Weeks after getting Leonardo DiCaprio to play a lead in his next film, Quintin Tarantino has now gotten another A-list star he’s worked with before, as Brad Pitt is joining the director’s ninth film. Tarantino and Pitt previously worked together on Inglourious Basterds (2009), with Pitt playing Lieutenant Aldo Raine. Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group announced the film starring DiCaprio and Pitt will be titled, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Tarantino gives some insight on the movie in the press release:
Tarantino describes it as “a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor…Sharon Tate.”
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Tarantino comments: “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. I’m very excited to tell this story of an LA and a Hollywood that don’t exist anymore. And I couldn’t be happier about the dynamic teaming of DiCaprio & Pitt as Rick & Cliff.”
Pitt had been heavily rumored along with Tom Cruise and Margot Robbie (to potentially play Sharon Tate), but Cruise and Robbie are not in this initial press release. Still, it wouldn’t be surprising to see two more A-listers join the cast, and most people would probably love to see the both of them in a Tarantino movie. Either way, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is obviously extremely promising, and DiCaprio and Pitt could make Rick Dalton and Cliff Booth iconic characters like so many of Tarantino’s others.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is set to hit theaters on August 9, 2019, exactly 50 years after the murders of Sharon Tate and four others at the hands of serial killer Charles Manson.