Don’t call Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth movie a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel

Right, if you thought Brad Pitt was done playing faded Hollywood bruisers after Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, think again. Pitt is stepping back into his Oscar-winning role as Cliff Booth, but before you start calling it a sequel, let’s set a few things straight – the film’s actually called The Adventures of Cliff Booth, and according to Pitt, it’s not what you’d call a direct follow-up. More like: new decades, new headaches.

The Adventures of Cliff Booth premieres in IMAX on 25 November 2026, with a Netflix release slotted for 23 December the same year.

Back in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 nostalgia trip, Pitt’s Booth was the can-do stunt man riding shotgun (sometimes literally) to Leo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton amidst all the Spahn Ranch weirdness. Pitt walked off with a Best Supporting Actor statuette and, apparently, a character worth revisiting.

A New Era – Booth in the 70s

This time, the spotlight’s solely on Cliff, who’s now rebranded as a 1970s Hollywood studio fixer. Gone are the days of falling off horses for Rick. The new film swaps out the Manson-era tension for something a bit slicker and—if you can believe Pitt—less straightforwardly connected to the previous film. He’s described this project as ‘the continuing adventures of…’ rather than anything resembling a ‘Part Two’.

There’s another twist here too: David Fincher is behind the camera. If that pairing screams late-90s to you, you’re not wrong—Pitt handed Fincher the script, Tarantino-penned but not directed (since Quentin’s supposedly sticking to his ‘just ten films’ retirement plan). Legend has it, Fincher was in as director before their flight even landed. Here’s how Pitt himself put it, when reminiscing with Esquire about how it all came together:

‘Finch and I were on a plane and I gave him the script, and by the time we landed, he said, “I’m doing it.”’

The Fincher Connection (Again)

For those counting, this will be the fourth time Brad Pitt has worked with Fincher, their previous outings including Se7en (best serial killer raincoat film ever?), cult-favourite Fight Club, and the somewhat less punchy Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It’s been eighteen years since those two last teamed up, so if anything, Booth’s comeback is almost as much about that reunion as the character himself.

As for Tarantino: while he’s off polishing his self-imposed filmography cap, he did write and license the story, but all the directing duties go to Fincher. Naming conventions aside, don’t expect Rick Dalton or any hippie-cult detours – this is Cliff Booth, fixer, in his own right.

The studio isn’t shy on rollout plans: first on IMAX screens from 25 November 2026, then streaming worldwide via Netflix a month later, just in time for Christmas binging. If you’d been quietly hoping for DiCaprio’s return or some ‘Sharon Tate lives’ revisionist antics, not this time – it’s all Booth, and the ‘70s, all the way down.