As filmmakers spend all-nighters in the editing suite in order to submit their latest work in time for festival premieres, it’s no surprise that during the sometimes extensive wait between the first showing and a theatrical premiere, more tinkering is bound to be done. Today we have updates on two of the biggest films coming out of Cannes Film Festival and the how most audiences will experience them.
First up, Terrence Malick has been spending years editing A Hidden Life and, for the time being, all 173 glorious minutes will stay intact when Fox Searchlight releases it, producer Grant Hill confirmed with Deadline. “The love story was always there in A Hidden Life, it came out more and more as we went on,” he said about the long post-production process, which also led to the director’s longest theatrical release yet. Re-teaming with Malick after The Tree of Life, Fox Searchlight plans a 2019 release, which will most likely mark the director’s most robust roll-out since that Palme d’Or winner.
Moving on to another major American director, Quentin Tarantino has been keen on discussing the making of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood while at Cannes–just not that final act. While his cast is perhaps the most star-studded of the year, a few actors didn’t make the version screened at the festival, including Danny Strong, James Marsden, James Remar, and Tim Roth–but it doesn’t mean they’ll stay on the cutting room floor.
Speaking to Anne Thompson, the director said, “I may make it longer,” adding, “I’m going to explore possibly putting something back in. If anything, I wanted to go to Cannes too short. if I’m going to err, I’m going to err on too tight.” While the Cannes cut clocks in at 2 hours and 39 minutes, Tarantino reveals that editor Fred Raskin’s assembly cut was four hours and 20 minutes. “His job is to put in every single thing I shot, give me everything. That’s not unusual, for an epic-y kind of movie.” After editing down the assembly to 2 hours and 45 minutes, he wanted to go even tighter. “2:45 seems like an old Quentin movie. Let’s see if we can get past the Quentin cut to a really friendly cut any audience can appreciate,” he told Raskin.
With Sony Pictures head Tom Rothman on board for a longer version, Tarantino probably only has a little more than a month to figure out the theatrical cut, but he’s no stranger to the time crunch, having re-jiggered Inglorious Basterds post-Cannes as well. As for what else we could see, Tarantino has revealed one of Al Pacino’s big scenes was cut, along with a scene featuring DiCaprio’s character in an alternate version of The Great Escape. We can’t imagine Tarantino would go much longer fora theatrical release, but perhaps we’ll see a few additional scenes, and some of those faces that didn’t make the premiere.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Quentin Tarantino returns in a haze of cigarettes, cocktails, razzle-dazzle, and psychedelic rock with Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, a jarring concoction of ravishing 1960s fetishization and sliding doors “what if” moments that might just be his strangest film yet. It is certainly the director’s most patient, an uncharacteristic slow-burn that asks you to wait for it, jussst wait for it as it leads towards a fateful night in Hollywood folklore.”
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood opens on July 26, while A Hidden Life opens before year’s end.