There’s a lot of chatter about Quentin Tarantino’s film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” After it’s Cannes premiere, reviews tend to be favorable, with many saying that the film is a love letter to a bygone era of Hollywood. However, not all of the talk has been positive, with many criticizing the filmmaker’s revisionist sensibilities and his treatment of female characters. But one thing that is undeniable is that ‘Once Upon a Time’ is a long film.
Clocking in at two-hours-and-39-minutes, the version that screened at Cannes is not the shortest film in existence by any stretch. We’re talking “Avengers: Infinity War” length, which is fairly typical for a Tarantino film. But that run-time isn’t very typical for films hoping to score big at the box office, especially if there aren’t any superpowered people beating each other up over magic stones.
Common sense would dictate that maybe Tarantino would go back to the editing room and try to tighten the film up. Maybe shave off a few minutes. But according to the filmmaker, an editing room trip is likely, but not to take anything out.
“I may make it longer,” said Tarantino (via IndieWire).
According to the filmmaker, the film originally had an assembly cut of about four-hours-and-20-minutes. And over the course of editing, the film got down to the typical run-time of an epic Tarantino film. But the filmmaker was hoping for something a bit tighter, still.
“Let’s see if we can get it tighter than that,” Tarantino said to his editor. “2:45 seems like an old Quentin movie. Let’s see if we can get past the Quentin cut to a really friendly cut any audience can appreciate.”
So, the director and his editor got it down to the lean, Cannes cut that was screened earlier this week. Now, with the reception the film received and seeing how it played with an audience, Tarantino is interested in perhaps expanding the film’s length.
“I wouldn’t take anything else out,” he said. “I’m going to explore possibly putting something back in. If anything, I wanted to go to Cannes too short. if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on too tight.”
While Tarantino fans may be excited for more scenes in the new film, you may wonder how the studio feels. When a film costs a reported $90 million to produce, common sense says that the studio would like to have the shortest version of the film that can play as many times as possible. You know, the same logic that said that “Avengers: Endgame” would suffer due to its 3-hour length.
“It’s his movie. We’re privileged to be along for the ride,” Sony chairman Tom Rothman said. “It’s a Quentin Tarantino film. It’s entirely in his very capable hands.”
Sony is apparently so supportive of the new film, however long the filmmaker makes it, the studio is willing to have a special 35mm release. Tarantino is always someone that enjoys the classic film experience, so Rothman says that he hopes to have the film in as many 35mm showings as possible, which is no easy feat in 2019.
“What he wants is to show it on film in as many places as there are,” said Rothman. “We will do that. The sad thing is there are not so many anymore. Around the world, if they’re operating a good theater — we will not show it in some shithole — if there’s a proper good theater that’s still running film, then we’ll show it on film.”
We’ll obviously find out where these special screenings will be as we move closer to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s” July 26 release date.