Brad Pitt is to star in a follow-up to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But, having written the script, Tarantino will hand directing duties to David Fincher, according to a report in the Playlist and subsequently confirmed by Deadline.
In Tarantino’s 2019 alternative-history drama about the Manson “family” and Sharon Tate, Pitt starred as stunt performer Cliff Booth opposite Leonardo DiCaprio (as washed-up actor Rick Dalton) and Margot Robbie (as Tate). While no plot details of the new project have been officially announced, the Hollywood Reporter is saying it will be “derivative” of the original, rather than a sequel. Tarantino published a “novelisation” of the film in 2021, which included further details of Booth’s backstory and life episodes.
Tarantino is also believed to have decided against directing the film, and allowed Pitt to take the script to Fincher, with whom he has had a long working relationship, including starring in Fincher’s early films Seven, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. While Tarantino is now renowned as a director, he sold scripts earlier in his career, notably True Romance (directed by Tony Scott) and Natural Born Killers (directed by Oliver Stone).
In another departure from the original Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the project will not be produced by Sony Pictures but has been acquired by Netflix, with whom Fincher has made two feature films (Mank and The Killer) and several TV series (including House of Cards, Mindhunter and Voir).
It is not clear whether the project is related to Tarantino’s scrapped “final” movie The Movie Critic, in which Booth’s character was rumoured to have appeared. It is also unclear if the new script makes room for appearances by DiCaprio and Robbie.
