Tarantino a real ‘child’ of Cannes

PARIS (Reuters) - Quentin Tarantino fans will get their latest fix at the Cannes Film Festival next month afterall, after the director rushed to finish editing on “Once Upon aTime...in Hollywood” in time to present it in competition, organizers said on Thursday.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, thefilm had long been tipped as one of the highlights of thisyear’s cinema showcase on the French Riviera, but did not makethe cut when the initial line-up was unveiled in April.

Along with several other last minute additions - including afourhour film from a previous winner of the Palme d’Or topprize at Cannes, Abdellatif Kechiche - the film was now in an advanced enough stage to be confirmed, organizers added.

“Quentin Tarantino, who has not left the editing room in four months, is a real, loyal and punctual child of Cannes,” festival director Thierry Fremaux said in a statement.

The film was “a love letter to the Hollywood of hischildhood, a rock music tour of 1969, and an ode to cinema as awhole,” Fremaux added.

It comes 25 years after the U.S. director, 56, won the Palmed’Or for “Pulp Fiction.” Tarantino also unveiled World War IIepic “Inglourious Basterds” at the festival in 2009.

The 72nd Cannes Film Festival, running from May 14 to 25, will kick off with Jim Jarmusch’s latest film, zombieextravaganza “The Dead Don’t Die.”

“Blue Is the Warmest Colour” director Kechiche will also bea contender for the top award again this year with “Mektoub, MyLove: Intermezzo,” a followup to “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno,”which tracked the love lives of French youngsters in the 1990s.

New additions to the special screenings set to take placeoutside the main competition include Mexican actor Gael GarciaBernal’s second feature film as a director, “Chicuarotes.”

“Birdman” director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu will thisyear preside over the festival’s jury.(Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Hugh Lawson).