Tarantino has high hopes for Hollywood
Sony’s buzzy release slate includes Pulp Fiction-esque flick with Pitt, DiCaprio
Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman has assured theatre owners his studio is dedicated to appealing to a range of audiences — from such global franchises as Spider-Man and the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series to family films, action pics, comedies and even Quentin Tarantino’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Both Tarantino and DiCaprio surprised the audience of exhibitors with their appearance at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but unlike most of the films Sony would hype Monday with new footage and celebrities, they had nothing to show. They haven’t shot a frame yet.
“It’s hard to speak about a film that we haven’t done yet,” DiCaprio said on stage.
The “hush-hush” film will take place in Hollywood in 1969 at the “height of the counter-culture explosion,” Tarantino said.
“This is probably the closest to Pulp Fiction that I’ve done,” Tarantino said, of the kind of Los Angeles film he hopes to make. He said Pitt and DiCaprio together will be “the most exciting star dynamic duo since Robert Redford and Paul Newman.”
Tarantino also took the opportunity to remind the theatre owners at the convention, that he too is an exhibitor — he owns the historic New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. The studio also rolled out intense new footage from Venom, which Tom Hardy said he wanted to do for his son, and The Girl in the Spider’s Web, with The Crown star Claire Foy in the role of Lisbeth Salander who, Rothman said, makes “Wonder Woman look like a Powerpuff Girl.”
“The thing I think makes this special and truly, truly compelling is that you can’t describe her,” Foy said.
Director Fede Alvarez, who was behind the horror hit Don’t Breathe, said there is an audience demand for “good-quality filmmaking.”
“I believe in movies that provoke. Movies you cannot ignore. Movies that hit the cultural conversation. I’m confident this movie will hit all fronts,” Alvarez said of The Girl in the Spider’s Web.
Rothman also said that a Jumanji sequel, with Dwayne Johnson, will be coming in December 2019.
The Johnson-led reboot Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle became a massive hit in the early part of the year, making more than $956 million worldwide.
The CinemaCon convention features massive presentations from each of the major studios, in addition to a few of the smaller ones, like Amazon, with sizzle reels and stars to wow the theatre owners with what’s coming up and why theatres should be excited about the fresh movies on the horizon.