David Fincher cut roughly 60 pages from Quentin Tarantino‘s original screenplay for “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” the upcoming “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” follow-up starring Brad Pitt.
“The first draft I read was 230 pages. It was essentially two movies,” Fincher told Empire in a new joint interview with Tarantino. The film, which sees Pitt reprise his Oscar-winning role as Hollywood stuntman Cliff Booth, ultimately came in at approximately two hours and 20 minutes.
Fincher explained that his interest in the project centered less on its plot than on the opportunity to explore the characters and their relationships against the backdrop of 1970s Hollywood. “I liked the idea that it’s a story around a bonfire,” Fincher said. “It wasn’t about the plot as much as it was about how the participants collided with one another in the back alleys of Hollywood in 1977.”
Tarantino handed over directing duties to Fincher after deciding against making the project himself. Tarantino had previously considered the film as a possible follow-up to his 2019 hit but ultimately decided he did not want a sequel to serve as his 10th and potentially final movie.
Pitt, who previously worked with Fincher on “Se7en,” “Fight Club” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” helped bring the director onto the project.
Fincher also discussed the process of adapting Tarantino’s screenplay while balancing the creative interests of its writer and star.
“Somewhere in there was the Venn diagram of what Brad wanted to do, what I want to do, what Quentin wanted to do,” Fincher said. “Not ‘want to do,’ but the areas we would focus on.”
Set in 1977, eight years after the events of “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” the new film follows Booth as he takes on work as a Hollywood fixer. While the original film centered on Booth’s relationship with fading television actor Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, the sequel draws more heavily from crime fiction, including the work of novelist Elmore Leonard, whose book “Rum Punch” served as the basis for his 1997 film “Jackie Brown.”
“I don’t think of it as a hangout movie at all,” Tarantino told Empire. “‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ was a hangout movie, but you know you’re going to Cielo Drive [site of the Manson murders]. It has this force, thus I didn’t need a lot of plot. This script was very different…To me, it had the flavor of an Elmore Leonard paperback: a crime-story paperback feel.”
The project reunites Pitt with the character that earned him the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 2020. “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” which also starred DiCaprio and Margot Robbie, received 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director.
“The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” is scheduled for an exclusive two-week global IMAX run beginning Nov. 25 before premiering on Netflix Dec. 23.