EXCLUSIVE: After making every movie in his directing career for Miramax and The Weinstein Company, Quentin Tarantino has made the hard decision to look for a new home for his upcoming film. The pic is being referred to as #9 because it is the ninth picture in his directing oeuvre, and it is being read this week by all of the major studios except Disney.

Tarantino planned to make this film — a drama set in late ’60s-early ’70s Los Angeles — with TWC, but those plans imploded with the scandalous removal of Harvey Weinstein after the revelation of a litany of nightmarish stories about forced sexual encounters with dozens of actresses and women who worked for the company. So The House That Quentin Built — as Weinstein often called his company because of the out-sized success of Tarantino-directed pictures that included Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained — is in the process of being sold off, and despite Tarantino’s loyalty to the 170 or so staff there that helped make his movies successful, he has officially left the building.

The aspirants for Tarantino’s next film are limited to the major studios, because Tarantino and his WME reps wanted to make one deal with a studio that has the ability to release the picture globally. There has been a lot of press that the script focuses on Charles Manson and the murder spree he orchestrated, but I’m told that is akin to calling Inglourious Basterds a movie about Adolf Hitler, when the Nazi leader was only in a scene or two. Deadline reported months ago that Margot Robbie had been asked to play Manson murder victim Sharon Tate, and Tarantino has roles for — and has had conversations with — the likes of Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, who’ve all starred in his movies before. But no casting commitments have been made so far.

The first order of business is to secure the studio that will finance, market and distribute a movie that will begin production in mid-2018 for a 2019 release. All of the majors are in except for Disney, which doesn’t make the R-rated milieu that Tarantino has always worked in. I’m told that the script has strong commercial appeal, and if there is a film of Tarantino’s it can be best compared to, it would be Pulp Fiction, which also was set in Los Angeles about a decade after this one. The film will carry a budget in the range of Django Unchained, and it is expected that the hard conversations will begin early next week, with a deal culminating within the next two weeks.

“I would never work (with Disney) in any way, shape or form after what they did to me,” he added.

“They f---ed me over and I made them a lot of money for ‘Pulp Fiction,’ and that really is a bad way to treat a former employee who has worked very well for them," said Tarantino of Disney, which used to own Miramax, the company behind his hits like “Pulp Fiction” and “Kill Bill.”

I’m told that the script has strong commercial appeal, and if there is a film of Tarantino’s it can be best compared to, it would be Pulp Fiction, which also was set in Los Angeles about a decade after this one.

“It’s not Charles Manson, it’s 1969,” cautioned Quentin Tarantino at an award-season post-screening brunch at Estrella on Sunset for Sofia Coppola’s “The Beguiled” (Focus Features). The writer-director is looking for a new home for his ninth movie, now that he has withdrawn from scandal-plagued patron Harvey Weinstein, who has backed his features since 1992’s “Reservoir Dogs.”

Tarantino just completed a round of pitch meetings last week set by WME from five studios (not including family-friendly Disney) with worldwide distribution seeking to back his untitled Manson Family Project, which he finished writing about five months ago, he said. (The cast is rumored to include Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and Tarantino vets Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Leonardo DiCaprio.) He wasn’t ready to take the director’s helm until January in order to give himself some time for tinkering — and romance. He’s wearing a gold engagement ring in advance of his marriage to Israeli singer Daniella Pick.

So it’s full steam ahead once he chooses his next distribution partner. “It’s a level playing field,” he said cautiously. On what basis will he make that decision? “I don’t know.”

Quentin Tarantino Film Bidding Heats Up: Three Finalists Emerge (EXCLUSIVE)
By Brent Lang and Justin Kroll

Three Hollywood studios are engaging in a heated courtship of Quentin Tarantino as they work to out-charm each other for the rights to the “Pulp Fiction” director’s upcoming movie set against the backdrop of the Charles Manson murders.

Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros. have emerged as the three finalists for the project, Variety has learned. It’s possible, of course, that a dark horse candidate could still emerge. Each of the three studios heard Tarantino’s pitch, with Warners engaging in some splashy wooing in hopes of landing the film. When Tarantino arrived at the studio’s Burbank lot, he found the circular entrance in front of the administration building adorned with cars from the late 1960s. The Warner Bros. logo circa 1969 was on the marquee outside the studio, and the executive conference room was outfitted with vintage furniture from the era and mock posters for the movie. Much of Tarantino’s film unfolds in August of 1969, a time when Manson’s commune of followers murdered actress Sharon Tate and four of her friends.


Not to be outdone, Sony cooked up a multimedia presentation discussing how it would handle the release of the film, as well highlighting what it saw as its competitive advantages. Studio chief Tom Rothman used his time in front of Tarantino to talk up Sony’s marketing team and to take the director through the efforts that the company has made in recent years to bolster its international distribution. He emphasized that Sony could help the film succeed at the domestic box office, as well as internationally. Rothman was flanked by the studio’s senior staff, including Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch.

Initially, any execs interested in winning the project for their studio had to make the trek to WME’s offices to read the script. Every major studio, with the exception of Disney, made the pilgrimage to the agency headquarters. To get a second meeting with the director, the studios had to agree to a number of terms: Tarantino wants a production budget of roughly $100 million. He is also expecting first-dollar gross, meaning he will get a cut of the pre-tax revenue taken in by the studio, as well as final cut on the film.

Spokespeople from all three studios declined to comment, as did a spokesperson from WME.

The financial terms scared away many suitors, leaving Warner Bros., Sony and Paramount as the final bidders. At stake is the chance to be in business with a proven hitmaker and an Oscar winner. Tarantino is one of the rare auteurs whose films are true “events.” He’s mixed critical acclaim with commercial success, scoring with the likes of “Django Unchained,” “Kill Bill,” and “Inglourious Basterds.” His most recent effort, “The Hateful Eight,” was something of a box office disappointment, earning $155.8 million on a budget of $55 million. It’s rare to see studios engage in such ardent ego stroking. Insiders say the only recent bit of flirtation that is on this level is the theatrics that companies engaged in as they tried to nab the distribution rights to the James Bond franchise. In that case, it is believed that newcomer Annapurna emerged victorious.

Tarantino’s still-untitled film was originally set up at the Weinstein Co., but the rights are up for grabs because the indie studio is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. The director has released nearly all of his films with Harvey Weinstein, but the mogul’s career has gone up in flames after dozens of women have accused him of sexual abuse and harassment.

Deadline set the stage for this auction recently, and here’s what is new: Add Tom Cruise to the short list of candidates Tarantino has spoken with to play one of two lead male roles. He joins Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in that small circle, but it is entirely unclear if all three will be in the movie, or two of them, or any of them, because much of that comes down to making a deal and scheduling. Harry Potter producer David Heyman will join Tarantino as the main producer on this film, and it will be his first collaboration with Tarantino. Heyman and Tarantino will produce with Shannon McIntosh, and Georgia Kacandes will be exec producer and line producer.

“The Hateful Eight,” was something of a box office disappointment, earning $155.8 million on a budget of $55 million.