In what must scan as a belated April Fool’s Day prank but is definitely real, David Fincher will direct Brad Pitt in a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with a script by Quentin Tarantino focused on stuntman Cliff Booth. How is any of this possible? Looks like we know what that mystery Fincher/Pitt sequel for Netflix is.
The news first broke at ThePlaylist but has been confirmed by Deadline. Fincher working with Pitt isn’t a shock. This would be the fourth time after Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher always turns to Pitt first whenever he’s got a new project.
The shock is that, for the first time, Tarantino isn’t directing his own screenplay. Pitt showed Fincher Tarantino’s screenplay for a sequel centered on the stuntman Cliff Booth’s further adventures. Fincher got Tarantino’s blessing to direct, as the director was not about to make a streaming movie and certainly not for his tenth and final movie. Fincher is exclusive to Netflix right now, so any deal would go through them. So that’s how it’s worked out. Tarantino may have been paid north of $20M for the script.
There’s so much left to do with Cliff Booth that it’s no wonder Pitt wants to play the character again. Of course, he also won an Oscar for his portrayal of the stuntman, body double, former soldier and paid killer who wiped out the Manson Family and may or may not have murdered his ex-wife with a spear gun. Deadline’s report also confirms that Tarantino’s shelved tenth movie, The Movie Critic, centered on Booth. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as if Leonardo DiCaprio will make an appearance. Hey, we can’t have everything but this is pretty damn cool.
