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Entertainment

29th Aug 2018

Quentin Tarantino has cast his Charles Manson for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Paul Moore

The cast in this is ridiculously good.

Despite the fact that Quentin Tarantino’s next film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will adopt the narrative approach of Pulp Fiction as it sees characters and stories interweaving around LA in the summer of 1969, one person has dominated the narrative and focus.

The two leading characters in the film are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), but the presence of the infamous murderer/cult leader Charles Manson has dominated the discussion.

After creating a commune in California, Manson’s followers committed nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, all of which members of the group carried out at his instruction.

On August 9, 1969, the actress Sharon Tate and four other people were murdered by members of the Manson Family in the home she shared with the film director Roman Polanski. At the time of her death, Tate was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with the couple’s son.

Ultimately, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder for two other deaths. He died at the age of 83 in prison.

Set against the backdrop of the infamous Manson Family murders of 1969, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has cast Damon Herriman (J. Edgar, Justified) as the real-life cult leader, as reported by The Wrap.

Rumer Willis, Dreama Walker, Margaret Qualley, Costa Ronin, Damon Herriman, Victoria Pedretti and Madisen Beaty have also joined the film’s stellar cast.

How good is the ensemble for Tarantino’s next film?

OK, deep breath because all of the following will feature in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood: Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio, Burt Reynolds, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Michael Madsen, Timothy Olyphant, Margot Robbie, Damian Lewis, Luke Perry, Emile Hirsch, Dakota Fanning, Scoot McNairy, James Marsden, Clifton Collins Jr, Mike Moh, Keith Jefferson, Nicholas Hammond, Spencer Garrett, Martin Kove, James Remar, Brenda Vaccaro, Nichole Galicia, Mike Moh, Rafal Zawierucha, Lorenza Izzo, Lena Dunham, Austin Butler, Maya Hawke, Craig Stark, Marco Rodriguez, Ramon Franco and Raul Cardona.

If that list isn’t enough reason to get excited, Brad Pitt has previously said that it’s “one of the most amazing scripts Tarantino has ever written”.

The film will be released worldwide on 9 August, 2019.