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The Films of Rick Dalton

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The Films of Rick Dalton
The Films of Rick Dalton is an upcoming novel written by Quentin Tarantino. It details the life and film and television career of the fictional actor Rick Dalton. Dalton is the main protagonist in Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and 2021 novelization. In the film he is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Tarantino has already completed the novel and plans to publish it as his third book.

Character biography
Rick Dalton is an actor who starred in the fictitious television Western series Bounty Law from 1959-1963, inspired by real-life series Wanted Dead or Alive, starring Steve McQueen. After Bounty Law Dalton began to appear in supporting film roles, leading to a four-picture-contract with Universal Pictures, ending in 1967. His film career never took off and in '67 he started to guest star on TV series as villains.

Dalton's relationship with his stunt double and best friend Cliff Booth is based on Kurt Russell and his stunt double of many years, John Casino, and Burt Reynolds' with his longtime stunt double Hal Needham. Tarantino's inspiration for Dalton came from actors whose careers began in classical Hollywood but faltered in the 1960s, including Ty Hardin, who went from starring in a successful TV Western to making Spaghetti Westerns, and also Tab Hunter, George Maharis, Vince Edwards, William Shatner, and Edd Byrnes, whom DiCaprio responded to the most. In the film Leonardo DiCaprio based his performance on Ralph Meeker. Dalton suffers from alcoholism and an undiagnosed bipolar disorder, inspired by Pete Duel.

Not included the film or its novelization, before shooting Spaghetti Westerns in Italy, Dalton's agent Marvin Schwarz arranges for him to have dinner with Sergio Corbucci and his wife, costume designer Nori Bonicelli, during which Dalton confuses Corbucci with Sergio Leone and disparages the English-dubbed version of Navajo Joe. Despite showing little respect or understanding for the genre and the Italian film industry, Dalton agrees to work with Corbucci because he believes he will suit the Nebraska Jim role well. Although Dalton comes to respect Corbucci's methods, his frequent outbursts over the Italian crew's methods of making the film, such as the use of multilingual actors speaking their own language (whose dialogue would later be replaced through dubbing), prompts Corbucci to turn down Dalton's offer to play Hud Dixon in The Specialists in favor of Johnny Hallyday.

Tarantino revealed that Dalton finds more success after the events of the film. His killing of Manson Family member Susan "Sadie" Atkins with a flamethrower from his film The 14 Fists of McClusky attracts much of the media's attention, leading to offers for roles in feature films. He also gets bigger guest roles in TV series, including an episode of Mission: Impossible centered around his character. In 1988, Dalton retires from acting and moves to Hawaii with his wife Francesca Capucci, eventually meeting Tarantino himself at the 1996 Hawaii International Film Festival.

Novel background
In July 2021, Tarantino revealed that he had written most of a career book, recounting the filmography of the Rick Dalton as if he had actually existed. It would include synopses, critical quotes from the time, and recounting of his film and television career until 1988. It details every one of Dalton's appearances on episodic television, with most of them being real programs and films with Dalton replacing the actual actor who starred in the project. However some of the films and shows are completely fictional.

One of the fictional films is the vigilante movie The Fireman: "Cliff Booth in 1979 or ’80, wrote a vigilante exploitation movie for Rick ... Rick read it and goes, ‘we can do this better,’ so Rick rewrites it and the two of them are going to produce it, they get the money, and it’s a vigilante movie called, The Fireman. The lead character was in the Vietnam War– it’s very similar to The Exterminator–he became a cop, and then he started seeing this whole group of bad apple cops that are killing guys and are completely corrupt. And they end up killing his partner, played by a very young Samuel L. Jackson ... The film becomes a real big hit, and that makes Rick, he gets a third career, going into the ’80s, as a straight to video action star.”"

By December 2021, Tarantino expected the book to be released following his film criticism book titled Cinema Speculation.

Partial fictional filmography
This is an incomplete filmography of Dalton.


 * Bounty Law (TV series) (1959-1963) — Jake Cahill
 * Comanche Uprising (1961) — Lt. Warwick Winston
 * Big Game (1963) — Randy Wilson
 * Hellfire, Texas (1964) — Major Travis Jackson
 * Hullabaloo (TV Series) (1965) — Guest Star, Himself
 * Tanner (1965) — Joe Tanner
 * The 14 Fists of McClusky (1966) — Sgt. Mike Lewis
 * Salty, The Talking Sea Otter (1967) — Jed Martin
 * Tarzan (TV series) (1967) — episode: Jewel of the Jungle — Brick Bedford
 * The Green Hornet (TV series) (1967) — episode: Hornet Hunter — Thompson Shaw
 * Bingo Martin (TV series) (1967) — episode: Heck to Pay — Rocky Ryan
 * Land of the Giants (TV series) (1968) — episode: Capture — Dr. David Hellstrom
 * The F.B.I. (TV series) (1969) — episode: All The Streets Are Silent — Michael Murtaugh (portrayed by Burt Reynolds in real-life episode)
 * Lancer (TV series) (1969) — episode: Pilot — Caleb DeCoteau
 * Kill Me Quick, Ringo, Said The Gringo (1969) — Ringo
 * Nebraska Jim (1970) — Nebraska Jim
 * Red Blood, Red Skin (1970) — Romeo Douglas
 * Hell's Boats (1970) — Lt. Cmdr. Jeffords
 * Operazione Dyn-O-Mite! (1970) — Jason