To hype myself for the 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' film, I've saved random facts regarding Tarantino's research or Charles Manson.

1/31 The song 'Straight Shooter' from the 1966 band, Mamas and Papas, is confirmed to be in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The sheet music for that song was on the piano at Sharon Tate's home the night she was murdered. Tarantino overlooks no details.

2/31 The film was initially set for release on August 9, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the murder of Sharon Tate. Tarantino timed it perfectly, but it got moved a week in advance by Sony out of respect for the victims' families.

3/31

One of Charles Manson's most loyal followers, Nancy Putman quoted a chilling remark as she testified during the trial. "We are what you have made us. We were brought up on your TV. We were brought up watching 'Gunsmoke" and "Have Gone Will travel". Both of these shows were primetime television Westerns. Tarantino's main characters are faded Western television stars attempting to make it onto the big screen during the Manson saga of 1969 in Hollywood.

4/31

Tarantino considers the story and screenplay of 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' to be "his most personal". Growing up in southern California, he was 6 during the Manson mania and remembers the setting well. He worked on the story for five years, developing it first into a novel and then into a 4 hour screenplay. Like all his previous films, he cut the four hours into a 2 1/2 hour final film.

5/31

Cast as one of the girls in the Manson family is Maya Hawke, the only daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. Ethan has never starred in a Tarantino movie while Uma played Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction" and the Bride in the "Kill Bill movies". After Uma's unfortunate car accident on the Kill Bill set, she stated that she did not wish to work with Quintin again. However, she allowed her daughter to star in the upcoming film.

Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis also appears in the film. Tarantino has previously worked with her father in Pulp Fiction.

6/31

Brad Pitt and Leo Decaprio are well known for signature actions that define their acting. Decaprio has been given the title "Master of the Freak out" for performing intense and convincing anger scenes in almost every movie he's acted in. Brad Pitt has the skill to look like a boss while eating, as well as owning what is called the "deadpan delivery".

Tarantino knows about these signature moves which characterize these great actors, and he builds on the memorable stereotypes. In 'Django Unchained', Leo lost it in possibly the most famous freak-out scene of his career. On the other end in 'Inglorious', Brad calmly eats a sandwich or some orderves during a tense moment; all while delivering lines without many expressions or emotions.

These actions make for humorous scenes in their own way. Expect more from these signature moves in Tarantino's 9th film as the trailer reveals Brad eating and deadpanning lines, while we see Leo flip out in his trailer when he messes up a film shot.

All this to say, this is the first time these actors have ever collaborated.

7/31

After the script leak with 'The Hateful Eight', Tarantino took all precautions with his next project. When Tarantino finished writing the screenplay, he only kept one copy of the entire finished version. Only leading actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt were able to read the full script from start to finish. Everyone else on the project, including Margot Robbie, only got to read the parts of the script pertaining to their character. Both Pitt and DiCaprio had to go to Tarantino's house to read the screenplay. Because there was only one copy, Tarantino said the pages got stained and stayed that way.

8/31

Originally, Sharon Tate's sister did not want to give up her sister's name for the project because of the serious nature of the events. Finally, Debra Tate gave the film and Margot Robbie's portrayal of Sharon her blessing after Tarantino himself went to Debra's home for a weekend to explain the synopsis, tone, and major elements that would involve her sister. She became aware of how Tarantino would remain respectful to her memory. Debra referred to Margot Robbie as a "dedicated craftsman," and praised the actress's research of Sharon for the film.

Not everyone was as understanding about their immediate family members being in the film. Roman Polanski's 2nd wife mouthed her frustration stating, "it doesn’t bother them [in Hollywood] to make a film which takes Roman and his tragic story, while at the same time they have made him a pariah, and all without consulting him of course.”

Bruce Lee's daughter showed her frustration about not being consulted when she said in a public statement, "With Tarantino’s film, to not have been included in any kind of way, when I know that he reached out to other people but did not reach out to me, there’s a level of annoyance — and there’s part of me that says this is not worth my time and my energy.

9/31

For Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is his love letter to L.A., the title of the film, in one regard, has "a fairy-tale aspect". On another level, since the film is not historical fact per se, the title is a memory piece.

10/31

The film 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' is over a three day period in 1969.

11/31

In an attempt to show the mindset for the lead character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino gave a little backstory to Rick Dalton. Basically, "Rick never pulls off the TV-to-movies transition.”

Tarantino went on to explain how the Rick Dalton types who failed to make the leap from TV to movies were initially unable to return to TV as the lead of another series. Because similar actors to Dalton burned various bridges during their original departures for movies, they were forced to guest star on other people’s TV shows, as part of a week-to-week existence. Ultimately, Dalton must do a few spaghetti Westerns in Italy, something many actors of his class had to do, including Edd Byrnes. Tarantino even recalled some dialogue from a ((deleted scene)) in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where Dalton’s agent, Marvin Schwartz (Al Pacino), tries to convince Dalton to take the spaghetti Western offer in Italy.  “The Italians want McQueen, but he won’t work with them. And no matter what, he says no,” Tarantino recited from memory. “No matter how many times they ask, Marlon Brando always says no … but the Italians keep trying. Then, they realize it’s not gonna work, and then they settle. They want Marlon Brando, they get Burt Reynolds. They want Warren Beatty, they get George Hamilton. They want Steve McQueen, they get you [Rick Dalton].”

12/31

Many of Tarantino's skeptics have often declared that Quintin has ability to make incredible characters and plots but has failed in developing characters or themes that resonate with the audience on more of a personal level.

That could change with his next movie.

