In an exciting but entirely predictable humblebrag, Sony Pictures lured their new creative partner Quentin Tarantino to CinemaCon 2018, where the movie-obsessed director charmed thousands of American exhibitors.
Appearing with his leading man Leonardo DiCaprio, Tarantino walked out onto The Forum stage at Caesar’s Palace with nary a concept image or additional cast to announce for his upcoming tenth film — “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” — which Sony snatched from a wide field of competitors after the fall of Tarantino’s longtime distribution partner Harvey Weinstein.
“Sony and myself will be coming to the theaters with the most exciting star dynamic duo since Robert Redford and Paul Newman,” Tarantino promised the crowd.
He’s referring to his other massive star, Brad Pitt, who will lead the project with DiCaprio. The men will play a faded TV star and his live-in stunt double searching for relevance in a changing Hollywood landscape in 1969.
Oh, and their neighbors are a nice couple named Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
“It takes place at the advent of the counterculture explosion. It takes place at the time of the hippie revolution and the height of new Hollywood,” Tarantino said.
He had no further details but promised that during production he would be transforming Los Angeles “street by street, block by block” to model exteriors in step with the period.
Sony’s Motion Picture Group President Tom Rothman called Tarantino’s script “the best I’ve had the privilege to read.”
DiCaprio didn’t have much to add, finding it difficult to speak at length about a film that has yet to shoot “a single frame.”
The conversation ended with a rousing thank you from Tarantino to the theater owners for keeping the cinematic experience where it belongs –in their theater.
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” hasn’t begun principal photography yet, but it has a release date.
The new Butch and Sundance will be coming at you on August 9, 2019.
Every Quentin Tarantino Movie Ranked From 'Reservoir Dogs' to 'Hateful Eight' (Photos)
8. "Death Proof"(2007)
Despite some truly audacious stunt work by Zoe Bell on the hood of a careening Dodge Challenger, Tarantino's homage to grindhouse fails to transcend that leering genre. If anything, "Death Proof" unintentionally makes the case for exploitation flicks' niche appeal with its cardboard characters and lurid set pieces.
7. "Reservoir Dogs" (1992)
Tarantino's directorial debut inaugurates the self-assured vision of a filmmaker who knows exactly what kind of movies he wants to make. Vicious and nihilistic, the crime thriller is also largely an exercise in style despite fantastic performances by Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Madsen.
6. "Kill Bill, Vols. 1 & 2" (2003-04)
Tarantino's movies are never short of watchable, but this two-part, four-hour pastiche epic is the director at his second most fanboyish (after "Death Proof"). Tarantino himself has said of the Uma Thurman vehicle that it's "not about real life, it's just about other movies" -- and it shows. As a primer on Tarantino's favorite movies, it's enjoyable enough. As a standalone film, it fails to register beyond the over-the-top fight scenes.
5. "The Hateful Eight" (2015)
Thinly drawn characters and a three-hour-plus running time make this Western an inessential and interminable chamber drama. After the peaks of "Inglourious Basterds" and "Django Unchained," it's disappointing to see Tarantino return to pointlessly bloody form, especially given the film's promisingly fertile post-Civil War setting.
4. "Pulp Fiction"(1994)
Arguably the most important movie of the '90s, this smirking Palme d'Or winner now feels slightly rambling and repetitive. Still, its instantly recognizable lines, characters, and scenes must be acknowledged, and Samuel L. Jackson's alert but world-weary hitman gives this tale of L.A. lowlifes an emotional weightiness Tarantino's lesser efforts don't quite achieve.
3. "Inglourious Basterds" (2009)
This alternate-history cartoon is Tarantino at his most entertaining, featuring a continent full of snappily sketched characters and star-making (or -remaking) turns by Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, and Melanie Laurent. But whacking Nazis with bats and setting them on fire don't add up to much more than a hollow revenge fantasy, however funnily or majestically rendered.
2. "Jackie Brown"(1997)
Tarantino's only attempt at a real love story (sorry, "Django" doesn't count), "Jackie Brown" is in many ways the director's most human film. The soundtrack is flawless, Pam Grier's in top form, and the tangled busyness of the criminal escapades just make Jackie and her would-be bail-bondsman suitor's (Robert Forster) middle-aged melancholy that much more moving.
1. "Django Unchained" (2012)
The rare Tarantino movie to actually be "about" something, "Django Unchained" explores the still-taboo topic of black anger at white Southerners for slavery with wit, ferocity, and cinematic flair. Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio deliver career-best performances in this delirious rhapsody, and for once the director's signature hyper-violence has a point beyond its own sake. If only Tarantino would allow himself to be so ambitious with every project.
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TheWrap movie critic Inkoo Kang reassesses the director’s 23-year career, from “Reservoir Dogs” to “The Hateful Eight”
