Before the Harvey Weinstein story exploded this fall and Quentin Tarantino had to talk about his complicity, Tarantino had announced plans for his ninth film. His ninth film was going to be produced by Harvey Weinstein, and it was going to be about LA in 1969 during the time of the Charles Manson/Manson Family murders. Post-Weinstein, Tarantino looked for a new home for this project, and there was something of a low-key bidding war, and now the film has moved to Sony Pictures. Sony just announced the release date: August 9th, 2019, which is the 50-year anniversary of the murder of Sharon Tate.
Quentin Tarantino’s new Charles Manson-themed project has nabbed a release date. Sony Pictures, which won the rights to the filmmaker’s untitled ninth movie in mid-November has slotted an Aug. 9, 2019 berth for the movie, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. But it’s not just any release. That date also marks the 50th anniversary of the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends by the followers of Manson. Manson was the cult leader instructed the killings and died Nov. 17 while serving a life sentence.
August 2019 has a rather open calendar at this stage. Warner Bros. and Universal have placeholders for the beginning and middle of the month, but Aug. 9 has Disney’s adaptation of Artemis Fowl on the schedule. Tarantino’s movie is described as a 1969-set ensemble piece that in some way involves Manson and the murder of Tate. Sony’s pickup came with no actors attached, but overtures have been made to such A-listers as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie.
The movie will be the first Tarantino film whose release does not involve Harvey Weinstein, the executive disgraced by allegations of rape and sexual misconduct. Manson died of natural causes Nov. 19 at the age of 83. He had been serving multiple life sentences in Corcoran State Prison in Corcoran, Calif., since being convicted of conspiracy in 1971 to commit several murders. He died at a Kern County hospital, according to the California Department of Corrections.
When the project was announced earlier this year, many of us felt queasy. I’m a fan of Tarantino’s films, obviously – I didn’t think much of The Hateful Eight, but I will watch Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, the Kill Bill movies and Pulp Fiction at any time. I think Tarantino is at his best when he’s directing from his own original script using completely fictional characters (or when he’s adapting a script from an Elmore Leonard book). Tarantino’s work is so gory, so bloody, so stylized, so violent, there is a real danger that he’s going to make the Manson Family murders look “cool” or something other than absolutely horrific. And that’s wrong. It’s wrong to set the premiere date on the 50th anniversary of Sharon Tate’s murder. It’s crass. It’s disgusting, frankly.
Photos courtesy of Getty, WENN.
They could’ve picked a different date, people were murdered…a woman and her unborn child…even fifty years later is too soon to sensationalize it
Yes the date is crass, and so is Quentin. The movie most likely will be a dud.
His gross and this film will never be able to have both Tarantinos signiture style and not glorify the murders.
It’s plain tacky of Sony to choose this date. I feel sorry for her family. It’s a hard pass from me.
I really hope this is an ill advised publicity stunt and not actually how it will go. How utterly repulsive, I’m done with this movie before I know anything about it.
Agree. However, I don’t think the date will stay the same. Also, mia, have you heard that some high profile actors are interested in this project? I heard DiCaprio and Cruise. Might be nonsense.
I don’t think the release date will stick either.
Why wouldn’t high-profile actors be interested? It’s Tarantino. Cruise in particular could really do with a credibility boost. The question really is – would Tarantino be interested in HIM?
(Sorry for inserting myself into your conversation!)
Oh, no, Frosty. Please comment. My curiosity is about he riskiness of the project and the fact that the synopsis says that the film focuses on” young” actors. And you are right on the money with Cruise. Audiences no longer care about him.
I don’t know how Tom would work for a seventies pic (at least for me), his face looked so worked over in those American Made trailers… DiCaprio had one of his better performances with Tarantino tho.
Add Brad Pitt to that lineup.
as if the subject matter is not offensive enough, why does it have to be on her death anniversary?
is the sum of her worth only her gruesome death? how is that in anyway tactful? how does anyone in the right mind think that it’s a sane and good decision?
why not pick anniversary of Manson’s death? anniversary of his court ruling, etc… leave the victims alone for goodness sakes!
I love Tarantino
An anniversary date for that film is an atrocious idea. I hope Tarantino comes to his senses and changes it. That nightmare doesn’t need to be “commemorated.”
But those pictures of Sharon Tate are beautiful. She was exquisite.
It’s Sony, not Tarantino that has scheduled that release date
They were always a sensitive bunch. Phony.
I love his movies, but this movie did not need to be made.
