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EXCLUSIVE: Quentin Tarantino has teamed with journalist-author Jay Glennie to write books for three of his films beginning with The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. The coffee table-sized book will be released November 11 by Insight Editions. That publisher took over an initial deal made with Little Brown, and it grew to encompass all 10 of Tarantino’s films, the last of which he’s yet to make.
The Story Factory’s Shane Salerno made a three-book deal with Insight CEO Raoul Goff and publisher Vanessa Lopez. After Once Upon a Time, the next two will cover Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. Those will release in 2026 and 2027, as Tarantino and Glennie continue to wade through the director’s movies with full access to casts.
Tarantino will write the introductions for each, and the aspirations go much further than a batch of picture books. It will be closer in spirit to what Tarantino did in his novelization of Once Upon a Time, in which he fleshed out the mythology of Brad Pitt’s stuntman Cliff Booth. That formed the basis for the Netflix movie that David Fincher will direct, with Pitt reprising his Oscar-winning character. In the film, he becomes a fixer for Hollywood studios.
Similarly, Tarantino has given Glennie full access to unearth previously untold stories, including how Leonardo DiCaprio, Pitt and Margot Robbie found their characters.
Even though DiCaprio has been arguably Hollywood’s top star for a long time, he soaked up plenty of war stories to channel Rick Dalton, the Bounty Law TV star who struggles to stay relevant, and employed.
“I have twenty-five friends that I’ve known for thirty years and half of them are actors you know and great actors,” DiCaprio says in the book. ”So I had this unbelievable connection with Rick because I know that story so well. They are amazing actors that have so much to give and so much to offer creatively and you know some of them have been in the right place at the right time and some of them haven’t. It does have a lot to do with luck and being prepared at the right time. So, I know these guys you know I’ve grown up with them. They have so much talent and almost came close to this one particular role that would’ve gotten them to that other level.”
DiCaprio remembered a particular audition he did for Baywatch as a young actor. “Had the producers on Baywatch chosen me, well I would’ve been on that show for ten years and I would’ve never gotten other opportunities.”
When Pitt was preparing to play Cliff Booth, he called Tarantino and asked: “Q could I come over to the house, you know shoot the shit and chat over a few things?”
“No problem, get your ass over dude!”
Before Tarantino could show the movie he’d threaded up for Pitt, the actor had an idea he wanted to run by his director.
“Okay, I had guy and I think he is a kinda jumping off point as to who Cliff could be,” Pitt told him.
“Okay, who do you have, Brad?”
Pitt pulled out a DVD of Tom Laughlin as Billy Jack.
“Brad, I have a 35 mm print of Billy Jack threaded up in the projector ready to show you tonight,” replied a stunned Tarantino.
“I had absolutely no idea Quentin was thinking of Billy Jack and there I am standing with it in my hand, on DVD,” Pitt says.
Robbie, who played Sharon Tate, explained how she got a lift in channeling her character, after asking the late actress’ sister Debra Tate about Sharon’s perfume.
“Every character I play I pick a perfume,” Robbie says. “It just helps me associate a smell with my character, and then I never wear the perfume again. So, I was intrigued to find out Sharon’s favored perfume. [She said], Debra, I know that this is a kinda random question, but did Sharon have a particular perfume she liked to wear?”
Says Debra: “Yes, yes she did. I was going to give it to you. Sharon wanted me to give it to you.”
Debra left and returned with a beautiful little glass bottle still containing perfume. The seal had been waxed shut since Sharon’s passing, preserving the scent. Debra passed Margot the small bottle.
“Sharon told me to give it to you,” she reiterated. Mind you, Sharon Tate was brutally murdered by the Manson clan in 1969.
The books came out of a mutual admiration between Tarantino and Glennie.
“Myself and my cast and crews have loved reliving our time making Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained with Jay, and we’re all looking forward to seeing the finished books. This is just the beginning, as I know Jay is as excited as me to explore my other movies,” said Tarantino, who especially sparked to Glennie’s book about the making of The Deer Hunter.
Said Glennie: “When Quentin asked me if ‘I wanted to give his flicks the ‘Jay Glennie Treatment’ I jumped at the opportunity. Quentin’s films have been the touchstone of my film education. Pulp Fiction was the first film Kelly, my now wife, and I saw together. His films mean everything to me. So to be invited to take deep dives into each of them, with Quentin and his casts and crews, is an honor. I simply cannot wait for Quentin’s millions of fans across the world to read our first release Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”
The untold yarns include the rights quest to use the series Lancer for the scene where DiCaprio’s Dalton character overcomes adversity to achieve a moment of triumph in that tense hostage-taking scene.
Tarantino sent reps to secure the underlying rights, because when Tarantino wants something… The rights trail led to series author Samuel A. Peeples, who died and left them to his widow. They tracked her down to her residence, a trailer in Santa Rosa, CA.
She quickly said yes, and didn’t charge them. What could they do for her to repay her kindness in granting the rights? Well, a walk-in bathtub would certainly be useful, the widow’s attendant told Tarantino’s reps. Tarantino paid for the deluxe model and its installation. The widow didn’t live to the film’s release, but, said WME’s Simpson, “We heard she loved her bathtub.”
Once Upon a Time … helped launch the careers of Sydney Sweeney and Mikey Madison, the latter of whom went directly from a Manson murderess fried to a crisp by Rick Dalton’s movie prop flame thrower, to the Best Actress Oscar winner for Anora.
“I’m just so grateful for Quentin, and [casting director] Vickie Thomas for their belief in me,” Madison says in the book. “It changed everything for me. I had the good sense to realize that I was going to be part of an iconic film, everybody did. We were working with a director, just full of creativity. It was truly a unique and a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’ll be able to show my children one day that I got to work with Quentin Tarantino. Now that’s really something.”
Quentin Tarantino Sets Making-Of Books On His 10 Movies With Insight Editions: First Up Is ‘Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood’
Quentin Tarantino Sets Books About All Ten Of His Movies, Starting With ‘Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood’ For Insight Editions
deadline.com
