"Rick got too fat for me to double for him anymore." Cliff Booth's line in the trailer lays out the timeline for this sequel in the most direct way possible—it's now 1977, eight years after the events of 2019's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Netflix has released the first full trailer for "The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth," bringing Brad Pitt back to the role that won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. But this time, the director's chair isn't occupied by Quentin Tarantino—it's David Fincher, though Tarantino still wrote the script.
The official synopsis doesn't mince words: "Murder, blackmail, larceny, extortion—just another summer in Hollywood." No longer Rick Dalton's (Leonardo DiCaprio) stunt double and sidekick, Cliff now scrapes by as a bartender and projectionist while moonlighting as the guy insiders quietly call on when they need someone "occasionally law-adjacent" to solve a problem. In the trailer, agent Karen Crosby (Elizabeth Debicki) tracks Cliff down on behalf of her client Charlie Peters (Scott Caan), a TV actor famous for doing his own stunts.
New additions to the cast include Carla Gugino as Charlie's wife Toni, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Roderick "Hot Rod" Harrison, a former pro football player turned actor. Matt Groove and JB Tadena play the Verdusco brothers, described by Netflix as mysterious gang members "causing trouble all over town."
This trailer follows up on the shorter, '70s Grindhouse-style teaser that dropped during this year's Super Bowl in February. The title itself went through a change along the way—the project was initially known to outsiders as "The Adventures Of Cliff Booth" before the official title was locked in as "The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth."
For Pitt and Fincher, this marks their first collaboration since 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," following previous outings together on "Se7en" and "Fight Club." Pitt explained last year why Tarantino himself wasn't directing: "This is something Quentin Tarantino wrote. It's more like a chapter of the character from 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' than a true sequel. He didn't want to direct it himself at this stage, so our friend David Fincher stepped in." Tarantino himself offered his own reasoning for the handoff: "I think David Fincher and I are the two best directors. The fact that David Fincher genuinely wanted to adapt my work shows how seriously he takes it, and I think that's worth taking into account."
Pitt won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Cliff Booth in the original film, which starred DiCaprio and Margot Robbie and reimagined the events surrounding the 1969 Manson family murders. Tarantino is also continuing Cliff Booth's story in print—he announced earlier this month that he's releasing a novel titled "The Adventures Of Cliff Booth," a follow-up to his earlier novelization of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."
"The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth" kicks off a two-week exclusive global IMAX run starting November 25, before landing on Netflix on December 23.
