Quentin Tarantino on His Upcoming Film: ‘It’s not Charles Manson, It’s 1969’
“It’s not Charles Manson, it’s 1969,” cautioned Quentin Tarantino at an award-season post-screening brunch at Estrella on Sunset for Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled” (Focus Features). The writer-director is looking for a new home for his ninth movie, now that he has withdrawn from scandal-plagued patron Harvey Weinstein, who has backed his features since picking up 1992’s “Reservoir Dogs.”
Tarantino just completed a round of pitch meetings last week set by WME from five studios with worldwide distribution (not including family-friendly Disney) seeking to back his untitled Manson Family Project, which he finished writing about five months ago, he said. (The cast is rumored to include Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and Tarantino vets Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Leonardo DiCaprio.) He wasn’t ready to take the director’s helm until January in order to give himself some time for tinkering — and romance. He’s wearing a gold engagement ring in advance of his marriage to Israeli singer Daniella Pick.
So it’s full steam ahead once he chooses his next distribution partner. “It’s a level playing field,” he said cautiously. On what basis will he make that decision? “I don’t know.”
Tarantino was throwing some support to one-time girlfriend Coppola, who won best Director at Cannes this year for elegantly mounted Civil War melodrama “The Beguiled,” starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Kirsten Dunst. Coppola, who attended the party with producer Fred Roos, recently landed on New York Magazine’s best screenwriters list, and has a strong shot at an Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination. She’s gathering string now before starting to focus on her next script, she said.
Tarantino regaled Academy members like Diana Darrin with stories of his burgeoning 16 and 35 mm print collection for The New Beverly Cinema, which also includes Netflix films like “Okja,” and soon, Noah Baumbach’s “The Meyerowitz Stories,” which Tarantino will be also be giving a second theatrical run December 1-7. “They don’t mind striking 35 mm prints,” he said. “And I get to keep them!”
