After making some remarks earlier about how much he loves Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie a Deux, Quentin Tarantino has shared some more hot takes on recent projects. The Pulp Fiction director revealed why he won’t watch Denis Villeneuve’s much-lauded Dune movies, and it’s for a very specific reason.
“I saw [David Lynch’s] Dune a couple of times,” he said on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast (H/T Variety). “I don’t need to see that story again. I don’t need to see spice worms. I don’t need to see a movie that says the word spice so dramatically.”
Dune isn’t the only thing he feels this way about either, as Tarantino added that he hasn’t seen two of the best 2024 shows, Shōgun and Ripley, for the same reason. “It’s one after another of this remake, and that remake. People ask ‘Have you seen Dune?’ ‘Have you seen Ripley?’ ‘Have you seen Shōgun?’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no.’
“There’s six or seven Ripley books. If you do one again, why are you doing the same one that they’ve done twice already? I’ve seen that story twice before, and I didn’t really like it in either version, so I’m not really interested in seeing it a third time. If you did another story, that would be interesting enough to give it a shot anyway.”
Tarantino continued: “I saw Shōgun in the ’80s. I watched all 13 hours. I’m good. I don’t need to see that story again, I don’t care how they do it. I don’t care if they take me and put me in ancient Japan in a time machine. I don’t care, I’ve seen the story.”
While Tarantino may not be a fan, Shōgun has had plenty of critical acclaim, winning 18 gongs at the Emmys this year. Meanwhile, Dune 2 is gearing up for a hopefully fruitful awards season with all of its main actors put forward for Oscar nominations.
For more of what to watch, check out our guides to all the upcoming movies and upcoming TV shows you need to know about.