Pitt joins DiCaprio for Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Quentin Tarantino’s newest movie is starting to assemble quite the crew. Not only has he nabbed one of the hottest leading ladies around – Oscar nominee Margot Robbie – but he’s also got one of the biggest leading men ever in Leonardo DiCaprio. Now Tarantino has secured yet another major star in Brad Pitt, further cementing his penultimate film as an unmissable event.

It's been announced that Pitt has signed on to be in the new movie set in 1969, the official title of which is now ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Pitt will be playing a stuntman named Cliff Booth who worked with DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton, a former western TV star. Margot Robbie will be playing actress Sharon Tate, and Tarantino described the movie as, “a story that takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor…Sharon Tate.”

Both DiCaprio and Pitt have starred in recent Tarantino films – DJANGO UNCHAINED and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, respectively – and both films were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Word is that Tom Cruise was also in discussions to take on a role in the movie, but it seems those talks ended somewhere down the line. As for the other two leading men, and of the movie itself, Tarantino expressed his excitement over finally getting to tell this story with two incredible actors.

“I’ve been working on this script for five years, as well as living in Los Angeles County most of my life, including in 1969, when I was 7 years old. I’m very excited to tell this story of an L.A., and a Hollywood that don’t exist anymore. And I couldn’t be happier about the dynamic teaming of DiCaprio & Pitt as Rick & Cliff.”

The film will be released on August 9, 2019, by Sony Pictures, who Tarantino took the movie to after parting ways with The Weinstein Company. So far, the movie is sounding like a massive period epic, and it has the cast to back it up. The major parts have been filled, so now it’s all about filling the smaller roles (one for Samuel L. Jackson, most likely). I was all aboard before the movie got the cast, but now this next year and a half couldn’t come fast enough.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD arrives August 9, 2019.