The murders were gruesome enough, let these poor people rest. Their lives don’t need to be subject to his brand of movie making. Sharon Tate was reduced to a sum of her physical parts during and after her life and I’m pretty certain Tarantino isn’t going to do anything to change that image.
And then releasing on the anniversary of their deaths is so gross and disrespectful. I hope this bombs.
You said everything I was thinking.
i agree. let these poor people rest. their families are still alive and fighting for them every year when the murders are up for parole – this is so disrespectful
THIS. They don’t need to do it like this-they just don’t.
Given the current headlines screaming that we need to do better in terms of society, Hollywood and just as a planet generally, and especially given the stories that are coming out in terms of how women have been treated and hand wringing endorsements of needing to do better … *this* is what they (a studio) comes up with?!
I never got the impression that the movie will show the murders. I suspect it’s about LA under the atmosphere of the Manson murders, which is a thing many people have talked about over the years–and will involve peripheral characters (reporter, cop), or unconnected characters. Well, we’ll see.
Still a nasty release date, though.
This was my impression as well, Godwina.
Normally I love Tarantino movies, but I couldn’t watch the Hateful Eight once Samuel Jackson started his monologue. It was really just too much. If this movie is about the era, fine, I might see it when it become available on Netflix. No way am I seeing it in a theater.
Sharon Tate was sooo pretty, it makes me wonder WTH she was doing with Polanski.
I remember the time vividly. Although in my teens [17 when Sharon was murdered] I followed show business as I do today. Back then Polanski was considered a genius. Critics adored him, and what they used to call “the jet set” embraced the couple. I will never forget the morning after the murders. I went out to get the paper, and almost fainted at the headlines.
I went to 11th and 12th grade in Germany. Second semester of senior year a new girl entered our class. Her father had just been transferred from Italy. We were both movie nuts and she told me that she and her friend had been extras in Barabbas, the A Quinn movie. She said her friend was very pretty and after graduating was going to Hollywood to be a big star. I thought, yeah sure, but politely asked her name so I could see if she made it. “Sharon Tate,” my friend said.
She was beautiful, and talented, and achieved that one in a million dream, and it’s grotesque that her name will forever be associated with the monster Manson. It’s for people like him that I wish there really is a Hell. Let him rot, QT. Cancel this, nobody wants to see it.
Without sounding macabre, or wishing ill on anyone, can someone name a modern actress that would be comparable to Sharon Tate? Was she Kaley Cuoco level fame? Scarlett Johansen?
Not interested. In my opinion, far too much art has been devoted to the depiction of gruesome, hopeless violence. We are fed a constant diet of this. Sick stories about beautiful, helpless victims are given precedence over other stories. I wonder if this has anything to do with what we are learning about HW being run by power junkie pedophiles?
Releasing on that date is an attempt to divert headlines about his relationship with Oinkstein IMO. Keeps the movie in headlines and not the fact he was besties with a rapist for decades. Call me cynical.
They should’ve made a movie about Sharon.
Completely tasteless, crass, and repulsive. Hope the movie bombs big time.
I already saw Helter Skelter so I don’t need to see this.
Poor Sharon RIP. She was not even the intended target.
Wasn’t Doris Day’s son (a record producer) who CM thought lived there? And Charlie was miffed at his own inability to get a record deal with him or something along those lines?
Yes. His girlfriend at the time was Candice Bergen. Manson knew the home, a bizarre twist of fate.
With so many family members still alive, I think it’s incredibly opportunistic. Sharon’s mother and now her sister (along with others) have fought to keep the convicted ones behind bars.
The crimes (at both Tate’s house and the LaBiancas) were horrific to read about. I would have zero interest in seeing a movie that in any way gives publicity to the ones still living who participated in terrorizing and taking innocent lives.
Wow, I don’t watch his movies and this is crass
Ugh so tacky and tasteless. I hope Sharon’s sister sues Sony to stop that release date.
He really should have recalibrated and made a movie starring Weinstein’s victims: Uma, Rose, Asia, Annabella– that’s a good starting line-up.
i guess the market (and the critics) will speak. Unless the film delves into Manson’s allegedly horrific childhood I don’t see this offering anything new.
That was addressed in the book (Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi) and movie of the same name (briefly). If you want to know about the backstory/trial, or about the “atmosphere of LA at the time”, I’d suggest reading it; the author (Bugliosi) was the prosecuting attorney.
I was just a small kid at the time. The murders weren’t far from where we lived, and I was terrified to even walk to the back of the house alone. It was a very scary time…