Brad Pitt Returns for Tarantino-Written, Fincher-Directed ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Sequel

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the Academy Award-winning film released in 2019, will receive a sequel, this time filtered through the lens of director David Fincher rather than its original writer-director Quentin Tarantino. Fincher will helm the currently untitled follow-up under his recently extended first look deal at Netflix, per Variety, with a script from Tarantino for which Brad Pitt will reprise his role as Cliff Booth.

The sequel will reportedly be built around the script Tarantino wrote for The Movie Critic, which was meant to be the director’s final film in his 10-movie career plan before he scrapped it last year. In allowing Fincher to take the reins, Tarantino buys himself some more time to figure out what he wants his grand finale film to be.

Pitt gets a good deal either way. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2020 after previously working with Tarantino on Inglourious Basterds in 2009. His history with Fincher stretches back three decades to Se7en, the 1995 film that proved pivotal for his career. Pitt and Fincher also teamed up for Fight Club in 1999 and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008, which resulted in his first Best Actor nomination.

Tarantino told Deadline in 2023 that The Movie Critic would be set in 1977 California and center around “a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag.” He was unclear at the time who he would cast in the role, adding: “I haven’t decided yet but it’s going to be somebody in the 35 year-old ball park. It’ll definitely be a new leading man for me.” Tarantino confirmed in 2024 that Pitt would be in the film, but didn’t specify a role for him. His Once Upon a Time in Hollywood character was notably a stuntman.
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The upcoming sequel, in whatever shape it ends up taking, will be Fincher’s first since The Killer in 2023. Meanwhile, Pitt is gearing up for the June 2025 release of Joseph Kosinski’s F1, in which he plays a once-retired Formula One driver. Tarantino, on the other hand, isn’t rushing to do much of anything until his son is old enough to form a core memory around it.

“I kind of want to not do whatever movie I end up doing until my son is at least six. That way he’ll know what’s going on, he’ll be there, and it will be a memory for the rest of his life,” he said earlier this year. The director has been working on a play that will “be probably the next thing I end up doing,” depending on how it performs. “If it’s a fiasco I probably won’t turn it into a movie,” he added. “But if it’s a smash hit? It might be my last movie.”