Quentin Tarantino’s much-anticipated Manson-era drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will have its world premiere at the Cannes film festival after all.
The news was announced by the festival as part of a batch of additions to the lineup, after Tarantino’s film was conspicuous by its absence from the original announcement in April. At the time, Cannes’s general delegate Thierry Frémaux had said that Tarantino was still editing the film and it was “not ready” for the festival.
However, Frémaux said that the film would now be added to the competition for the Palme d’Or, saying: “Quentin Tarantino, who has not left the editing room in four months, is a real, loyal and punctual child of Cannes. Like for Inglourious Basterds, he’ll definitely be there … with a finished film screened in 35mm.”
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is set in Los Angeles in 1969 against the backdrop of the murders committed by the Manson “family”. DiCaprio plays a washed-up actor and Pitt a stunt double who are attempting to revive their careers in the entertainment industry; Robbie plays murder victim Sharon Tate. Frémaux described the films as “a love letter to the Hollywood of [Tarantino’s] childhood, a rock music tour of 1969, and an ode to cinema as a whole” and thanked “Quentin and his crew for spending days and nights in the editing room”.
Once Upon a Time is Tarantino’s third time in competition at Cannes, after Pulp Fiction in 1994 (which won the Palme d’Or) and Death Proof in 2007.
The festival also announced that Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo, the second part of a projected trilogy by Blue Is the Warmest Colour director Abdellatif Kechiche, and Gaspar Noé’s Lux Æterna have been added to the selection.
The Cannes film festival runs 14-25 May.
