Quentin Tarantino Felt Bad About Letting Brad Pitt Down by Not Directing His Cliff Booth Sequel

Quentin Tarantinomay have decided not to direct the sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and there was one person he hated disappointing… Brad Pitt.

Pitt was eager to return as Cliff Booth, the laid-back Hollywood stuntman who earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the 2019 film. Tarantino wrote a new story for the character, but he ultimately decided that The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Boothwouldn't be his 10th and final movie as a director.

That decision left Tarantino feeling guilty about potentially denying Pitt another chance to play a character he loved. “[Pitt] was the one I felt I was really letting down when I didn’t do it,” Tarantino told Empire. “I felt bad about that.”

Fortunately, the project found an awesome replacement in David Fincher, who previously worked with Pitt on Seven, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

With Pitt reportedly "disappointed that he wasn’t going to play Cliff Booth again," Fincher stepping in gave the actor another shot at the role. It also gave Tarantino something he hadn't expected: the chance to see another major filmmaker bring one of his scripts to life.

When Tarantino first heard that Fincher might be interested in directing the Netflix sequel, he could hardly believe it.

“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” Tarantino said. “I was like, ‘Really? You think he’d be interested? F*cking yeah: show it to him!’”

Tarantino was so excited about the possibility that he worried his enthusiasm might actually scare Fincher away. He recalled being unusually careful during their early conversations, hoping he wouldn't say something that could ruin the deal.

“The first couple of times we spoke, I was the male trying to talk this gorgeous woman into f*cking me. I was trying to maneuver it so I wouldn’t say anything that f*ck shit up,” he said.

“One of the things that made this all work was my excitement over David doing my material. I’ve gotten a lot of respect as a screenwriter, but I still feel that people think that I’m a director who just writes shit for himself.

“The fact that a director of David’s caliber would spend a year-and-a-half of his life doing my material was wonderful. It said a lot about what was on the page.”

It's interesting to hear Tarantino talk about the experience because he's spent his career directing his own screenplays. Having someone like Fincher take the reins clearly meant a lot to him, especially since he considers it a major compliment to his writing.

As for the movie itself, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth jumps ahead eight years from the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The original film took place in 1969, while the sequel picks up in 1977, with Cliff now working as a Hollywood studio fixer.

That's a fun and interesting direction for the character, especially considering his mysterious past and his ability to handle difficult situations. Cliff was already one of the most entertaining parts of the original movie, so watching him navigate the Hollywood business of the late '70s should make for an great story.

Fincher also discovered that directing Pitt as Cliff came with an unusual advantage. The actor already knew the character so well that he sometimes had a better understanding of how Cliff would react than the director did.

“He’s so into it,” Fincher said of Pitt. “The weirdest, most interesting part of this, for me, is that I’ve never been in a situation where the person playing the character knows more about that character than you’ll ever know.

“Sometimes you have to push back on that. I knew the new stuff, and Brad knew who the guy was, so Brad could withstand the hurricane of, ‘What about this? What about that?’ He was like, ‘No, no, no. I got this.’”

That kind of familiarity should serve the sequel well. Pitt helped make Cliff Booth such a memorable character in the first place, and it's cool that Fincher recognized how much the actor could contribute to his next chapter.

While it would've been great to see Tarantino direct another Cliff Booth movie, handing his screenplay to Fincher is an awesome alternative. Both filmmakers have distinct styles, and seeing Fincher's approach to Tarantino's writing could make this sequel something special.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is headed to IMAX theaters on November 25 before its Netflix release.