Sony wows CinemaCon with glitzy opening show

LAS VEGAS: Oscar-winning filmmaker Quentin Tarantino vowed Monday that his leading men Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt would make as iconic a silver screen duo as Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The 2019 movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will look at the death throes of the old studio system — seen as a pivotal time in show business history — against the gruesome backdrop of the 1960s Manson family murders. The 55-year- old Reservoir Dogs director opened Sony’s presentation at the glitzy annual CinemaCon industry get-together vowing that his hotly anticipated ninth solo feature would be similar in tone to his acclaimed mainstream breakthrough Pulp Fiction (1994). “Sony and myself will be coming to the theatres with the most exciting star dynamic since Paul Newman and Robert Redford,” Tarantino told the crowd of theatre operators at Caesar’s Palace. Newman, who died in 2008, starred alongside 81-year- old Redford in 1973’s The Sting but the duo were best known as the titular heart-throb outlaws in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). “It’s very hush hush and top secret. But I can tell you that Once Upon a Time in

It’s very hush hush and top secret. Quentin Tarantino, filmmaker

Hollywood takes place in 1969, at the height of the counterculture, hippie revolution and the height of new Hollywood,” Tarantino added.

DiCaprio, a Los Angeles native, said he was excited to be working with Pitt, and described Tarantino’s screenplay as “one of the most amazing” he’d ever read.

The presentation came as Sony kicked off CinemaCon with an array of stars and never- beforeseen footage of its upcoming slate of movies.

Hollywood decamps to the Nevada desert for four days every year for the gathering, where theatre operators are offered exclusive previews of the movies they can expect to be showing over the coming year.

Sony sparked controversy in 2017 when its movies chief Tom Rothman — who was back this year — came to the stage to present new footage from Blade Runner 2049.

“Netf lix my ass,” he quipped after wowing the crowd with bleak scenes from the longawaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece.

The internet streamer has found itself in conflict with movie theatre operators in the past because its original content goes straight to viewers’ TVs and mobile devices.

“I love movies and I love movies in movie theatres. They are my favourite place in the world,” said Tarantino, who last directed Pitt in Inglourious Basterds (2009).

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — which is due to begin shooting in summer in LA — gets its US release on August 9 next year. — AFP