Quentin Tarantino May Recut 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' to Be Even Longer
Is bigger better? In Quentin Tarantino's world, it may be — which is why he's considering recutting his new film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" to be longer.
The version that premiered at the Cannes Festival runs two hours and 39 minutes. But he told IndieWire he isn't wedded to it.
“I may make it longer,” he said the day after the movie's overwhelmingly positive debut.
Tarantino and editor Fred Raskin worked overtime to finish a cut in time for Cannes. Raskin’s first draft was four hours, 20 minutes. At first, the pair thought the finished cut would be about two hours, 45 minutes.
Then, Tarantino told the editor, "Let’s see if we can get it tighter than that. 2:45 seems like an old Quentin movie. Let’s see if we can get past the Quentin cut to a really friendly cut any audience can appreciate.”
But now that the director has seen an audience's reaction to the film, he's rethinking things.
“I wouldn’t take anything else out,” he said. “I’m going to explore possibly putting something back in. If anything, I wanted to go to Cannes too short. if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on too tight.”
That could mean seeing more of Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton starring in an alternate version of "The Great Escape" or even anything at all of actor Scoot McNairy, whose only scene was cut.
Sony will go along with whatever Tarantino decides. As studio chairman Tom Rothman told IndieWire, "It’s his movie. We’re privileged to be along for the ride."