Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Sources say that Tarantino is putting the finishing touches on the script and that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence have been approached. Studios could receive the package after Labor Day, according to one source. The plan is to shoot in 2018, possibly in the summer.

Script details are fuzzy but one of the stories centers on Sharon Tate, the actress and wife of director Roman Polanski who was murdered by Manson and his followers in 1969.

Jennifer Lawrence as Sharon Tate? Brad Pitt as.... Charles Manson?(!?!?) This certainly wasn't what I was expecting for his next project, but it's an interesting idea. He was rumored to be working on a Faster, Pussycat!, Kill!, Kill! remake for quite some time, in addition to the persistent rumors of a follow-up to Kill Bill. It'll be fascinating to see how his highly-stylized filmmaking will meld with a true story - unless he's going for historical fiction à la Inglorious Basterds, which doesn't seem likely given the description so far.

Any big Tarantino fans on the forum?

 

I never trust Tarantino fans - he's got some really fun films (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction - actually, all of them apart from The Hateful Eight and half of Django Unchained) but why do people seriously laud him as some visionary director when there are about 100+ working directors that deserve the praise first and never get it!?

This kind of sums up my thoughts better than I can articulate them...

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles...ntin-tarantino-as-told-to-me-by-men-ive-dated

But yes, to actually answer your question, I'll probably be watching this...

 

Tarantino has nothing to do with those other directors, though. Him getting praise doesn't mean that some other directors won't get the recognition that they perhaps deserve - the guy releases films every 5 years or so, it's not like he's saturating the market. Reservoir Dogs is one of my favourite films of all time - Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Jackie Brown, and Inglorious Basterds are all up there, too. And I actually loved both The Hateful Eight and Django (though I'd say Hateful Eight is one of his weaker projects overall, and certainly it doesn't have the rewatchability of his best works).

That's a cute little 'article' but it's redundant - to reduce his filmography to the fact that a bunch of straight guys like his work and try to use that as something against him doesn't make any sense to me.

 

I suppose it's more that he is "claimed" by a lot of idiots and used as some benchmark of amazing film-making.

The fact that interviews suggest that he is in fact one of those idiots himself makes it all the more frustrating.

I appreciate his work in spite of both him and his reputation. I will be forever grateful to him for giving Pam Grier a prime role that she has deserved for may years. Would any of his films make my Top 10 of their year? No.

 

I guess I'm one of those idiots, because I do think he's an amazing filmmaker. I adore his dialogue and direction. I do get your point, though - I have tons of friends who claim to love Pulp Fiction (right down to having the poster in their room when we were in university) but they've never seen Jackie Brown and can't sit through Inglorious Basterds ("way too many subtitles!") but I wouldn't let that deter me from appreciating his work / acknowledging how much I genuinely enjoy pretty much everything he's made.

As for the man himself... I appreciate how much he genuinely loves cinema. Regardless of how that can come across at times, I think it's endearing how upfront he is about his influences. Is he my favourite filmmaker? No. But I think he has a really incredible track record and has made films worthy of the praise that they've gotten. For me, The Hateful Eight was his first film that didn't quite live up to its potential.

EDIT: I don't really ever go back to Death Proof, either. I always forget about it, honestly.

 

His early films are fantastic, but he lost me after Kill Bill, dispite the different kinds of stories, they are almost Tarantino by numbers, you could make a great drinking game ticking off the Tarantino-cliques. So this new film doesn't excite me as much as it might've done.

 

I think this is what has me excited about the Charles Manson / Sharon Tate project - it's quite left-field for him. Although, I quite like most of his post-Kill Bill output, specifically Inglorious Basterds which is among my favourite films of his. I enjoy Django a lot, too.

 

I always thought that the murder of Sharon Tate was so fascinating in a disturbing way...

Anyway, I am super excited about this. Could be amazing...though I have to admit that I loved every Tarantino movie... except for his last two efforts. I hope this next project will be a change.

 

I think Inglorious Basterds holds up really, really well. I've only seen Django once, and I remember liking it, if not loving it. It's funny, I haven't seem some of his earlier films, but they've been on my "list" for years. Should rectify that soon. (I've seen Kill Bill.)

As a director and writer, I appreciate his originality and strong voice. You always know you're watching a Tarantino movie and hearing his words, and you can't say that for everyone. He has a singular vision and takes the craft of filmmaking immensely serious. He's more admirable than likable though, that's for sure.

