Writer/Director Quentin Tarantino has made it clear he would rather fade away than burn out. The Pulp Fiction director announced that he is currently planning on retiring from making feature films after his tenth movie. The director’s next release is his eighth feature film, The Hateful Eight, which is currently putting its cast together.

At a recent American Film Market panel where producer Harvey Weinstein presented The Hateful Eight to international buyers, Tarantino said:

I don’t believe you should stay onstage until people are begging you to get off…I like the idea of leaving them a bit more. I do think directing is a young man’s game and I like the idea of an umbilical cord connection from my first to my last movie. I’m not trying to ridicule anyone who thinks differently, but I want to go out while I’m still hard.”

Tarantino isn’t the first director to consider early retirement. Ocean’s Eleven director Steven Soderbergh grew tired of trying to sell his films to studios, and after threatening retirement for years, he finally moved to television where he directed the first season of The Knick on Cinemax. Tarantino seems much more interested in retiring with a strong filmography. “I like that I will leave a 10-film filmography, and so I’ve got two more to go after this. It’s not etched in stone, but that is the plan. If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don’t screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career.”

Apparently Tarantino isn’t including any of his directing collaborations (like Grindhouse or Four Rooms) or guest-directing projects (like Sin City) in the ten-film limit, as the teaser poster for The Hateful Eight bills the film as “The Eighth Film From Quentin Tarantino.” Fans shouldn’t panic though, as the director said he wouldn’t be entirely opposed to making subsequent movies. “If, later on, I come across a good movie, I won’t not do it just because I said I wouldn’t. But 10 and done, leaving them wanting more — that sounds right.”

Post Eight, Tarantino is attached to direct Faster, Pussycat Kill Kill, an adaption of a Russ Meyer story that Tarantino is writing. The director will also keep busy after taking over the New Beverly Theater in Los Angeles, where he will take an active role in curating the film exhibition that includes a strict policy against digital projection in favor of film. He is shooting The Hateful Eight in 70mm and it will be shown in that format when it releases next year.