“Street by street, block by block, we’ll transform Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969,” the director told exhibitors in Las Vegas at CinemaCon.
Quentin Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio, taking the stage together Monday at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum in Las Vegas, teased exhibitors about their controversial new movie set in the 1960s when the Manson murders rocked Hollywood.
Tarantino promised that the film is “probably the closest to Pulp Fiction that I have done,” referring to his breakthrough 1994 film, as he and DiCaprio touted the movie, set for an August 2019 release, at the close of Sony Pictures’ presentation of its upcoming movies.
The new film, titled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, not only reunites DiCaprio with Tarantino, following their teaming in 2012’s Django Unchained, but also includes Brad Pitt, who starred in the director’s 2009 Inglourious Basterds.
“Sony and myself will be coming to the theaters with the most exciting star dynamic since Paul Newman and Robert Redford,” Tarantino said of DiCaprio and Pitt. “It’s very hush hush and top secret. But I can tell you that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood takes place in 1969, at the height of the counterculture, hippy revolution and the height of new Hollywood. Street by street, block by block, we’ll transform Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969.”
DiCaprio added: “It’s hard to speak about a film that we haven’t done yet, but I’m incredibly excited … to work with Brad Pitt, and I think he’s going to transport us. I’m a huge fan of Singin’ in the Rain — movies about Hollywood. As an L.A. native, having read the script, it’s one of the most amazing screenplays. We are going to do our best job to make it fantastic.”
Sony Pictures motion pictures group chairman Tom Rothman agreed, adding, “It’s the best screenplay that I have had the privilege to read.”
Tarantino — also the owner of the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles — received applause from the theater owners as he finished his remarks by asserting: “I love movies, and I love movies in movie theaters.” He thanked the exhibitors for “keeping the show alive.”
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