“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino’s sprawling 1960s-set epic, has certainly been well-covered. But now there’s a way to go even deeper into the Oscar-winning film.
There was the movie itself, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, and was released in 2019. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. It won two Oscars, for Pitt’s Supporting Actor turn as stuntman Cliff Booth, and for Nancy Haigh’s impeccable Production Design. There was also the follow-up novel, written by Tarantino and published in 2021. (Jennifer Jason Leigh, from Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight,” reads the audio book.)
Tarantino said that he has written an entire book about the films of Rick Dalton, which he intends to publish. There is also the sequel film, written by Tarantino and directed by David Fincher, which is currently shooting around Hollywood and will see Brad Pitt reprise his role as Booth.
To add to the pile is Jay Glennie’s indefensible making-of book “The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” a 488-page monster that is just as sprawling as the movie itself, with 170,000 words of text and new interviews with the stars, Tarantino and pretty much everyone involved with the movie. The book is on sale now and TheWrap spoke to Glennie about what it took to pull this behemoth together.
Can you talk about the genesis of the book?
Down the spine on the book, you’ll see the number “nine” and the idea is to build up that whole collection so that there’s 10 books. And because we’re both contrary buggers, we decided to do “Once…” first. And then we said, Well, we do “Inglorious Basterds.” “Basterds” and “Once…” started life together as two separate books that we were working on simultaneously. And then “Once…” started taking a little bit more of a pace. That’s why that was the first release. But “Inglourious Basterds,” I could have almost released now, but it’s not quite ready. I’m just tinkering, but that book is virtually written, and then “Django Unchained” will be the third release. That’s probably two thirds of the way in, I reckon.
How did you get consigned to this project that will take up the next however many years of your life?
Well, I was starting work on the third book with [Robert De Niro], we did “Raging Bull, “Deer Hunter” and then “Taxi Driver.” And the biggest fan I knew of “Taxi Driver” was Quentin. I got in touch with Paul Schrader, and we built up a relationship and said, “Look, Paul…” Because the “Trainspotting” book had Noel Gallagher and Iggy Pop forwards, “Deer Hunter” had an afterword about Michael Cimino from Jeff Bridges… that kind of thing. And with “Raging Bull,” I interviewed Michael Mann and Brian De Palma about their thoughts on “Raging Bull.” I wanted to keep that theme going, but the biggest fan I knew was Quentin so we jumped on a Zoom. I didn’t know what to expect, to be fair, but I thought it might be a 10-minute quick chat, you know, but obviously naïve there. There’s never going to be a 10-minute chat with Quentin. That was never going to happen. We opened a couple bottles of wine and we’re cooking up ideas. We’re going to put books together, and I got a flight over, and we spent the week together, and we’re away, man. Because we start riffing, we were already talking about “Hateful Eight” stories. Then “Pulp Fiction” stories started coming my way as well, and that’s when I said, “We’re going to do ten.” And he said to me, “Yeah, I’m there.”
Will “Kill Bill” be one or two books?
“Kill Bill” be one book. So if “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is coming in about 180,000 words, that’s going to come in… well, get an extra shelf.
What was the directive from Quentin on these and what did you want to do with them?
He wants to go warts and all, which was music to my ears. And I can honestly say, he hasn’t come in at all. Literally hasn’t come in and censored anything. Our working practice has been that we start on the first book and we’ll talk about it and revisit. And then in between the revisit time, I have started most of my interviews. I’ll talk to Brad or Christoph [Waltz] and they’ll say something that I know Quentin’s never touched on. I’ll write down some questions for Quentin. And when I go back I then say, “Oh, Brad said this.” That’s when he gets an inkling of what’s in the book, purely because I’m then asking him to come in, and that’s where you get that conversational feel within the book. Because I have been able to go back and been able to make it look like Brad and Quentin are talking.
It’s amazing how much you cover and how granular you go, especially because “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” had been explored in the novel and all of that.
I have my pulse points – the opening you wanted, the scenes you know you wanted (Al and Leo talking, Spahn Ranch), the ending you want. When those huge, big, big, beating hearts are there, and then you start doing the little valleys in between because of the different people you’re bringing in. I had my map, but I was more than willing for that map to take me on a journey. In no way am I pretending I’m Quentin Tarantino, but that’s kind of how he writes his screenplays. He allows his characters to evolve and they take him on a journey.
