A sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is brewing with David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) directing a script written by Tarantino.
Frequent Fincher/Tarantino collaborator Brad Pitt (Fight Club, Inglorious Basterds) will reprise his role as Cliff Booth, the tough-guy Hollywood stuntman portrayed in the first movie. It’s not official that Leonardo DiCaprio will return as Rick Dalton, but according to The Hot Mic, Netflix is offering him $3M for one day of shooting, but apparently, DiCaprio says the amount is too low.
Speaking on The Big Picture podcast (via World of Reel), Sean Fennessey, who is a friend of Tarantino’s, had the following to say: “David Fincher’s laundry list of movies that have never made it to the big screen or to Netflix streaming service is pretty long… I don’t know if this is like a locked picture that is going into production in July. It seems like it is.”
He continued, “This probably should not be thought of as a sequel. It should be thought of as a follow-up that is connected to, but not the same as — the example that was cited to me was, think about how The Big Sleep, the Raymond Chandler adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart, is in the same world as Farewell, My Lovely, the 1975 Robert Mitchum movie, because they play the same character in that movie. But it’s different actors, different directors, and a different time in the storyline. They’re different… This will be like the further adventures of Cliff Booth, is my understanding of it. The only other important information that I’ve learned, that I think is confirmed, is that the movie takes place in 1977, which is roughly eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So a different time in Cliff Booth’s life.”
The original film caused controversy with a scene that involved Cliff Booth’s (Pitt) interaction with Bruce Lee (played by Mike Moh). Shannon Lee, Bruce’s daughter, who runs the official Bruce Lee businesses and foundation, reportedly lodged a complaint with the Chinese film authorities demanding two scenes in which her late father is portrayed in a confrontation with Pitt’s stuntman character be excised, because they made the iconic Kung Fu star look arrogant. Her demands were supposedly the reason the movie was pulled from Chinese theaters one week before its release date (via LA Times).
With that said, we can only hope Mike Moh reprises his role as Bruce so the two can go for another round. After all, it’s just a movie, right?
The sequel is being set up at Netflix, where Fincher has a first-look deal and aims to shoot quickly this summer (via The Playlist).
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more. Until then, here’s the Trailer to the original film:
It’s funny and sad how people are bitching about this. Very few people have anything constructive to share. The Killer ‘23 was an interesting and well thought out film, and although it wasn’t full on action, Fincher filmed those scenes well, and I’d like to see him do more action fare.
Totally agree with you there. People can’t take anything these days.
2025 David Fincher isn’t 1995 David Fincher. Man hasn’t made a top tier movie since Zodiac and that’s almost 2 decades ago now. He really belongs where he is now on Netflix. And now he’s doing a spinoff sequel of Tarantino’s most boring movie.
That’s ridiculous. Mank and The Killer ‘23 were good enough to be in theatres, but making movies for Netflix is not a downgrade. I like that he has a contract with them.
You could argue a 2 week token theatrical window doesn’t really count as a theatrical release. Also Netflix admitted that their content is designed to be watched while you are scrolling on your phone at the same time
I don’t get it. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s worst, especially because of his hubris and condescending perspective on for example Bruce Lee. How is this getting a sequel?