In one of the biggest stories of the year, The Playlist has learned that David Fincher and Brad Pitt are set to reunite for a Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood sequel for Netflix, centered around Pitt's character Cliff Booth.
Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay, which evolved from his now-scrapped project The Movie Critic - a 1970s-set film that would've focused on a movie reviewer for a pornographic magazine, with Cliff Booth also featuring.
However, while writing, Tarantino became more and more fascinated with exploring Booth further, expanding his role in the story throughout the process and ultimately developing a different project entirely. He then showed the script to Pitt who was taken by the direction, and when Tarantino said he wasn't interested in helming this one, Pitt asked if he could find his own director.
Enter David Fincher, his director on Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. After a meeting, Tarantino gave them his blessing and the duo then sold it to Netflix, as part of Fincher's exclusive movie deal.
Tarantino previously explored Cliff Booth's backstory in his book, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: A Novel, and it's been heavily suggested that he may have been the actual main character in The Movie Critic, due to the character's passion for watching movies.
As per their story, Netflix bought Tarantino's screenplay for north of $20 million, so it should be no surprise that they're fast-tracking this project and are eyeing a July shoot in California, with an estimated $200 million production budget. Both Fincher and Pitt had openings in their schedules as well, so everything is coming together quite nicely.
As for Pitt's extremely famous co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who played Rick Dalton in the original film. Jeff Sneider (in his The InSneider newsletter) reports that DiCaprio is in very early negotiations to reprise his role, but has been hesistant to sign on due to his character essentially having an extended cameo in a Cliff Booth-centric movie.
The Academy Award-winning actor is also currently in talks for Damien Chazelle's Evel Knieval movie for Paramount that would also shoot this summer, and is also possibly considering a Martin Scorsese film, so he has some major decisions to make over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate is not believed to be part of the script, but her team has expressed interest in her joining the project, in whatever capacity they may need her.
Next up for Pitt is the racing action thriller F1, which hits theaters this summer, and he's also actively developing David Ayer's Heart of the Beast and Jeff Nichols' Land of Opportunity.
Fincher, most recently, directed The Killer for Netflix, and has also done Mank, Mindhunter, and House of Cards for the streamer. He's currently developing an American Squid Game series, but with that show still being scripted, he decided to move forward with this new project alongside Pitt.