Quentin Tarantino to stage 'swashbuckling comedy' in London theatre

Film director Quentin Tarantino is coming to London's West End to stage a "swashbuckling comedy" play set in 1830s Europe.

The US film-maker is best known for blood-soaked film classics such as Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, but is switching his attention to theatre to write and direct The Popinjay Cavalier.

The play will be "a rambunctious comedy of deception and disguise inspired by the grand swashbuckling epics of stage and screen", and will reach the stage in early 2027, the announcement said.

It is also billed as "a sweeping celebration of theatre and its heightened romance, told with Tarantino's signature style and unmistakable wit".

There are no details yet of who will be in the cast or which theatre will host it.

He has made nine so far - if Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 are counted together - with the most recent being 2019's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

He became one of Hollywood's most celebrated and popular film-makers in the 1990s and has won two Oscars, for writing Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained.

He first revealed his plan to stage a play last summer, telling the Church of Tarantino podcast it was "all written".

"It is absolutely the next thing I'm going to do. We'll start the ball rolling on it in January... It's probably going to take up a year and a half to two years of my life," he said.

He has now revealed the title, which gives some clues about its contents.

A popinjay is defined as "a vain, foppish or conceited person", while a cavalier is a cavalryman (a soldier on horseback) or courteous gentleman.