Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood novel to explore Cliff Booth’s past

Playing Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood won Brad Pitt an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor two years ago, and now the director has revealed that his upcoming novel will explore the stuntman’s past.

In an interview with Pure Cinema Podcast, Tarantino revealed that his book, based on the movie, will delve deep into the character’s backstory. “In the movie, Cliff is a real enigma… one of the things in the book is, there’s these chapters that tell you about Cliff’s past. And every isolated chapter that’s just about Cliff’s past is like a weird little pulp novel unto itself starring Cliff,” said the filmmaker.

While the novel will focus on Cliff’s relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character of Rick Dalton, Tarantino did reveal a bit about the stuntman’s past including that he is a Vietnam War veteran and that he may not have killed his wife.

The filmmaker also revealed that he had begun writing the novel, which is set to release on June 29, five years ago and that it’s an “unwieldy version of the movie”. “I’m really proud of it. It’s not just me taking the screenplay and breaking it down in a novelistic form. I retold the story as a novel. It was a complete rethinking of the entire story,” said Tarantino.

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which is set against the 1969 Manson Murders, is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.