Once Upon a Time in Hollywood might be inspiring endless arguments (and theories), but one thing everyone can agree on is this: It’s long. The ninth film from Quentin Tarantino is still about 20 minutes shorter than Avengers: Endgame, but it definitely eats up a chunk of your precious time. For those who gladly surrendered that time, this is good news: According to one of its actors, Tarantino may be working on an even longer cut, which would drop on Netflix.
As caught by The Playlist, Nicholas Hammond — who plays Sam Wanamaker, the enthusiastic director of the Lancer pilot who instructs guest star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) to do an “evil, sexy Hamlet” — was on the podcast The Mutuals, and he wound up discussing all the footage Tarantino shot that didn’t wind up in the already epic theatrical version.
“There is talk about there being a 4-hour Netflix version, as well, because there were a lot of scenes he shot that couldn’t make it into the film because there just simply wasn’t room,” Hammond told them. He referenced the version of The Hateful Eight Tarantino made for Netflix, which turns it into a slightly longer miniseries. “I think they’re talking about doing the same. There are some actors like Tim Roth, wonderful actors, who never even made it into the film. I mean, their entire roles got cut.”
Indeed, if you watch the credits you see Roth’s name, followed by “(cut).” The Reservoir Dogs alum wasn’t the only one completely elided from Once Upon a Time. Danny Strong’s Dean Martin also went AWOL, as did James Marsden’s Burt Reynolds. (The real Reynolds, meanwhile, was cast as George Spahn, owner of the Western ranch that was rehabbed as the Manson Family compound, but died before shooting. He was replaced by Bruce Dern.)
Mind you, this is one actor saying “I think” there will be a longer cut, so don’t take this as gospel. That said, this seems likely, especially given the Netflix redo of The Hateful Eight. And if Tarantino actually does this, for Netflix or whoever, we’ll be gifted with an even more leisurely deep dive into his version of 1969 that never quite was.
(Via The Playlist)
