David Fincher has revealed that he removed approximately 60 pages from Quentin Tarantino’s original screenplay for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, the upcoming follow-up to Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. The first draft ran 230 pages, prompting Fincher to significantly reshape the material before bringing the story to the screen.
Speaking alongside Tarantino in an interview with Empire, Fincher explained the scale of the original script, saying,
“The first draft I read was 230 pages. It was essentially two movies.”
The finished film runs approximately two hours and 20 minutes.
The project reunites Brad Pitt with Cliff Booth, the Hollywood stuntman he portrayed in Tarantino’s 2019 film. However, this time Tarantino has handed directing duties to Fincher, allowing the filmmaker behind Fight Club and Se7en to bring his own approach to the character’s next adventure.
The sequel shifts the focus from the original film’s laid-back character dynamics toward a crime-driven story about Hollywood’s darker corners. Fincher’s revisions reflect an effort to shape Tarantino’s expansive screenplay into a more focused feature without losing its distinctive characters or atmosphere.
FINCHER PRIORITIZED CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS OVER PLOT
Fincher explained that his interest in the screenplay came from the interactions between its characters and their place in 1970s Hollywood. Describing his vision to Empire, he said,
“I liked the idea that it’s a story around a bonfire.”
He added that the film was less about its plot than about how its characters collide in Hollywood in 1977. This approach distinguishes the sequel from a conventional continuation, giving Fincher room to explore the people surrounding Cliff Booth rather than simply recreate the original movie’s structure.
The director also described finding common ground between the creative priorities of himself, Tarantino, and Pitt. Their collaboration helped determine which elements of the lengthy screenplay would receive the greatest attention.
Tarantino ultimately decided against directing the project himself. He had considered the story as a potential follow-up to Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, but did not want a sequel to become his tenth and potentially final film as a director.
Pitt, who previously worked with Fincher on Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, helped bring the filmmaker aboard. Tarantino’s screenplay also draws inspiration from crime novelist Elmore Leonard, whose work previously informed the filmmaker’s Jackie Brown.
“I don’t think of it as a hangout movie at all,”
Tarantino told Empire, contrasting the new film with its predecessor and describing the script as having the feel of an Elmore Leonard crime paperback.
Set eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, the film follows Booth as a Hollywood fixer navigating the entertainment industry’s criminal underworld. The movie is scheduled for a two-week global IMAX engagement beginning November 25, 2026, before arriving on Netflix on December 23, 2026.