And I told myself, You know what? That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take a little bit of Q on this. If Brad takes me down an alley, I’m going to just follow him and see where he wants to go. The reason I don’t think I’ve done it is because years and years ago, I was popping along for my first ever interview for a project that I dreamt up, and it was Jeremy Thomas, the film producer. He was going to be my first ever interview and I was literally a kid, and this guy had said to me, “Have your questions, do your research, but listen to the first answer, because that will take you somewhere else. You can always come back to your second question, but listen to the first answer.” I’ve never forgotten that advice and that’s where much of these books have come from. You start listening, you start talking, and it takes you down a different avenue, as long as you can get back to where you want to go with when you start piecing it together. Some of these interviews are two, three hours long. You can imagine how much ground we cover. It’s been hugely interesting.
Were you surprised by the access you got?
No, I don’t think anybody said, “No.” It’s Quentin and Mike Simpson, who is Quentin’s only ever agent, he opened up doors as well. When you’ve got those two fighters in your corner. At some stage you hadn’t heard back from somebody and you’re waiting and waiting and then you’d get an email back saying, “Sorry, I just wanted to verify that you’re kosher.” There was that. I can understand that as well. Quentin creates a family, but they’d be in touch with Mike and Q, and then they’d get the edict back – “Talk about what you like.”
Do you have a favorite anecdote?
It’s not a one liner but I loved hearing, and I loved piecing together, the whole Manson Family, bringing those actors together. I just loved hearing their stories. These guys are kicking off their careers, and they didn’t know they were going to be Mikey Madison, Oscar winner. They didn’t know they were going to be Sydney Sweeney. They didn’t know they were going to be Austin Butler, who had great film roles coming down the way. And to see those guys coming together, Maya Hawke is just starting out, Margaret Qualley, to see that story coming together. And I absolutely love writing it when they’re in the room together, and Quentin’s in there, and they don’t really know where they’re going. And Mikey Madison, she’s driving home and didn’t realize her reception had gone on her phone. Then it suddenly pinged and she got the job. You can sit back and you can watch the film, and you can enjoy the film. You can read a few column inches and a few magazine articles, but when you start hearing what it means to these young guys, all of them, knew what being in this film was going to mean for them.
Can you talk about the format of the book?
We made the decision that the making of will be written as though you’re watching the film. So instead of going into, if we’re shooting out of sequence, that doesn’t interest me. I don’t want it to be an analytical thing of how the film was shot. I want it to be able to almost – you’re watching the film, and you can almost go to the scenes and learn that’s how that was made. The actual making of the film will replicate the watching of the film. And to me, that’s most interesting. I loved them finding Victoria Truscott – one minute she was serving them some burgers and some drinks and now she’s the maître d of Musso & Frank’s introducing Al Pacino. What a story. It’s the things that you can only dream of. You’re spotted and next thing you know your call sheet is Victoria Truscott, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Pacino. You couldn’t make that up, could you?
And literally, it was because she had the gumption and chutzpah to say, “Look, if there’s an opportunity…” And Quentin loves that. I love the Spencer Garrett scene [he plays Alan Kincade, a celebrity television interviewer based on Wink Martindale]. To me, it’s one of the great openings. He’s interviewing them on the set. I love the fact that both Brad and Leo told me, that they said to Spencer, “Man, you’re owning this.” Then Spencer came in with his version of events. But then he is queuing up in a restaurant, and Leo turns around, and it’s Spencer. Leo said, “Hey, man, I’ve just seen the trailer. You’re all over it.” And Spencer said, “Really?” Because you don’t know, you could be cut. And Spencer asked, “Oh, man, have you seen the film?” Leo said, “Yeah, I’ve seen the film. I’m not going to tell you, though, man, I want you to see it.” How gracious that is of Leo. Because we all like to be the purveyors of good news, don’t we? We’re the ones who broke the story. But Leo had so much grace. He wanted Spencer to see it.
What will the release cadence for the future books be? One a year?
That’s, that’s the plan. Oh my God, there’s a lot riding on this one, I suppose. But I’d like to make it an event so you really are waiting for it. Because we haven’t gone in number order, they’re going to be all contrary. And isn’t that the Tarantino way?
“The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is available now.
