Tarantino also loves books. He got grounded for shoplifting Elmore Leonard’s novel The Switch when he was 15, according to Quentin Tarantino: The Pocket Essential Guide (2004) by D.K. Holm. Leonard’s influence is all over Tarantino’s works, and the filmmaker is paying it forward. “In the ’70s, movie novelizations were the first adult books I grew up reading,” Tarantino said in a statement via Deadline. “And to this day I have a tremendous amount of affection for the genre. So as a movie-novelization aficionado, I’m proud to announce Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood as my contribution to this often marginalized, yet beloved sub-genre in literature. I’m also thrilled to further explore my characters and their world in a literary endeavor that can (hopefully) sit alongside its cinematic counterpart.” Last year’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood reimagined the moviemaking capital of Los Angeles circa 1969 with a wish-fulfilling alternative reality twist on the Charles Manson Family murders. The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio as aging TV actor Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt as his loyal stunt double Cliff Booth. The film, which also starred Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, won two Oscars and earned a total of 10 nominations. The novelization of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood will be published in the summer of 2021. It will be issued as a Harper Perennial mass market paperback, and will be available via eBook and digital audio editions. It will be followed by a deluxe hardcover edition in fall 2021. Like the film, the book promises to be a love letter to motion pictures. Tarantino’s second book will expand on that adoration: Cinema Speculation will be a “deep dive into the movies of the 1970s, a rich mix of essays, reviews, personal writing, and tantalizing ‘what ifs,’ from one of cinema’s most celebrated filmmakers, and its most devoted fan,” according to Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The book will also include Tarantino’s appreciation for Pauline Kael, whose reviews for The New Yorker were almost as influential as the films she critiqued. There has been no Cinema Speculation release date announced.
