Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher and Brad Pitt teaming up for ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' sequel

Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood is reportedly getting a sequel directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac, The Killer). Brad Pitt is set to reprise his Oscar-winning role as stuntman Cliff Booth. 

Considering that too-good-to-be-true billing; the rare occurance of a high-profile director helming the follow-up to another high-profile director’s film; the fact that the last time Tarantino wrote a film that he didn’t direct was 1996’s From Dusk Til Dawn; and that the filmmaker has been a vocal critic of streamers such as Netflix – on which this sequel would debut considering Fincher’s ongoing contract with the streamer - this sounds like an April Fools. 

Still, several sources have corroborated the initial report by Playlist, which states that Fincher is looking to shoot this summer, that the film likely has a $200million budget (with Tarantino receiving $20million for his screenplay) and that Leonardo DiCaprio might appear in a small cameo. 

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, written and directed by Tarantino, was released in 2019 and followed the adventures of a fading TV star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stuntman Cliff Booth (Pitt) who navigate the changing film industry and the threat of the Mansion family in an alternative version of 1960s Hollywood. 

Tarantino published a “novelisation” of the film in 2021, which included further details of Booth’s backstory and life episodes.

It is believed that the newly announced sequel is actually a derivative of the original rather than a direct follow-up - and very possibly an evolution of Quentin Tarantino’s script The Movie Critic, which was intended to be the director’s tenth and final film until he abandoned the idea. 

Tarantino had previously revealed that The Movie Critic was about a real-life film journalist for a “porno rag”, who he often read growing up. “He wrote about mainstream movies and he was the second-string critic,” Tarantino shared. “I think he was a very good critic. He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic.”

It was set to be set in 1977 Southern California, and Brad Pitt had already signed on to star for the third time with Tarantino, after Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood.

Reports suggest that Pitt loved the script so much he wouldn't let it go. And it seems that he now got his (retooled) wish.

Pitt and Fincher have collaborated several times before, in the seminal serial killer thriller Se7en, the cult satire Fight Club and F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Fincher recently renewed his Netflix contract until 2027 and has at least four different projects in various stages of development, including Squid Game: America and his Chinatown prequel. He has already released two films with the streamer: Mank in 2020 and The Killer in 2023. 

Additional sources • The Playlist - Deadline