Cliff Booth is officially back. Netflix has released the trailer for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, with Brad Pitt reprising his Oscar-winning role from Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, joined by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as pro football champion turned screen star Roderick “Hot Rod” Harrison.
Directed by David Fincher from a new script by Tarantino, the film marks the first collaboration between the two filmmakers and also stands as Netflix’s first movie set for an IMAX theatrical release. It hits IMAX screens globally for a two week exclusive engagement starting November 25, before arriving on Netflix December 23.
Set in 1977, eight years after the events of the original film, the story finds Cliff no longer working as a stuntman, instead earning his keep bartending, running a film projector, and serving as a fixer for Hollywood’s powerful, and not so powerful. Things get complicated when talent agent Karen Crosby (Elizabeth Debicki) brings him in on behalf of her client, TV megastar Charlie Peters (Scott Caan), pulling Cliff into a widening orbit of characters that includes Charlie’s wife Toni (Carla Gugino), Abdul-Mateen’s Hot Rod Harrison, and the Verdusco brothers (Matt Groove and JB Tadena), a pair of gangsters stirring up trouble across the city. What began as a fairytale in the first film has turned into a crime story built on violence, ambition, and desire.
The project has an unusual origin story. Tarantino originally wrote it as his tenth and final film, but after finishing the script, he decided he didn’t want to close out his career with something that echoed his earlier work, and considered shelving it entirely. With his blessing, Pitt brought the script to Fincher, reportedly Tarantino’s favorite director, and the collaboration took off from there.
The film reunites Fincher with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who won an Oscar for shooting Mank and has also worked with the director on Mindhunter and The Killer. Early released stills show Messerschmidt and Fincher translating Tarantino’s sun-drenched vision of 1960s Hollywood into a noticeably darker, more dangerous-looking 1977, full of neon signage, late-night dirt track racing, and muddy dive bar brawls, all filtered through Fincher’s signature shadowy, meticulous style.
The film also stars Peter Weller, Corey Fogelmanis, and Karren Karagulian, and is produced by Pitt and Ceán Chaffin. Donald Graham Burt serves as production designer, Kirk Baxter edits, Trish Summerville designs costumes, and Laray Mayfield handles casting.
The IMAX slot was originally earmarked for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, which Netflix has since pushed to February for a full wide theatrical release. The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth stepped in to fill the date instead.