- Brad Pitt is reprising his Academy Award-winning role as stuntman Cliff Booth for a Once Upon A Time In Hollywood sequel written by Quentin Tarantino, but directed by David Fincher.
- The project-in-progress began its life as Tarantino’s scrapped 10th and final film, The Movie Critic, which was set around the same era as Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
- Netflix, which maintains a fruitful relationship with Fincher, has reportedly fast-tracked this film; assigning it a hefty US$200 million budget (release date TBA).
Unbelievably, the most April Fools-sounding headline of the year so far isn’t outlandish internet bait. By all accounts, it’s simply outlandish.
A week after industry murmurs revealed that David Fincher and Brad Pitt were reuniting for a sequel to a film that – intriguingly enough – the former hadn’t directed, reports confirm the project in question is a continuation of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood centred on Pitt’s easy-going yet blunt Cliff Booth.
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The Hollywood Reporter also notes that Leonardo DiCaprio is being circled to return as Rock Dalton.
The feature-length picture, which has been penned by Tarantino himself, has apparently been allocated an eye-watering US$200 million budget and fast-tracked over at Netflix, where Fincher famously has a first-look deal for several years now.
So how in the hell did this all come together?
It all began with Quentin Tarantino’s since-abandoned 10th and final film: The Movie Critic. As we’ve previously covered, the story would’ve followed an “irreverent critic in 1970s California who reviews mainstream movies for a porno magazine called The Popstar Pages.” Brad Pitt himself and the heavyweight likes of Tom Cruise were in negotiations to lead.
While this was shelved indefinitely for unknown reasons, Tarantino never stopped writing. In fact, he became so enamoured with the idea of where Cliff Booth ended up post-Once Upon A Time In Hollywood that it eventually morphed into what we’re currently on track to stream.
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“According to one source, Pitt was taken by certain aspects of script, which never seemed to stop evolving, as well as his character’s part in it,” indicates Borys Kit of THR.
“He asked the filmmaker whether he would consider letting someone else direct the untitled project. Tarantino replied, and we paraphrase here, ‘Depends on who.’ An indeterminate time later, Pitt returned with Fincher in tow… Tarantino gave his blessing, the project was repackaged and scooped by Netflix.”
Netflix were keen on the prospect of this, in fact, that they’re rumoured to have forked out US$20 million for Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay alone.
According to an inside source, David Fincher’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood sequel starring Brad Pitt begins rolling cameras in the latter half of 2025; it’s unclear whether the end product will hit Netflix immediately or attempt a limited theatrical release.
Should all go as planned, this will mark the fourth occasion Fincher and Pitt have collaborated after Fight Club, Se7en, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; and also the fourth Tarantino-related affair Pitt features in after True Romance (which the director penned for Tony Scott), Inglorious Basterds, and of course, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Stay tuned for all the details (further casting, plot, release date, trailer, etc).
