Quentin Tarantino ninth big screen endeavor is getting underway and Leonardo DiCaprio is set to be a big part of the new film. Now, we have some details about who the actor will actually be playing. While the film is set in Hollywood during the summer of the Manson Family murders, Dicaprio's character doesn't appear to have a direct connection to them. While initial reports called DiCaprio's character an "aging actor," he'll actually be playing a struggling television actor, who is looking for a second act in his career.
The film, which is being referred to simply as #9 internally, as it is Quentin Tarantino ninth directorial effort, will see Leonardo DiCaprio play an actor who starred in a successful western television show, Bounty Law, between 1958 and 1963. However, the film is set in 1969, and in the intervening years, this character has been struggling, making his living by doing guest appearances on other people's television shows. He tried shifting to film but had no success. He's now contemplating moving to Italy to get in on the western movie scene there.
While originally Quentin Tarantino's film was reported to deal specifically with the Manson Family murders, it has now been clarified that the movie is actually about 1969 in a much broader sense. It will apparently deal with multiple stories all taking place in and around Hollywood in that year. With word from Deadline that Margot Robbie is still considering taking the role as Sharon Tate, it would seem that the Manson situation will be part of the film, but it appears to be just one story of many that might not have any more weight than the one that Leonardo DiCaprio is part of.
It would also appear that the film will blend fiction and reality, as Sharon Tate was a real person, but this character DiCaprio is playing is not. The show Bounty Law isn't a real one, however, westerns were popular on TV during that same era and began to fall out of favor in the early 60s, so the idea behind the character makes sense. It sounds like DiCaprio will be playing a character who might have been, like what could have happened to Steve McQueen if he'd had trouble finding work after Wanted: Dead or Alive went off the air.
It sounds like the new Quentin Tarantino film will have a sort of Pulp Fiction feel to it, with multiple stories all being told at once. One assumes there will be some sort of connective tissue between them, in the same way that Tarantino did with that movie.
Quentin Tarantino's movies are always interesting, and it sounds like his new project will be no different. The movie doesn't have a name, but it does have a release date, as the film is set to hit screens August 9, 2019.
