Quentin Tarantino looking to cast Polish actor as Roman Polanski

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A tweet from Variety's Justin Kroll has shed a little more light on the latest film from writer/director Quentin Tarantino, giving us a better idea of how Sharon Tate and Charles Manson might figure into the story – and revealing that controversial filmmaker Roman Polanski will have a role in the story as well.

When first announced, Tarantino's currently untitled project (it's known as #9, since it's his ninth directorial effort) was being referred to as his "Manson movie", and Tarantino had to specify that it's not a story about Manson, but about Los Angeles in 1969. One that happens to involve actress/Manson family victim Sharon Tate as a character, possibly to be played by Margot Robbie.

Since then, a bit of a synopsis was released when Leonardo DiCaprio signed on to play 

an actor who had his own Western show, Bounty Law, that ran on the air from 1958 to 1963. His attempt to transition to movies didn’t work out and in 1969 — the film is set at the height of hippy Hollywood movement– he’s guesting on other people’s shows while contemplating going to Italy which has become a hotbed for low-budget Westerns.

While Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt circle the role of the actor's stuntman friend (although Pitt reportedly passed on the role) and we wait to hear if Al Pacino is going to accept a part that Tarantino supposedly wrote for him, Kroll tweeted that DiCaprio's character is Tate's neighbor in the story… and along with Tate's presence comes the presence of her husband, ROSEMARY'S BABY director Polanski.

According to Kroll, Tarantino is looking to "discover" the actor he casts as Polanski, seeking an "authentic Polish thesp".

I am very intrigued to see how this is all going to play out. When Tate and her friends were murdered by the Manson family members, a neighbor gave an anonymous interview to say they had heard shots and screams coming from Tate and Polanski's home. Will DiCaprio's character be that neighbor?

Tarantino's film is set to be released on August 9, 2019, the 50th anniversary of Tate's murder.

Some QT-Manson updates: The role Pitt and Cruise have met on is for that of a stuntman not prosecutor, the Leo character is also Tate's neighbor in the pic and Polanski will play key role in film, QT going discovery route wants authentic polish thesp

— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) February 1, 2018