Variety is reporting that James Marsden (X-Men franchise, Westworld) will be joining the cast of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Child actress Julia Butters (American Housewife, Transparent) has also joined the cast.
Marsden and Butters join 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 (Sin City), Tim Roth (Selma) Damian Lewis (Billions), Luke Perry (The Fifth Element), Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer), Dakota Fanning (The Alienist), Clifton Collins (Pacific Rim), Keith Jefferson (The Hateful Eight), Nicholas Hammond (The Sound of Music) and Al Pacino (Scarface).
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.
This will be Tarantino’s first film 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 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)
