Quentin Tarantino showed the first 17 minutes of ‘The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth’ to a festival crowd. The David Fincher film opens in November.
Quentin Tarantino surprised an audience at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Friday night by showing the opening 17 minutes of ‘The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,’ Variety reported. The unannounced preview took place at AFI Fest in Los Angeles following a screening of Tarantino’s 10-time Oscar-nominated 2019 movie ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood’ and a Q&A session moderated by Rotten Tomatoes’ Jacqueline Coley. Director David Fincher also attended the event.
A surprise preview in Hollywood
Tarantino scripted the new feature, while Fincher directed the production, which brings back Brad Pitt in his Oscar-winning role as stunt performer Cliff Booth. Booth originally appeared in the 2019 film as the trusted stunt double and sidekick to Leonardo DiCaprio’s television star Rick Dalton. As the Friday evening discussion ended, Tarantino hinted at the reveal to the audience, saying, “Well, I could talk a little bit about The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, or I could show you the first 17 minutes.”
Revisiting the character and shaping the script
The screening marks the first public look at the new movie, which was announced in 2024 with Pitt and Fincher collaborating on material Tarantino originally planned to direct himself, according to Deadline. During the Q&A, Tarantino explained that he wanted to return to Booth because he viewed him like a protagonist from a paperback series who could wander into various situations. He recalled a review of the 2019 movie that called it the first fictional setting Tarantino had made that he would actually want to live in. Tarantino noted that he had invested deeply in the world’s backstory before making the original feature and continued building out that mythology while writing his later novelization, The Hollywood Reporter reported. He added that the 2019 film remains the one project of his that he rewatches most often because of its relaxed structure.
Fincher revealed earlier in the week that shaping Tarantino’s writing for the screen required major adjustments. Tarantino’s opening draft stretched to 230 pages, prompting Fincher to trim roughly 60 pages from the text. “It was essentially two movies,” Fincher told Empire. With those cuts in place, the completed film carries a runtime of about two and a half hours.
A darker look at 1977 Los Angeles
The follow-up jumps eight years forward from the 1969 setting of the original release to 1977. Rather than working purely as a stuntman, Booth earns money as a projectionist and bartender while acting as an informal fixer handling delicate problems across Hollywood. The preview footage at the theater depicted Booth working in a movie projection booth alongside his unsavory side assignments.
The plot shifts the narrative from a nostalgic look at the entertainment industry into a grittier crime tale with Fincher’s signature dark visual style. Booth is drawn into an assignment after receiving a phone call from talent representative Karen Crosby, played by Elizabeth Debicki. She contacts him regarding her client Charlie Peters, a television star who performs his own stunts, played by Scott Caan. Booth soon encounters figures around Peters, including his wife Toni, played by Carla Gugino, and former football star turned screen performer Roderick ‘Hot Rod’ Harrison, portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The plot also introduces the Verdusco brothers, a pair of violent gangsters played by Matt Groove and JB Tadena who cause disruption across the city. Peter Weller, Corey Fogelmanis and Karren Karagulian round out the cast.
Release plans and upcoming stage work
The film is scheduled to arrive in Imax theaters on Nov. 25 before making its streaming debut on Netflix on Dec. 23.
Beyond the film release, Tarantino discussed his shifting creative focus toward stage and prose writing rather than directing. He explained at the event that his current mindset prioritizes writing plays, novels and screenplays over directing feature films. His stage play ‘The Popinjay Cavalier,’ which features Sacha Baron Cohen, is scheduled to start rehearsals in November. Previews for the stage production are scheduled to begin on Feb. 23 at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End, ahead of an opening night set for March 18.
