This week it was revealed that Chinese regulators had pulled the plug on the planned release this coming Friday for Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with Sony and Tarantino said to be left in the dark as to the reasons for the “indefinite” delay.
The original report from THR stated that Bruce Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee had made an appeal to China’s National Film Administration demanding changes to the way her father is portrayed in the film (something that Lee has been criticising heavily since the film opened in the U.S. back in July), and that Tarantino and Beijing-based financiers Bona Film Group were frantically working on a new cut in order to meet the planned October 25th release.
Well, it seems the latter part of that report was wide of the mark, as the site has since revealed that Tarantino has no intention of re-editing the movie and has adopted a “take-it-or-leave-it stance” with the regulators, despite the fact that a release in China would likely have taken the movie beyond the $400 million mark at the global box office.
SEE ALSO: Read our review of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood here
This isn’t Tarantino’s first issue with the strict Chinese regulators; his 2012 western Django Unchained was pulled from cinemas in the Middle Kingdom and was only re-released around a month later, after being heavily edited to remove some of its more graphic scenes.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbour… Sharon Tate.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained), Brad Pitt (Inglourious Basterds), Margot Robbie (I, Tonya), Timothy Olyphant (Santa Clarita Diet), Al Pacino (The Godfather), Damien Lewis (Billions), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs), Dakota Fanning (Ocean’s 8), Luke Perry (Riverdale), Emile Hirsch (The Autopsy of Jane Doe), James Marsden (Westworld), Clifton Collins Jr. (Westworld), Julia Butters (American Housewife), Keith Jefferson (The Hateful Eight), Nicholas Hammond (The Sound of Music), Scoot McNairy (Halt and Catch Fire), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Spencer Garrett (The Magicians), Martin Kove (Cobra Kai), James Remar (Django Unchained), Brenda Vaccaro (Once Is Not Enough), Nichole Galicia (Django Unchained), Bruce Dern (The Hateful Eight), Mike Moh (Inhumans), Craig Stark (The Hateful Eight), Marco Rodriguez (Inhumans), Ramon Franco (Tour of Duty), Raul Cardona (Where the Sky Is Born), Lena Dunham (Girls), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Austin Butler (The Shannara Chronicles), Lorenza Izzo (Knock, Knock), Rumer Willis (Empire), Dreama Walker (Gossip Girl), Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers), Costa Ronin (The Americans), Victoria Pedretti (The Haunting of Hill House), Madisen Beaty (The Master), Danny Strong (Billions), Sydney Sweeney (The Handmaid’s Tale), Rafal Zawierucha (The Pact), Damon Herriman (Justified), and Palm Dog award-winner Brandy.
