David Fincher's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel gets theatrical release from Netflix
David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino’s team-up is getting the big screen it deserves
Netflix is finally giving one of its biggest upcoming films the proper blockbuster treatment, with The Adventures of Cliff Booth now confirmed for a two-week global IMAX run before it lands on streaming later this year.
The film, directed by David Fincher and written by Quentin Tarantino, will hit IMAX cinemas on the 25th of November before arriving on Netflix on the 23rd of December. Which means yes, we are somehow getting a Fincher-directed, Tarantino-penned continuation of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in cinemas from Netflix. What a strange and beautiful mixture of events.
Brad Pitt returns as Cliff Booth, the impossibly cool stuntman character that won him an Oscar back in 2020, only this time the story jumps forward to 1977. Gone is the dreamy alternate-history glow of 1969 Hollywood in exchange for the grittiness of the 70s.
The movie has reportedly been circling around Hollywood since 2024, after Tarantino stepped away from directing duties himself before ultimately handing the keys over to Fincher. Given Fincher already has an exclusive deal with Netflix, the streamer quickly became the obvious home for it.
David Fincher directs a Quentin Tarantino script, which sounds less like a real movie and more like something film nerds on internet forums would've invented in 2003 after watching Fight Club and Pulp Fiction back-to-back.
The film also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Peter Weller, though plot details are still being kept tightly under wraps.
What we do know is that Booth is now operating as some kind of Hollywood fixer in late-70s LA, which feels promising for anyone hoping to watch Brad Pitt wander around smoky backlots beating people up while delivering effortlessly cool dialogue.
The IMAX release also quietly says quite a lot about Netflix’s changing attitude towards cinemas. The streamer has flirted with theatrical releases before, mostly for awards campaigns or limited event screenings, but this feels noticeably bigger.
The film actually takes over the release slot originally reserved for Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, directed by Greta Gerwig, after that project shifted to 2027.
Between this, the recent cinema push for KPop Demon Hunters and the upcoming Narnia rollout, Netflix suddenly seems a lot more interested in the big screen than it did a few years back.
Not that anyone’s complaining. If there’s ever been a film designed for IMAX, it’s probably the one where Brad Pitt plays a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing stuntman in a David Fincher movie written by Quentin Tarantino.
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