Quentin Tarantino In Talks To Direct Episodes Of Fan-Favorite Returning Series

It looks like Quentin Tarantino could be bringing his talents to the small screen directing a fan-favorite series reboot.

By Doug Norrie | Updated

quentin tarantino

Fans waiting for Quentin Tarantino to update news on his next (and maybe final) film will have some time before getting news on that front. But the iconic director looks like he’s going to be taking on another project before then, heading into the small screen television space with a pretty exciting project. While it isn’t confirmed yet, Deadline is reporting that Tarantino is in talks to direct multiple episodes of the Justified revival limited series starring Timothy Olyphant. This could be an incredibly exciting team-up between the director and actor, adapting work from Elmore Leonard who wrote the original story. 

The reporting from Deadline gives the sense that Quentin Tarantino could be rounding towards the finish line to helm at least a couple of episodes of Justified: City Primeval. The limited series is set to return Timothy Olyphant to his role as lawman Raylan Givens who will now be headed to Detroit to take on a criminal enterprise there. The series is adapted from the Elmore Leonard character and specifically from the book City Primeval: High Noon In Detroit. While the series will share the same name as the original FX show, it’s thought that the rest of the cast will likely be new with Givens heading to a new city for this story. 

Getting Quentin Tarantino to direct a series based on Elmore Leonard’s work shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise. The iconic director has long cited Leonard’s stories and style as having a major influence on his own scripts and choice of movies. He’s talked about how early crime movies like Reservoir Dog and especially Pulp Fiction were made, in some part, the style of Leonard’s storytelling. Additionally, he adapted 1997s Jackie Brown from the Leonard novel Rum Punch which hit shelves in 1992. About this movie, Tarantino talked about how Leonard’s writing, “…helped me find my voice.” 

With Timothy Olyphant getting back into the Stetson hat and original series creator Graham Yost helming this story as well, it would fantastic news to get Quentin Tarantino back into the director’s chair. His previous television work was quite some time ago with a 1995 episode of ER and a 2005 episode of CSI as two of his other small-screen credits. And he and Olyphant worked together on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So there is just a lot of overlap here which begins to make sense along why Tarantino would consider this kind of shift in production now. 

As for Quentin Tarantino’s next, and maybe last, movie? That remains to be seen. The director has often said that he will only make 10 films total. While some might say that the director already has 10 under his belt, he counts the two Kill Bill films as one long movie. With that in mind, I suppose there’s some chance he could wrap up a trilogy for that franchise without it “counting” toward the final tally. Could it be a Star Trek film? Another Elmore Leonard adaptation? Something totally new? There are a lot of possibilities here. It’s just cool to know we could get his talents in this upcoming series.