Even for a Quentin Tarantino movie, there is a considerable amount of interest surrounding Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Perhaps it’s because the film teams up two of the world’s biggest movie stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, in the starring roles. Or because it features Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and chronicles the Manson Murders. Or maybe because it gives Tarantino the opportunity to dig deep into the Hollywood of 1969, complete with a fake Western TV show.
For all these reasons and more, folks are really eager to see this new Tarantino movie, but so far information on the film has been kept under lock and key. What we know for sure is that DiCaprio plays an actor famous for his role on a popular Western TV series and Pitt plays his longtime stunt double, and both face a changing world as the landscape of cinema (and the nation in general) is at a turning point.
This Hollywood-set period piece, complete with a stacked ensemble cast, is ripe with opportunity for a filmmaker like Tarantino, so when I recently got the chance to speak with cinematographer Robert Richardson about his work on the powerful upcoming true-story drama A Private War, I had to ask about what people can expect from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. While I’ll have that full, in-depth conversation up soon, I wanted to share what Richardson had to say about the new Tarantino film first.
Richardson has been working with Tarantino since the Kill Bill movies and the DP “no jinx” believes Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is shaping up to be a “fantastic” film. It’s a long shoot—they were on Day 89 when I spoke with Richardson last weekend—but Richardson couldn’t contain his excitement about framing up two of the world’s biggest movie stars in the same shot:
“It’s beautiful. To work with Leo together with Brad… It’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, sort of the contemporary versions. These are two massive stars, and they’re so talented. Margot [Robbie] is also phenomenal and wonderful to be around. There are a number of people that you will see within the film that haven’t had as much exposure that are remarkable. We’ve got Dakota Fanning in the movie and she—phew, is she a powerhouse. It’s a great cast.”
Read more. Nice article!