Sometimes, it’s difficult to pinpoint the germ of a specific idea. We live in a world full of countless influences on our lives. From personal experiences to movies, TV shows, online media, and beyond, now more than ever, it can be difficult to tell where inspiration ends and an original idea begins. But if there’s one filmmaker who doesn’t ever seem to have a problem pinpointing his inspirations, it’s Tarantino.

His latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Of course, based on its time period and subject matter, it’s very clear why Tarantino was the perfect man to bring this type of story to life, but where did he first get the idea of an actor and his stunt double working their way through Hollywood? Here’s what the filmmaker told IndieWire.

“I worked with an actor who had been in the business for a while, he was a little older now. He had a stunt double who he had worked with for 20 years. We didn’t have anything for the stunt double to do, but there was one little bit. ‘Can you use my guy? It would be nice.’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ This guy showed up; he was an interesting fellow. He wasn’t working for me, he was working for the actor. This was maybe one of the last movies he could do with the guy. They probably once looked so close to each other you could do a close-up on the stuntman, but that was not the case anymore. I thought the relationship was fascinating. I didn’t know that much about them, but I knew I wanted to explore a couple like that toward the end of their careers. I might want to do a movie about Hollywood someday.”

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And there you have it. The kernel of an idea. But of course, the premise is only one part of a story. He needed an actual story itself, and he settled on what about the “counterculture change going on in Hollywood, both the entertainment industry and the town itself,” Tarantino said. “And I liked the idea of exploring that through a character, Rick, who is not part of that change. It’s hit him like steamroller. In 1966, only a few years earlier, he and George Maharis and Vince Edwards and Edd Byrne, they were living on top of the world. They didn’t know they would be replaced by Michael Sarrazin, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Kristoffer Tabori, that the hippie sons of famous people, these skinny, androgynous, shaggy-haired leading men, would be the next big thing.”

It’s not really something that would generally get me excited to pick apart as a writer, but as a Tarantino fan, I can see the appeal. And so, we have Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, though what the plot entails in the movie…we can only guess, as Tarantino put a plea out for Cannes audiences to keep spoilers quiet.

All we can do is wait. What do you think of Tarantino’s inspiration for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: IndieWire