Netflix hasn’t officially released the promo online yet, but during Super Bowl LX, a mysterious teaser for the long-anticipated “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” sequel made its explosive debut anyway. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flex for the streamer, the untitled film from director David Fincher and writer Quentin Tarantino brings back Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth: the sunburnt stuntman who helped the A-list actor walk away with his second Oscar, and the heart of Tarantino’s Best Picture nominee, in 2019.
The project is rumored to be called “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” and it’s the first time since the mid-’90s that someone other than Tarantino has directed one of his screenplays. The surprise teaser leans into the film’s overall sense of unexpected provocation, but the release time frame and plot details are still maddeningly opaque.
In the teaser, Cliff lounges at a bar, drifts through a few film sets, and tears around a dirt track in a derby car. The scenes are set to retro needle drops and punctuated by cheeky censorship gags (a scribbled-onto-celluloid effect) that blurs out implied nudity, profanity, and violence with faux film damage. Elizabeth Debicki and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II flash by, and we see an Oscar statuette being placed on Cliff’s desk — you know, in case anyone forgot just how beloved this particular character became.
Tarantino’s story jumps forward into the 1970s, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton notably absent but a new ensemble (including Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Holt McCallany, JB Tadena, and more) joining the returning Timothy Olyphant, who’s back as real-life “Lancer” actor James Stacy.
A buzz-building roll-out makes strategic sense for the filmmakers and Netflix. Tarantino continues to expand Cliff Booth’s mythology without counting another film toward his self-imposed ten-movie limit, and Fincher is deepening his already long-standing relationship with the streaming platform at a critical time for them. Shot in Los Angeles, the sequel went into production last summer.
From Netflix, “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” is coming soon. Tarantino joins Pitt, David Heyman, Ceán Chaffin, and Stacey Sher as a producer, with frequent Fincher collaborator Erik Messerschmidt on board as director of photography. Netflix did not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment.
