Quentin Tarantino on ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ ... the Book!

Meatballs 1979

His go-to example of just how strange the genre could get.

The Naked Kiss 1964

One of Sam Fuller's own novelizations, since he wrote it himself.

The Big Red One 1980

Fuller's novelization of his own film, which Tarantino says beats the movie.

Paradise Alley 1978

Sylvester Stallone wrote this novelization himself.

The Wind and the Lion 1975

John Milius's own novelization of his film.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977

Spielberg got the novelization credit but didn't write it.

Star Wars 1977

George Lucas didn't write this one either; Alan Dean Foster did.

The Omen 1976

David Seltzer's novelization outsold horror bestsellers of the day; Tarantino says he ran out of time and the back half just proses the script.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019

The film the whole book, and this conversation, is built around.

Reservoir Dogs 1992

His discarded first novelization idea; he wrote two chapters before switching subjects.

Rosemary's Baby 1968

A chapter uses film criticism as narrative to set up Polanski's status at the time.

The Wrecking Crew 1968

The real Sharon Tate set visit he didn't plan to write into a chapter until he was already writing it.

Death Proof 2007

Marks how long he'd been sitting on unused 'Once Upon a Time' material, since right after this one.

The Hateful Eight 2015

Ryan compares the novel's narrator voice to Tarantino's own chapter-break narration in this film.

September 30, 1955 1977

The novelization he's read three times over his life; he avoided the film itself for decades because the book set the bar too high.

Colossus: The Forbin Project 1970

One of Bridges' scripts from before he became a director.

The Appaloosa 1966

Another of his early writing credits.

The Baby Maker 1970

Bridges' directorial debut, with Barbara Hershey.

The Paper Chase 1973

Where his long collaboration with cinematographer Gordon Willis began.

The China Syndrome 1979

Bridges' breakout commercial hit.

Urban Cowboy 1980

The hit that followed China Syndrome.

Mike's Murder 1984

Where Bridges' visual style turns unexpectedly Antonioni-esque.

Perfect 1985

The other film where that Antonioni-influenced L.A. imagery shows up.

Eyewitness 1981

Tarantino thinks William Hurt is miscast as a janitor in the film; the novelization, told in first person, is better.

Altered States 1980

Cited for why Hurt reads as too obviously brilliant to play a nine-to-five janitor.

Next Stop, Greenwich Village 1976

Lenny Baker is his model for who should've played the Eyewitness lead instead.

Zabriskie Point 1970

The one Antonioni film Tarantino actually likes.

Summer of '42 1971

The unacknowledged tonal predecessor to September 30, 1955.

Such Good Friends 1971

Cited sarcastically as an Otto Preminger 'masterpiece.'

Hardly Working 1980

And Jerry Lewis's 'masterpiece,' same joke.

The Lady in Red 1979

The John Sayles-scripted film his fictional actress Trudy Frazier would remake in this universe.

Agnes of God 1985

A role Trudy might have played, per the novel's alt-history casting.

Ordinary People 1980

Another role name-checked for Trudy in the same bit.

Mank 2020

Would've paid to see it in a theater if it hadn't gone straight to Netflix.

Freaky 2020

One of only two 2020 releases he'd have paid to see theatrically.

Unhinged 2020

The other one, the Russell Crowe road-rage thriller.

Savaged 2013

Released in the US as Avenged, an obscure rape-revenge movie he can't stop recommending, plot and all.

Ms .45 1981

The genre touchstone that got Avenged recommended to him.

Despicable Me 2 2013

The first movie his 15-month-old son watched start to finish, over several sittings.

The Hindenburg 1975

Watched on a 35mm IB Technicolor print, paired with Inglourious Basterds for a New Beverly WWII double bill.

Inglourious Basterds 2009

The Drowning Pool 1975

A 1975 movie draft pick cited as proof of how high that year's floor was.

Night Moves 1975

Another 1975 pick; he says it'd be stretched into a six-hour show if made today.

The Hunter 1980

Steve McQueen's final film, which plays better imagined as a TV pilot than as a movie.

Coonskin 1975

A friend's toddler daughter's favorite movie, to Tarantino's delight.

Day of the Woman 1978

Better known as I Spit on Your Grave, the joke answer for what not to show his son first.

F9 2021

Cited as evidence that big franchise movies are starting to feel like TV.

The Sparks Brothers 2021

Said he'd rather see this than F9.

Thief 1981

Robert Prosky's dialogue delivery gets relitigated after a Rewatchables recasting debate.

Manhunter 1986

William Petersen's Will Graham, the recasting suggestion that set Tarantino off.

No Country for Old Men 2007

Cited for how you can't unsee an actor once you've read them a certain way: Javier Bardem, in this case.

First Blood 1982

Tarantino would rather adapt David Morrell's novel than remake this.

The Fighter 2010

David O. Russell's line about giving up on chasing the muse and just wanting to make a good movie.

The Day They Robbed the Bank of England 1960

Peter O'Toole's first film, co-starring Aldo Ray, shot right before Lawrence of Arabia.

Lawrence of Arabia 1962

The role O'Toole made right after Bank of England.

Grindhouse 2007

Its poor box office briefly got him blacklisted from studio submissions, then flooded with them.

Pulp Fiction 1994

Hypothetical: without this becoming a phenomenon, would he ever have gotten an auteur career at all.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 2003

The abandoned plan for a trilogy plus anime prequel, cited as the kind of expansion he's now sworn off.

New York, New York 1977

His model for how he'd recut Once Upon a Time in Hollywood if runtime were no object.