Al Pacino Joins Cast of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Following yesterday’s massive cast announcement, Variety is now reporting that Oscar Winner Al Pacino is set to join Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Pacino will be portraying Marvin Shwarz, a fictitious Hollywood agent to DiCaprio’s character, marking the first time that the iconic actor will be working with Tarantino. Pacino’s casting comes one day after eight other high profile actors were cast in the drama.
Pacino is joins an ever growing cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained), Brad Pitt (Inglorious Basterds), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Burt Reynolds (Smokey and the Bandit), Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet), Michael Madsen and Tim Roth (The Hateful Eight).
Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1969, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood focuses on a male TV actor named Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) who’s had one hit western series and is looking for a way to get into the film business. His sidekick Cliff Booth (Pitt) — who’s also his stunt double — is looking for the same thing. The horrific murder of Sharon Tate (Rick’s neighbor in the film, portrayed by Robbie) and four of her friends by Charles Manson’s cult of followers serves as a backdrop to the main story. The movie is said to be similar to a “Pulp Fiction-like tapestry” that covers a group of characters during that summer.
The film will be a first for Tarantino in being based on true events, as Inglorious Basterds was technically set in World War II and featured key leaders including Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill, but in an alternate history that did not follow the true events.
Production for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is currently being prepped in Los Angeles for Sony Pictures and the film is slated for release on August 9, 2019.
(Photo credit: Getty Images)
