It should come as no surprise to fans of Quentin Tarantino that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was at one time much longer. The theatrical version of the Los Angeles love letter was originally released in theaters with a runtime of 2 hours and 41 minutes, but later word of a four-hour cut got people really excited. Now, we’re getting somewhat of an answer as to if an extended version of the movie will ever come to be.
During an award season screening of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Friday at the ArcLight Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio were there and mention of the four-hour cut was discussed. Here’s what was revealed (via Collider):
Quentin Tarantino: 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.'Brad Pitt: The real question is are we going to get to see this one way or another?Quentin Tarantino: Hey look, it’s all good, so once this whole thing is said and done, maybe in a year’s time, we probably will.
At the screening, Quentin Tarantino revealed that he had showed a longer cut to Sony Chairman Tom Rothman for guidance on what to keep in and what to take out. He found himself a little biased “liking everything” about the 4-hour cut. Brad Pitt nudged the writer/director by asking for a more definite answer on if it is actually coming out for fans to watch. Tarantino was enthusiastic, saying it will “probably” happen in about a year!
It’s exciting news! The renowned director is no stranger to playing with the runtime of his films either. He has released an extended cut for Death Proof and has teased one for Django Unchained. The Hateful Eight was recently recut into a four-part miniseries for Netflix and of course there’s the legendary debate about whether Kill Bill is one or two movies. Quentin recently settled it.
When the four-hour cut was first talked about last year, Damon Herriman, the actor behind Charles Manson talked about how there used to be a 4 hour and 20 minute cut with more parts revolving around the legendary cult leader. He called one cut scene ”one of the best scenes I’ve read in my life” and expressed a desire for it to find its way in an extended version.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did return to theaters in the fall with 10 minutes extra footage but of course an extra hour of the movie is more intriguing to fans. Brad Pitt previously talked about liking the idea of the movie being re-released into a three-part series like Hateful Eight was.
Check out CinemaBlend’s podcast ReelBlend talk with Quentin Tarantino for an epic two-hour conversation and where Once Upon a Time in Hollywood lands on our site’s top movies of 2019!
