Quentin Tarantino Explains Why He Refuses to Use Netflix

Quentin Tarantino hasn’t gotten to be one of the most well-known movie directors in the world by following social norms. The 54-year-old Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds filmmaker said in a recent interview that he laments the rise of streaming sites and movie channels so much that he doesn’t even use Netflix.

He says they don’t provide the same opportunities of discovery or levels of commitment that old rental stores used to.

“I’m not on Netflix, so I can’t even tell you exactly how that works,” he said. “But even if you just have all the movie channels in your [TV] package — and that’s something I do have — so you hit the guide and you go down the list, and you hit there and you watch something or you tape something, and maybe you never get around to watching it or you actually do watch it, and then maybe you watch it for 10 minutes or 20 minutes, and maybe you start doing something else, and [you decide], ‘Nah, I’m not really into this.’ And then that’s kind of where we’ve fallen into.”

He continued, “There was a different quality to the video store. You went down to the video store, you looked around, you picked up boxes, you read the back of the boxes — you made a choice. And maybe you talked to the guy behind the counter, and maybe he pointed you toward something. And he didn’t just put something in your hand, he gave you a little bit of a sales pitch on it to some degree or another. And so the point being is, you were kind of invested in a way that you’re not invested with electronic technology when it comes to the movies. Now, of course, we all rented three movies and didn’t get around to watching the third one, but there was more of a commitment to what you ended up getting.”

Tarantino’s next project is still unnamed but will be set in Los Angeles in 1969, the year Charles Manson’s cult carried out the grizzly killings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and her four friends in her and husband Roman Polanski’s home. Sony Pictures has secured worldwide distribution rights, and actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise are reportedly being considered to star in the film alongside Margot Robbie, who is rumored to be playing Tate.

Tarantino reportedly finalized the script about five months ago and production is set to begin in early 2018.

Tarantino isn’t the only director to throw shade at Netflix. Dunkirk and The Dark Knight Trilogy filmmaker Christopher Nolan recently apologized for talking trash about the streaming service.

Nolan made his disdain for Netflix no secret when he gave an interview this summer calling its “bizarre aversion” to supporting theatrical releases “mindless” and “untenable.”

But earlier this month, he ate his words — sort of. The 47-year-old told Variety that he sent a personal email to Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, apologizing for his comments.

“I should have been more polite. I said what I believe, but I was undiplomatic in the way I expressed it,” Nolan told Variety. So while he clearly isn’t taking back his harsh criticism, he does seem to be worried about making streaming service enemies.

“I wasn’t giving any context to the frankly revolutionary nature of what Netflix has done. It’s extraordinary. They need appropriate respect for that, which I have,” he added.