Once Upon A Time In Hollywood will put the 1969 Manson family murders through the lens of writer-director Quentin Tarantino. It will also be Tarantino’s first effort since 2015’s The Hateful Eight, meaning it is supposedly his penultimate film (although no one really believes that…)
As if that idea wasn’t intriguing enough, Tarantino is putting together an amazing cast for the film, with names like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Dakota Fanning, along with the director’s repertory players Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Zoë Bell.
The film is set in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, which includes the Tate-LaBianca murders, but it’s really all about Hollywood itself, as the title suggests. One of American cinemas boldest voices taking on Tinseltown itself with his biggest, starriest cast to date? What’s not to love?
Here’s everything we know about the movie so far…
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood plot
Tarantino is directing and writing the screenplay, describing it as “a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood.”
“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,” Tarantino said in a statement (via THR). “I’m very excited to tell this story of an LA and a Hollywood that don’t exist anymore.”
The film will follow a struggling actor, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, his stunt double, played by Brad Pitt, and their next door neighbour, the actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie).
In real life, Tate (who was the wife of film director Roman Polanski) was viciously murdered by a group of cultists calling themselves The Manson Family, named after their leader, Charles Manson. Manson led a fringe group of outsiders who became the most famous mass murderers in America during the sixties, killing five people in an attempt to start a race war. Manson’s crimes shocked America in 1969 and brought the revolutionary decade to an abrupt end.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood cast
Pretty much everyone seems to be in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, with Tarantino assembling his biggest, starriest cast to date.
Leonardo DiCaprio, who worked with Tarantino on Django Unchained, will play former western TV star Rick Dalton (as opposed to early reports that he’d be Manson). Brad Pitt, who previously starred in Inglourious Basterds, is meanwhile cast as Cliff Booth, Dalton’s longtime stunt double. Al Pacino will play Marvin Shwarz, Rich Dalton’s agent.
Margot Robbie will play 1960s icon Sharon Tate. Rocking some ’60s chic style, Robbie looks like a blast from the past in this official still of her in-character, which she released on Instagram.
Deliverance and Smokey And The Bandit star Burt Reynolds was to play George Spahn, the ranch owner who rented land to Charles Manson and his followers, before his sad passing earlier in 2018. His casting was the first indication the film will hew closer to the dark mythology around Charles Manson than some of the previous casting has implied, as Spahn was intergal to Manson having a place to implement his brainwashing. He has since been replaced by character actor statesman Bruce Dern, the Oscar nominee who appeared for a brief but memorable role in Tarantino’s last movie, The Hateful Eight.
Tarantino is also pulling from his usual troupe of actors with Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, and Michael Madsen, who together or separately acted in Death Proof, The Hateful Eight, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and Reservoir Dogs, all cast in the film.
Damian Lewis will play Steve McQueen, one of the actors who defined cool in the sixties. Keith Jefferson, who appeared in The Hateful Eight and Django Unchained, will play Land Pirate Keith. Manson himself will be played by Australian actor, Damon Herriman (Justified).
Emile Hirsch will play Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring, one of the four victims on Cielo Drive. Dakota Fanning was also cast as one-day President Ford assassin wannabe Squeaky Fromme. Clifton Collins Jr. plays s Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero, Keith Jefferson and Nicholas Hammond will play director Sam Wanamaker. Luke Perry was cast as Scotty Lancer. Timothy Olyphant is also in the family.
Scoot McNairy will reportedly play Business Bob Gilbert, a cowboy character who stars in an apparently-fictional Western TV show from the film’s 1969 time period. The character seems supplementary to the film’s world-building, described as “an element of a Pulp Fiction-like tapestry of the summer of 1969 in Los Angeles.”
As if there’s any room left for anyone else, Lena Dunham was also cast alongside Austin Butler, Maya Hawke and Chilean actress Lorenza Izzo.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood filming
Filming started in June, 2018 and is due to wrap in November – with all the shooting taking place in and around Los Angeles. The tabloids have had a field day running photos of Pit and DiCaprio driving around Hollywood in vintage cars, walking along the street, eating in a Taco Bell – but we do now have our first image of the film, which shows DiCaprio and Pitt standing against a wall.
The death of Burt Reynolds came as a major blow to the production, but it seems like the actor hadn’t actually shot any of his scenes when he died in September.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood release date
When the film was originally announced, it was slated to be released on August 9, 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the real murders. Sony later announced that the film has been rescheduled to hit cinemas on July 26, 2019. Sony gave no reason for the switch, but the chances are that they wanted to avoid seeming a wee bit disrespectful.