Today in major casting news: Quentin Tarantino is bringing Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt together for his upcoming Charles Manson movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Per Sony Pictures, the true-crime film “takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood.” DiCaprio, 43, plays Rick Dalton, the former star of Western TV series, while 54-year-old Pitt stars as Dalton’s longtime stunt double.
“Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore,” Tarantino, 54, told Variety on Wednesday, February 28. “But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor . . . Sharon Tate.”
Tate, an actress, was eight months pregnant when she murdered at the age of 26 in 1969. She was among five people who were brutally slain by the Manson family cult members at the L.A. home she shared with director Roman Polanski.
The Pulp Fiction director revealed he has been working on the script for five years and has lived in Los Angeles for most of his life, including in 1969. “I’m very excited to tell this story an L.A., and a Hollywood that don’t exist anymore,” he told the publication. “And I couldn’t be happier about the dynamic teaming of DiCaprio and Pitt as Rick and Cliff.”
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin’s ninth movie, is set for an August 9, 2019 release — the anniversary of the day Tate was murdered.
Deadline reports that Tarantino has asked Margot Robbie to play Tate.
Tarantino worked with Pitt on 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, which received eight Oscar nominations. DiCaprio starred in the two-time Oscar winner’s 2012 Django Unchained.