Manohla Dargis from the NYT writes, "What was entirely unexpected of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Cannes Film Festival, was that it would be such a moving film, at once a love letter — and a dream — of the Hollywood that was."

Vulture's Bilge Ebiri said, "It’s the most fun the director seems to have had in years, but it’s also, oddly, his most compassionate picture."

Tarantino has stated that factors such as the nostalgic content or his mature age could have contributed to his search for more emotional charged themes and sentiments.

13/31

Tarantino stated through his research he discovered that Hollywood consisted of three major social groups in 1969.

"We follow Sharon, who is truly living the Hollywood life. Then Rick Dalton , who is doing better than he thinks he’s doing. He has a house, some money, and he’s still working. Cliff Booth, the stunt double represents a guy who has dedicated his entire life to the industry and has nothing to show for it. He is part of Hollywood, but he lives outside Panorama City in a trailer. Make no mistake: Hollywood is his life, but he is not a citizen. These three social strata are significant to the story.”

14/31

Gold Nugget: From the film's trailer, the little girl who tells Rick Dalton about his scene being the best acting that she has ever seen; that young girl is listed as a young Merryl Streep.

15/31

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood consists of the biggest budget Tarantino has had to work with.

Budgets:

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - 100m

Django Unchained - 95m

Inglorious Basterds - 70m

Kill Bill - 60m

Hateful Eight - 44m

Death Proof - 30m

Jackie Brown - 12m

Pulp Fiction - 8.5m

Reservoir Dogs - 1.5m

16/31

In the summer of 1968, a year before the brutal murders, Manson developed a strange relationship with The Beach Boys. Manson met the band's drummer, Dennis Wilson, after Wilson picked up and drove home two female hitchhikers who happened to be living in the "family." (The same way that Cliff Booth meets the family in the movie).

"Dennis and Charlie hit it off right away. They hung out for a while, smoked some pot, and Dennis listened a bit to Charlie's songs", quotes family member Diane Lake.

When Wilson took Manson, an aspiring musician, to record at his studio, Manson had a disagreement with Wilson's producers and ended up pulling a knife on them.

In September of 1968, The Beach Boys, recorded a slightly altered version of Manson's song "Cease to Exist," which they renamed "Never Learn Not to Love." Wilson was the sole songwriting credit on the track.

17/31

On September 5, 1975, a cult member from the Manson Family, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, attempted to assassinate United States President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California. The assassination failed because although the gun was loaded, there was no round in the chamber. When she pointed the gun at Ford she was immediately restrained by Secret Service agents. Soon after, Fromme was sentenced to life in prison.

Fromme will be portrayed by Dakota Fanning in Tarantino's film.

18/31

Charles Manson had an IQ of 130, though he was illeterate.

19/31

Tarantino claims he leaves 20% of the movie ‘unseen’ (for example, not showing viewers the content of the suitcase in Pulp Fiction) “so that the audience makes it their own”. Like his other ones, Tarantino confirms that around 20% of his 9th film is left for the audience to fill it in.

20/31

Though movie memorabilia was curated from director Quentin Tarantino’s vast collection, the prop department made a fictitious poster from a Rick Dalton film for this classic ’60s kitchen. Quintin helped set the theme for all the sets in the movie.

21/31

Tarantino wrote 5 30 minute black & white Western episodes of the late 50s TV series Bounty Law, which is the TV show that made Leo's character, Rick Dalton, famous. Tarantino considers making it into a mini series through Netflix or HBO.

22/31

10 years ago, Tarantino found the nugget that forms the center of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" while filming “Inglorious Basterds".

“I worked with an actor who had been in the business for a while, he was a little older now,” said Tarantino. “He had a stunt double who he had worked with for 20 years. We didn’t have anything for the stunt double to do, but there was one little bit. ‘Can you use my guy? It would be nice.’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ This guy showed up; he was an interesting fellow. He wasn’t working for me, he was working for the actor. This was maybe one of the last movies he could do with the guy. They probably once looked so close to each other you could do a close-up on the stuntman, but that was not the case anymore. I thought the relationship was fascinating. I didn’t know that much about them, but I knew I wanted to look a little closer for what the end of their careers might look like. I might want to do a movie about Hollywood someday.”

23/31

Manson's ex attorney mysteriously died after he dumped Manson to represent another one of Manson’s Family members instead. While Manson was behind bars, Hughes mysteriously went missing while on a camping trip. Hughes' body was found, and it’s believed that the remaining Family members murdered Hughes to get Manson his revenge although no charges were filed.

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24/31

"A main theme of the picture is the topic of mortality. Specifically, the recognition of when we slowly begin to fade from a place in the spotlight to somewhere else.

DiCaprio’s character says, ‘I’m a has-been.’

"A star is either moving towards the top or falling towards the bottom. How do we deal with that? If you look at Brad and Leo in the film, they’re more or less the same character. Brad’s side has this flow — he just flows with it — but Leo’s side is the one responsible for how they both make a living." - QT

25/31

In the movie trailer, you can see Manson has a Twinkies Delivery Van. On August 8, 1969, the same day of the murders, Manson sent Mary Brunner and Sandra Good out to buy items for the other family members. While shopping at a Sears, the clerk realized their credit cards were stolen. When the manager chased after them, they fled in a Twinkies Delivery Van. Mary lost control of the van and crashed it, resulting in the girls being arrested. Manson learned about the arrest shortly before sending out the others to Sharon Tate's house. The Twinkies Delivery Van is an obscure detail rarely mentioned in most books about the family. Another sign that Tarantino really did his research

Submitted July 23, 2019 at 04:58AM by Dwingledork https://ift.tt/2Gmql7i