Tarantino Writes Cliff Booth Novel as Fincher Directs Pitt Sequel
Brad Pitt's stuntman Cliff Booth will return twice before Christmas, in a new novel and a new film.
Quentin Tarantino is writing The Adventures of Cliff Booth, a novel centred on the character Pitt played in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, according to details reported by Variety. Tarantino also wrote the screenplay for the screen sequel, but he is not directing it. David Fincher is directing that film for Netflix.
The titles are close, but not the same. The book is The Adventures of Cliff Booth. The film is The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.
Pitt will play Booth again. The part won him the Academy Award for best supporting actor. Both the book and the film are set in Hollywood in 1977, eight years after the story of the original film.
The novel will be published on 8 December by HarperCollins, Variety reported on 15 September. Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, will release it in hardcover, audiobook and ebook, according to a publisher announcement carried by Business Wire. It is Tarantino's second novel. He previously published a novelisation of his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The film will reach audiences first. It opens in Imax theatres, the extra-large screens with high-resolution projection and powerful sound, on 25 November. It will then debut on Netflix on 23 December. That two-week cinema run before streaming was confirmed in August by The Hollywood Reporter. The film took over an Imax slot previously linked to Narnia, Variety reported in May. A first teaser of Pitt back as Booth was released around the Super Bowl in February.
The business behind it is unusual. Sony released Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which earned $377 million at the worldwide box office against a $90 million production budget, as reported on 15 September. The film earned 10 Oscar nominations and two wins, one for Pitt. Sony is not involved in the sequel. Netflix is producing the new film after paying $200 million for the project.
Tarantino stepped away from directing because of his long-stated plan to retire after 10 films. He has made nine. Fincher, whose credits include Se7en and The Social Network, took the directing job instead.
What makes this stand out is the timing. Readers will be able to watch one version of Booth's 1977 and then read another within days, with the same writer behind both stories but different directors in effect, Tarantino on the page and Fincher on the screen.
