME here: Read More