On April Fool’s Day, the news broke on The Playlist that David Fincher would direct a Cliff Booth sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollwood, with Leonardo DiCaprio returning in a supporting role. Turns out it’s true! The director and his muse will reunite for the fourth time on a feature film.
1997 – Se7en
1999 – Fight Club
2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
It is one of the best collaborations between director and actor in film history, in my view. Pitt is a bit of a muse for Fincher, I’d say, but especially in how Fincher captures Pitt on screen in unforgettable ways. Like this:
And this:
And this:
Nearly all of Pitt’s work as an actor is forever cemented in our minds through Fincher’s lens with the sole exception of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
I personally think personally that Se7en is one of the greatest films ever made. It’s a perfect movie, though I did not get to see it on Imax when it was re-released this past year. Everything about it is perfect, from Kevin Spacey’s work, to the imagery throughout, to the themes. Any chance for these two to work together again is a blessing, at least to us fans.
From The Playlist:
From what I understand, this is the screenplay that Tarantino’s “The Movie Critic” evolved into when the writer/director couldn’t put the pen down and kept exploring the adventures of Cliff Booth.
Tarantino must have loved the script and didn’t want it to languish in a drawer because sources close to the filmmakers tell us he approached Fincher, and Netflix has quietly put together the deal, which will probably end up being around a $200 million budget to shoot in California this July—yep, it’s being fast-tracked and happening fast, meaning we’ll get additional casting soon.
From Variety:
It’s an especially unique production — not only because a high-profile director is helming a sequel to another high-profile director’s film, but also because of the property’s shift from a theatrical studio to a streamer. (The shift is especially pertinent as news of the project emerged during the movie theater industry’s annual weeklong gathering at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.) “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was released by Sony Pictures in 2019, but Tarantino negotiated a deal that would return him ownership of the film’s underlying copyright after a number of years. Since this follow-up is being set up under Fincher’s first-look deal at Netflix, that likely indicates that sequel rights may already be privately retained by Tarantino.
The project comes together after Tarantino scrapped plans for what would’ve been his 10th (and allegedly final) feature, “The Movie Critic.” A script had been written and Brad Pitt had been cast in the lead role. The story was said to take place in the ’70s and follow a film critic who wrote for a porn magazine. It had been rumored that Pitt would be playing some version of his “Once Upon a Time” character Cliff Booth, who in Tarantino’s novelization of his own feature was revealed to be quite the movie buff.
Then speculation by the writer of the piece:
Now, Pitt will officially reprise the role, which won him an Oscar for supporting actor. The project reunites Pitt with Fincher, who have each made some of their most acclaimed films together: the seminal thriller “Se7en,” cult satire “Fight Club” and Oscar darling “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” It seems less likely that Leonardo DiCaprio or Margot Robbie would reprise their roles for the sequel.
It sounds very different from the original Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. If it is about film critics, I hope the knives are very sharp. Apparently, he writes film reviews for a porno mag — you know, long before there was internet porn?
I always thought Quentin Tarantino should have won Best Picture in 2019 (either that or 1917). Parasite is a masterpiece, no doubt. But for the film industry’s sake, they should have given it to Quentin Tarantino for delivering a brilliant culture quake of a career, capping it off with the best film he ever made, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The collaboration of Fincher and Pitt comes at just the right time for much-needed excitement generated about movies. It’s a Netflix movie, which means it won’t get a wide release (I don’t think?) and that’s a bummer, but it will get a release on the big screen, at least in a limited way. Either way, makes no difference. If it’s David Fincher, people will come.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the best film of Tarantino’s career, I think. Whatever Fincher does with the sequel, it will be a very different movie. It will spring from a different ethos and universe, I think. But any Fincher movie is an event we greatly look forward to.
Cliff Booth blends Pitt’s good looks with his sense of humor about himself, which is what made his work in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood so great.
Brad Pitt is only half of the genius of the movie. The other half is Leonardo DiCaprio in what has to be the best performance of his career. He is rumored to have a smaller part in the film.
I don’t know where the sequel will start, whether it will remain in the 1970s or push through to the 1980s, but it sounds like a fun ride either way, just the kind of movie we need to revive the corpse of a once-great industry.
