Quentin Tarantino surprised audiences on Friday night at AFI Fest when he shared the first 17 minutes of “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.”
Tarantino made a special appearance at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, following a screening of “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood.” Following the Q&A moderated by Rotten Tomatoes’ Jacqueline Coley, the filmmaker said, “Well, I could talk a little bit about ‘The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth’ or I could show you the first 17 minutes.”
Directed by David Fincher, who was also in attendance, the film sees the return of Cliff Booth played by Brad Pitt. The film picks up in 1977 from the original film’s 1969 timeline. The logline reads: “Los Angeles no longer needs a hippie-slaying stuntman the way it did. But Hollywood will always have problems, problems that can only be solved by someone with Cliff’s unique (occasionally extralegal) abilities. When he’s not earning his keep bartending or as a projectionist, Cliff Booth is a fixer — solving situations for Hollywood’s great and, sometimes, not so good.”
He’s curious when he gets a call from talent agent Karen Crosby (Elizabeth Debicki), on behalf of her client, TV megastar Charlie Peters (Scott Caan) — a man known for doing his own stunts. And he’s further entertained and intrigued when he meets other characters in Charlie’s world, from his knowing wife Toni (Carla Gugino) to pro football champion turned screen star Roderick “Hot Rod” Harrison (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Then there are the Verdusco brothers (Matt Groove and JB Tadena), mysterious gangsters causing mayhem across the city. What was once a fairytale is now a crime story — a cocktail of violence, ambition and desire that could only happen in LA.
Tarantino, who wrote the screenplay, shared his decision to revisit Cliff Booth. He said, “I tend to not remember good reviews of mine in quotes; I remember the bad reviews in quotes, but I don’t really remember good reviews of mine in quotes. But one quote that I do remember somebody writing about ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ was, ‘This seems like the first world Quentin Tarantino has ever created that he would like to live in’ and there is that aspect; I loved the Cliff Booth character,” Tarantino said. “I loved the way that Brad played him, and there was this aspect of him as sort of like a paperback hero. I could see like a series of paperbacks with Cliff Booth getting involved with this adventure or that adventure or something like that.”
While further plot details can’t be spoiled, the opening sequence has Tarantino’s distinguished style of writing and visually, the Hollywood of 1977 is, in true Fincher style, gritty and dark.
The Netflix film also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Peter Weller and is set to premiere in Imax theaters on Nov. 25, before hitting the streamer Dec. 23.
The evening kicked off with Tarantino introducing the film and shared that had not seen the film at that theater.
In the Q&A, Tarantino shared how he had spoken with Burt Reynolds about playing the George Spahn character. Tarantino recalled, “He said yes and we became friendly, but he passed away before we could make the film. But we did get to rehearse with him and do the script reading with him, so actually, the last performance Burt Reynolds ever gave was as George Spahn in the script reading.”
The character would be played by Bruce Dern.
He also talked about his upcoming play “The Popinjay Cavalier,” which stars Sacha Baron Cohen and is set to premiere in London’s West End next year. “I’m not going to talk a whole lot about that, but our previews are in February. In November we’ll start rehearsals.” He went on to say, “I’m just a writer and that’s just kind of what I do. I’m always writing.”