Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio will both star in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film about the Manson family murders.
The movie, which will be titled Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is set in 1969, in Los Angeles, at the ‘height of hippy Hollywood’, Tarantino announced.
Leo will play Rick Dalton, a former star of a western TV series, while Brad will portray Cliff Booth, Dalton’s longtime stunt double, according to Deadline.
It’s reported both characters are ‘struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognise anymore’. Yet Rick has a very famous next-door neighbour, Sharon Tate.
Tate was a model and actress, who was married to director Roman Polanski. She was brutally murdered at her home by members of the Manson Family ‘cult’.
This is the first time Brad and Leo will appear together in a feature film, without counting Martin Scorsese’s 2015 Macau casino advert The Audition.
Tarantino has now parted ways with The Weinstein Company, who he was working alongside on the film, with Sony now picking it up.
Tarantino said:
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.
According to media reports, Tarantino wants Margot Robbie to play the role of Sharon Tate in the film, although Jennifer Lawrence is said to have also been considered.
Tom Cruise, Al Pacino and Samuel L. Jackson have all been linked to the film too – if this happens, what a cast it’ll be!
Charles Manson died last November at the age of 83. His health had been steadily deteriorating for some time.
In January 2017, he was hospitalised for severe intestinal bleeding and although it was found he needed surgery, he was deemed too weak by doctors and sent back to prison, report the Express.
The Manson Family were convicted of killing Tate, as well as six other people back in August 1969 while on a killing spree in Los Angeles.
Sharon Tate’s brutal murder left the world shocked as she was stabbed 16 times while 8 1/2 months pregnant – the family left the word ‘pig’ daubed on her front door.
Manson and his group allegedly committed the murders in an attempt to start an apocalyptic race war, something he named ‘the Helter Skelter’, a term he took from The Beatles’ song of the same name.
Since being imprisoned in 1971 – he was originally sentenced to death, but got a reprieve when the death sentence was abolished in California – Manson has had ‘hundreds’ of rule violations and has been caught with a mobile phone as well as a number of homemade weapons.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is expected to be released on August 9, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the LaBianca murders – one day ahead of the anniversary of Sharon Tate’s murder.
