Seven years after Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood premiered at Cannes, the world is set to revisit the sun-drenched, seedy underbelly of 1970s Los Angeles through the eyes of Cliff Booth. This time, however, the creative reins are shared, bringing together two of cinema's most distinctive voices: writer Quentin Tarantino and director David Fincher.

According to an Empire magazine interview with the duo, the journey to bringing Les Nouvelles Mésaventures de Cliff Booth to the screen has been anything but conventional. Tarantino, known for his sprawling narratives, initially delivered a script that Fincher described as a colossal 230 pages. "It was basically two movies," Fincher revealed, indicating the sheer volume of material Tarantino had conceived for the project.

This extensive first draft necessitated a rigorous editing process. Fincher, renowned for his meticulous approach, ultimately trimmed approximately 60 pages from the screenplay to achieve a more streamlined 2-hour and 20-minute runtime. Fans eager to delve into the excised storylines won't be entirely left out, however. Tarantino is reportedly penning a novelization of the film, set to be published in early December in the U.S., which is expected to incorporate these cut scenes.

For Tarantino, this new venture represents a return to a more stripped-down, pulp fiction aesthetic, reminiscent of his 1997 film Jackie Brown. He explained his vision, saying, "For me, [this script] had the taste of an Elmore Leonard paperback detective novel: a pocket thriller atmosphere." This approach diverges from the grander scale of his more recent westerns like Django Unchained and The Huit Salopards.

Fincher, on his part, was drawn to the project's intimate, character-focused nature. He expressed his appreciation for the narrative's core, stating, "I liked the idea of a campfire story [where] the plot mattered less than the way the characters crossed paths in the alleys of Hollywood in 1977." This shared appreciation for character-driven storytelling, despite their differing stylistic tendencies, appears to be the bedrock of their collaboration.

Les Nouvelles Mésaventures de Cliff Booth is slated for a worldwide release on Netflix on December 23, 2026, promising a unique blend of Tarantino's signature storytelling and Fincher's masterful direction.