 

"Death Proof" and "Natural Born Killers" (I know he didn´t directed that one, but was author) are two of my favorite movies ever. I love the way Tarantino tends to depict violence in all its absurdity.

"Death Proof" has such a calming plot-line. The female revenge in his movies always feels so satisfying to witness. (Would be so interesting to have a queer revenge movie...) I could watch the women kick stuntman mikes ass while chick habit is playing endlessly.

Thinking about it... I think its very interesting that while the movies often seem obscenely oversexualized on the surface his movies always have very strong female characters. Shoshanna in Inglorius Basterds is also such a great role.

Ugh, I am so hyped right now.

 

Jackie Brown is pretty great. Quentin really does write impressive dialogue and strong female characters. Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs - all great.

I haven't actually watched anything post Kill Bill vol. 2 though.

 

It's about time someone made a decent film about the Manson murders. I've read the Helter Skelter book a few times. It's a period in American history that fascinates me, especially the way the events intertwine with Hollywood stars and the Laurel Canyon crowd.

 

You've got to at least watch Inglorious Basterds. That's generally regarded as one of his best, while people tend to be more split on Django (which I also love) and then The Hateful Eight gets a lot of shit (some of which is justified). I still had a great time watching The Hateful Eight in theaters, I just haven't had much desire to sit down and rewatch it, though I know I will eventually. Stuff like Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown I can watch endlessly and still find new things to love.

 

He's still aiming to shoot in early 2018.

“It’s not Charles Manson, it’s 1969,” cautioned Quentin Tarantino at an award-season post-screening brunch at Estrella on Sunset for Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled”. Tarantino just completed a round of pitch meetings last week set by WME from five studios (not including family-friendly Disney) with worldwide distribution seeking to back his untitled Manson Family Project, which he finished writing about five months ago, he said. (The cast is rumored to include Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and Tarantino vets Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Leonardo DiCaprio.)

 

Tarantino will get something incredible out of Margot Robbie, I'm sure. Nobody needs Brad Pitt in this though.

 

The dialogue in his films is always so fantastic. I couldn’t watched an entire film of the girls sitting and chatting at the diner in Death Proof and have been entirely entertained. It’s like 8 minutes long and it’s all one take.

Also, I never noticed this before watching it last weekend, you can see Stuntman Mike at the countertop during their chat. I’ve seen this movie like 10+ times and never noticed him there!

 

Death Proof never excited me as much as some of his other movies but I did really enjoy it. I definitely have to go back and rewatch it soon, it's almost certainly his film that I've seen the least (besides The Hateful Eight, which I never saw again after going to see it on opening night).

 

Sony got the rights to finance & distribute the film, and they're aiming to start filming in June & release it in 2019. The working title is '#9' & Tarantino is still hoping to get Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.

From Deadline: "The film is an ensemble; Tarantino has had conversations with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio for the two main lead male roles. It is unclear if all three will be in the movie." Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, Tarantino’s upcoming movie, according to a source who read the script, focuses on a male TV actor who’s had one hit series and his looking for a way to get into the film business. His sidekick—who’s also 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.

 

He does next to nothing for me. Clever guy in his re-use of motifs and set-ups from a gazillion other movies and making his own Lego house of other people's blocks, but that's all it is.

He was at his commercial peak when I was on my film degree and the hype was largely inescapable to the point where I just never want to watch anything of his again. Claiming he was going to make a slasher movie and then giving us Death Proof was the last straw.

Kill Bill Vol 1 is good though.

 

I generally like his stuff, he's probably the director I could most easily identify the work of and can name a fair few of his films which isn't something I can say about a lot of Hollywood behind-the-camera types. Some of it is too dry for me but I loved his work on Inglourious Basterds, both parts of Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, From Dusk till Dawn, Sin City, Grindhouse and Django Unchained. I think the over the top nature of all of those films is what makes them so great, they feel like an event because they're always absurd, out of the realms of possibility, comically violent and loaded with sexual innuendo, but also feature strong characters, memorable dialogue and really eye catching scenery.

A project about the Manson cult could go either way really, I think in 2019 it's even more likely to cause an enormous amount of backlash than if it had been released in 2009 because cultural norms have really transformed in the last few years and I'm not sure raking up a gruesome series of murders in what I'm sure will be a surreal, wacky Tarantino way is the best idea. I'm sure I'll go to see it in the cinema if the reviews don't suggest it's terrible for any reason.