Everything We Know About Quentin Tarantino's 9th Movie
Even though Quentin Tarantino's last feature, the 70mm western mystery "The Hateful Eight," was released in 2015, it feels like it's been forever.
It's not that Tarantino has been idle, exactly, since he's gotten engaged and started work on a revisionist "Star Trek" at Paramount. Perhaps more importantly, Tarantino has had his hands full with a number of hot-button controversies that have kept him plenty busy -- and in the headlines for all the wrong reasons (his closeness to Harvey Weinstein, the treatment of Uma Thurman during the filming of "Kill Bill," resurfaced remarks about Roman Polanski).
Still, putting the sensationalism aside, we have a new Tarantino film in the not-too-distant future, and that's something to get really excited about. Here's everything we know about, in his preferred parlance, Tarantino's ninth feature:
1. It's called "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," a nod to Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Once Upon a Time in America." (A chapter of Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" is called "Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France.")
2. Sony Pictures will release the film, which it secured following a fierce bidding war (Warner Bros. redressed the studio in period-appropriate garb.) Sony Pictures and David Heyman's Heyday Films will co-produce. It will be the first of Tarantino's features to not have any involvement from Harvey Weinstein or his brother Bob Weinstein.3. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are set to star.
4. The official synopsis is: "In 1969 Los Angeles, a former Western star and his longtime stunt double struggle to find success in a Hollywood that they don't recognize anymore."
5. Tarantino's official statement: "I've been working on this script for five years, as well as living in Los Angeles County most of my life, including in 1969, when I was seven years old. I'm very excited to tell this story of an L.A. and a Hollywood that don't exist anymore."
6. More details: DiCaprio will play the faded TV actor Rick Dalton, with Pitt essaying Rick's stunt double Cliff Robertson. Oh, and Rick's neighbor is a beautiful young actress named Sharon Tate.
7. That's right, the movie, in some shape and form, will be touching on the famous Mason Family murders. Sharon Tate, then Roman Polanski's wife and pregnant with their child, and four others, were murdered in 1969.
8. Margot Robbie, long thought to be the director's first choice to play Tate, has officially entered into negotiations.
9. The release date is August 9, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the Tate murder.
10. There is speculation that the movie could not come out at all. A American Horror Story," where a Manson-worshipping character plotted "The Night of 1,000 Tates?") While this seems unlikely -- Tarantino's mammoth $100 budget has been approved and big movie stars are getting locked into pivotal roles -- it'll be interesting to see if Tarantino, whose behavior was indefensible but hardly heinous, gets caught in the incendiary wildfire of #MeToo.
11. If his past movies are any indication, it will have a very cool soundtrack.
12. This will likely be Tarantino's second-to-last movie. The filmmaker has long held onto the idea that he will only make ten feature films; "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" will be his ninth. It's unclear if he'll count the upcoming "Star Trek" project as the canonical tenth film, of if he'll give that one a pass since he's not currently writing it ("The Revenant" scribe Mark Smith will be handling those duties).
13. "Hollywood" intends to shoot Summer 2018.
14. Some of Tarantino's favorites will undoubtedly make an appearance. While it hasn't been announced yet, we'd be willing to put money on the fact that some of the filmmaker's favorite oddball actors (among them: Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Christoph Waltz, Bruce Dern, and Walton Goggins) will make some very groovy appearances.