The lead up to a new Quentin Tarantino movie is almost as much as a spectacle as the movie itself, what with the rumors and the controversy, and the slobbering over any new information. Well beware in the front row you might get a little wet from my slobber as I write about the fact that we have got the first photo from Tarantino’s ninth film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which you can see below.
Hollywood, 1969, an aging western TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) try to find their place in a town that is seemingly leaving them behind as entertainment moves from the golden age into the post-classic era. Who knew that all they had to do to stay relevant was to live next to one of the most famous actresses of the time, Sharon Tate?
For those who don’t have an unhealthy obsession with cults and crime like yours truly, Sharon Tate and four others were murdered in Tate’s home by members of Charles Manson’s “family”, which was a gathering of impressionable young people who believed that Manson was a prophet. The murders were a part of Manson’s plan after he believed the lyrics to The Beatles “Helter Skelter” was a coded message to spark a race war.
Sounds disturbing right? It is and that’s why there were questions aimed towards Tarantino when the first rumors started showing about whether or not he was actually going to write an adaptation of a real-life murder. The addition of DiCaprio and Pitt’s characters make it seem like it will be more taking place around the murders and investigating the impact it had on Hollywood rather than putting murder to screen. Still, like all other Tarantino movies, this probably won’t be for the faint of heart.
While Once Upon a Time in Hollywood won’t be out until August 9th, 2019 the cast has been filling up quite nicely with Margot Robbie set to play the doomed Sharon Tate, Burt Reynolds will play a rancher who rents his property to Manson, Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen, and a whole host of other Tarantino regulars playing a mix of historical Hollywood actors and fictional stand-ins.
