Whether or not the fans think “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is the greatest Quentin Tarantino film of his career, the director himself seems to think the feature is his magnum opus. How can we be sure of this? Well, over the course of the various podcasts and interviews he’s given, it’s clear the filmmaker thinks ‘Once Upon’ will be the film that leaves the biggest mark, and though the feature was released in 2019, he still has plenty more story to tell in that universe.
Speaking on The Q&A podcast, Tarantino once again talked about all the additional stories he’d like to tell in the universe of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Sure, we’ve heard about the potential ‘Bounty Law‘ TV series and the stage play. But did you know he also has ideas for a Rick Dalton career book and potentially a spinoff directed by Robert Rodriguez? If this all comes together, the ‘Once Upon’ universe could become as convoluted as the MCU.
As for the things that he thinks will actually happen, it appears the stage play is the most likely.
“That’ll probably be the next dramatic thing I do,” he said. “I finished the book, I’m working on a cinema book right now, and when I finish that, the plan, we’ll see what happens, was to possibly go forward with the play.”
After that? Well, if he continues on, he thinks ‘Bounty Law’ could be next. But just in case you’re confused, the series will be done as a real series, not a tongue-in-cheek, behind-the-scenes thing about Rick Dalton. No, no, no. Tarantino wants to make a real Western that just so happens to star Rick Dalton.
“I’ve got about five or six episodes written, and well, I’m going to do a few other things, but if I’m going to go back to this story, yet a fourth time, that would the thing that I could do…It would exactly be like a show from 1958 or ’59, it would be black and white, and it would be a half-hour long. It would be very much in the vein of ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive,’ or ‘Rifleman,’ it would be done very [much] like that time period.”
So, if a stage play and a TV show weren’t enough, how about a spinoff film about “Lancer,” another project that was teased in the novelization of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino thinks he knows exactly who might want to make it, also.
“I actually imagine when I send Robert Rodriguez ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ [the novelization], I think he’s going to read the book and go, ‘Well, what’s going on with ‘Lancer?’ If you don’t want to do it, I’ll do it!” he said with a laugh. “I could see that being a great Robert Rodriguez movie.”
Okay, so there’s a TV show, a stage play, a Robert Rodriguez-helmed spinoff film. What else could Tarantino possibly have up his sleeve? How about a new book? But you might be saying, “Didn’t we already get an expanded story in the novelization?” Well, yes, but what about a book that talks about Rick Dalton’s entire career written as if the actor and his films actually exist?
“Look, there’s yet another thing I could do. I’ve written most of it,” Tarantino said. “I just have the last few years [left], but I wrote, just for the fun of it, and to get it out of my system, because I wanted to know everything that happened to Rick, I wrote ‘The Films Of Rick Dalton,’ book. It’s written by me Quentin, as if Rick is real and you know they have like, ‘The Films Of Charles Bronson,’ ‘The Films Of Anthony Quinn,’ it’s done like that.”
He continued, “Yeah, yeah, with synopsis and critical quotes from the time. And the book goes through every one of Rick’s movies that he did, leading to the end of his career in 1988, I believe, and [includes] every one of his episodic television shows. It’s completely and thoroughly researched. Some of the shows are made up, some of the episodes are made up, but the majority of the episodes are actually real episodes. Rick didn’t live, so he wasn’t in them, but when you say, ‘oh, he’s the Larry Hagman character.’ It’s all written.”
What might fans expect in this sort of career summary novel? Well, the filmmaker shared a story that involves Dalton’s BFF, Cliff Booth.
“Cliff Booth in 1979 or ’80, wrote a vigilante exploitation movie for Rick,” he explained. “Rick read it and goes, ‘we can do this better,’ so Rick rewrites it and the two of them are going to produce it, they get the money, and it’s a vigilante movie called, ‘The Fireman.’ The lead character was in the Vietnam war– it’s very similar to “The Exterminator”–he became a cop, and then he started seeing this whole group of bad apple cops that are killing guys and are completely corrupt. And they end up killing his partner, played by a very young Samuel L. Jackson.”
Tarantino added, “The film becomes a real big hit, and that makes Rick, he gets a third career, going into the ’80s, as a straight to video action star.”
It’s hard to know how much of Tarantino’s grand plan might actually come to fruition. The filmmaker has always been the type that teases potential spinoffs and sequels to his projects with very little coming of it. However, it’s clear there’s this fire in Tarantino with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” that hasn’t been seen before. So, don’t be shocked if all of these end up happening at some point.