Do you want to see a super-extended cut ofOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywood? Of course you do. Word of a potential four-hour cut hit the web earlier this year and cinephiles appropriately were overjoyed at the prospect of seeing more ofBrad PittandLeonardoDiCapriobromancing through the City of Angels inQuentin Tarantino’s heartfelt ode to the Hollywood of yore. Well, good news. Tarantino seems to think it’s gonna happen… you’re just going to have to wait a little bit.
WithOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywoodpoised for a major awards season, Tarantino, Pitt, and DiCaprio joined Collider for a special FYC screening today at ArcLight Hollywood and asked about the potential extended cut, Tarantino was enthusiastic.
The theatrical release of the film sits at 161 minutes, and a subsequent re-release added another10 minutes of deleted scenes, and Tarantino recalled turning to Sony bossTom Rothmanfor guidance during the tough process of editing down.
“It’s all good. It’s all great. I don’t know if an audience would sit for it, but I love it. So we showed it to Tom Rothman and it was like, ‘OK, here this all is. We know that this is a movie, but maybe you can help us out because we like everything.'”
At which point Pitt interjected with the question on everyone’s mind: “The real question is are we going to get to see this one way or another?”
Tarantino didn’t give a hard confirmation or release date, but he certainly sounded inclined to get the extended version to audiences eventually. Answering the crow cheers to Pitt’s question, Tarantino replied.
“Hey look, it’sallgood so once this whole thing is said and done, maybe in a year’s time, we probably will.”
The decision to release an extended cut isn’t exactly a shocker considering Tarantino’s past. The filmmaker famously had to splitKill Billinto two theatrical releases and edited them both intoKill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair(though you can only see it at his movie theater the New Beverly for now). He released an extended cut ofDeath Proof. Earlier this year, he told/Filmhe has a longer director’s cut ofDjango Unchainedto release down the line. And of course, there’sThe Hateful Eight, which here-cut into a four-part miniseries for Netflix.
Earlier this year, Pitt spoke about the possibility of aOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywoodseries cut, noting the possibilities of the series format.
“I look at series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don’t always get to do in film. So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don’t fit in the box. That’s why I think it’s interesting that Tarantino took Hateful Eight and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It’s almost the best of both words: You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can’t actually put more content in the series format.”
What might we see in the extended cut? Well, there are some hints out there. In addition to the footage released in the extended theatrical cut (which included two fake ads and extended looks at the in-movieLancerandBounty Lawseries footage),Damon Herriman—who plays infamous cult leader Charles Manson in the film— toldEWthat a lot” of footage was cut from the film and confirmed one other Charmes Manson scene that “may make an appearance at some point.”
Herriman said: “[W]e did shoot a little more than what’s in the film. He did cut quite a lot out of the film. The stuff I got to do in that was lighter and more of a fun tone…”
Clich here for all our previousFYC coverageandhere’s everything onOnce Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
