Quentin Tarantino is returning to cinema in 2019 with ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, a film based on the Manson Family murders in 1969. The filmmaker’s ninth film with release on 9 August 2019 around the world, with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead roles.
With a title that no doubt references Tarantino’s love of Sergio Leone, the film is said to centre on Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Their careers are in arrested development by 1969, but things may change thanks to Rick’s next-door neighbour, Sharon Tate. Tarantino has said in interviews that he has been working on the script for 5 years.
The movie is going ahead despite a recently unearthed tape from 2003 in which Tarantino defended Roman Polanski’s statutory rape of a 13-year girl in 1977. “He had sex with a minor. That’s not rape,” said the director. “Throwing the word ‘rape’ around is like throwing the word ‘racist’ around. It doesn’t apply to everything that people use it for. He was guilty of having sex with a minor…She wanted to have it and dated the guy.” It is unclear how much of the film will be about Polanski or Manson.
This is coupled with Uma Thurman’s recent statements about her treatment by Tarantino and Harvey Weinstein during the shooting of Kill Bill. ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD marks the first film that Tarantino has directed outside of the umbrella influence of Weinstein, who has been mentoring his films since 1992’s Reservoir Dogs.
While we always anticipate the next film from Quentin Tarantino, perhaps the auteur might need to take the temperature of the room before going ahead with this. Sony seems to think it is a good idea, committing $100 million to the project. Principle photography starts in June.
