Bruce Dern will be standing in for his longtime friend Burt Reynolds in Quentin Tarantino’s new movie ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’ Reynolds was due to play the role of George Spahn in the movie but sadly, he died earlier this month, on September 6th.
Dern and Reynolds appeared together in several projects over the years, including the 2003 Hallmark western ‘Hard Ground’, the 1999 TV movie ‘Hard Time’, ‘The Premonition’ on TNT, and a 1965 episode of the ABC WWII series ‘12 O’Clock High’.
Dern previously worked with Tarantino on his movie ‘The Hateful Eight’.
The actor is currently filming ‘Remember Me’ in Spain, but producer Atit Shah and director Martin Rosete rearranged the schedule so Dern could leave that production to shoot his scenes for ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’
Dern takes over the role of Spahn, a near-blind 80-year-old man who rented out his L.A. ranch as a location for westerns. Manson convinced Spahn to allow him and his followers to live on the ranch. In exchange for rent, he reportedly coerced his female followers to sleep with the ranch owner and serve as his seeing-eye guides. Manson and his followers stayed on the ranch in the months before they murdered Tate and six others.
Dern joins a stellar cast for the forthcoming movie that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, James Mardsen, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Damon Herriman, Mike Moh, Lena Dunham, Emile Hirsch, Luke Perry, Scoot McNairy and James Remar.
So far we’ve been treated to a first look of DiCaprio and Pitt in character, as a struggling former Western TV actor and his long-serving body double, respectively, as well as an image of Robbie in character as Sharon Tate.
‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ is set for release in Irish cinemas on July 26th of next year.
