Quentin Tarantino says he felt he was letting Brad Pitt down when he decided against directing “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” a sequel that David Fincher took over and Netflix will release later this month. Tarantino wrote the screenplay and abandoned plans to direct it himself. He told Empire that Pitt was “the one I felt I was really letting down.” He added that he felt bad about the decision.
The solution came from Pitt, who had been disappointed about not playing stuntman Cliff Booth again. According to Fincher, Pitt asked whether Fincher wanted to read the script. Fincher said he would do so only with Tarantino’s permission. Tarantino remembered being stunned and immediately gave his approval. Fincher, who directed Pitt in “Seven,” “Fight Club” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” became enthusiastic about the material.
Tarantino admitted to worrying that he might talk the director out of the project, and he compared his early conversations with Fincher to courting someone he did not want to scare away. He said the arrangement validated his standing as a writer, noting that many people assume he writes only for himself. A director of Fincher’s caliber devoting a year and a half to his pages, he said, shows what the script contains.
Tarantino has given a different explanation for his own exit. He said on the “Church of Tarantino” podcast last year that he loved the script but felt he was retreading ground he had already covered, and the idea left him unenthused. He wants his 10th and final film as director to be something other than a sequel to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” the 2019 movie that won Pitt his supporting actor Oscar.
Fincher has described the collaboration as unusual. He said Pitt is deeply invested in the project, and that Pitt knew the character well enough to handle the barrage of questions that came with rewriting scenes. Tarantino remains a producer alongside Pitt, David Heyman, Ceán Chaffin and Stacey Sher.
The film jumps ahead to 1977, when Booth works as a studio fixer in Hollywood. Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, Scott Caan and Timothy Olyphant join the cast. The movie reaches IMAX theaters Nov. 25 as part of Netflix’s rollout.
