Quentin Tarantino Is Pleading with the Cannes Audience Not to Spoil Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

It seems like Quentin Tarantino has perhaps been paying attention to the marketing for the likes of Avengers: Endgame, because he dropped something unexpected on the internet this morning: An open letter begging Cannes audiences not to spoil the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino’s latest has its world premiere at the festival tomorrow (May 21), and is hotly anticipated. It’s the first time Tarantino has brought a film to Cannes since Inglorious Basterds, which won Christoph Waltz the prize for Best Actor. It also happens to debut on the 25th anniversary of Pulp Fiction, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes way back in 1994. My, how time flies.

The open letter, however, strikes us as a bit odd. Unlike in The Avengers, Tarantino’s film is a completely new, original story. It’s not as if audience members are familiar with its characters. When we write the name “Rick Dalton,” the average cinema-goer won’t even know if that’s a reference to Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. In short, it doesn’t really seem like most audience members would be able to spoil a film like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with any ease. Regardless, here’s Tarantino’s full letter.

“I love cinema. You love cinema. It’s the journey of discovering a story for the first time. I’m thrilled to be here in Cannes to share ‘Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood’ with the festival audience. The cast and crew have worked so hard to create something original, and I only ask that everyone avoids revealing anything that would prevent later audiences from experiencing the film in the same way.”

Sounds simple enough, we suppose, although it seems like the kind of request that would be applied toward literally any film.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood stars DiCaprio and Pitt as a TV actor and his best friend stuntman respectively, as the pair attempt to break into the Hollywood system. Along the way, they somehow get wrapped up in the emergence of the Manson family cult in the summer of 1969. The film’s full cast is sprawling, including the likes of Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Al Pacino, Bruce Dern, Dakota Fanning, Lena Dunham, Austin Butler and Damon Harriman.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood hits theaters nationwide on July 26, 2019. Hopefully, you’ll manage to avoid whatever “spoilers” do exist.