Details of Quentin Tarantino‘s ninth feature have finally emerged with a title and release date and A-list actors Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio joining the cast.
Titled “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, the award-winning filmmaker describes the project as “a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood.
DiCaprio will play Rick Dalton, former star of a western TV series, while Pitt will be his long-time stunt double, Cliff Booth.
“Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognise anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbour…Sharon Tate,” Tarantino added.
Margot Robbie is apparently in talks for the role of the murdered actress Sharon Tate.
“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 7 years old,” Tarantino said in a statement. “I’m very excited to tell this story of an L.A., and a Hollywood that don’t exist anymore. And I couldn’t be happier about the dynamic teaming of DiCaprio & Pitt as Rick & Cliff.”
Tarantino previously worked with DiCaprio in 2012’s Django Unchained and Pitt in 2009’s Inglourious Basterds.
Shrouded in secrecy, initial rumours of the movie’s plot involved the Manson Family murders as a potential point of focus for Tarantino’s film.
Debra Tate, the younger sister of Sharon Tate, has lashed out against Tarantino’s plan to use her sister’s 1969 murder as a story.
In an email to Vulture, Tate points out the film’s official synopsis: “Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, the movie focuses on a former male TV actor who’s had one hit series and is looking for a way to get into the film business. His stunt double is looking for the same thing. The horrific murder of Sharon Tate and four of her friends by Charles Manson’s cult of followers serves as a backdrop to the main story.”
“Let’s remember that this movie, until very recently, has always been referenced as the ‘Manson Family Murder Film,’” she continues in an email to Vulture. “Mr Tarantino even demanded a release date based on the ‘anniversary’ of my sister’s devastating murder, Aug. 9, 2019. How is this not vulgar? Or sick? THIS IS NOT A CELEBRATION.”
Tarantino insists, “It’s not Charles Manson, It’s 1969.”
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will be released worldwide on August 9, 2019 – the 50th anniversary of the Manson Family’s murder of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, and the day after Tate was killed. Sony has picked up the rights to the film after the collapse of The Weinstein Company