Brad Pitt is heading back to 1970s Los Angeles, but Cliff Booth’s life looks very different this time around.
Netflix has released a fresh collection of images and new story details for The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, the upcoming film that reunites Pitt with the character he played in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The combination behind the movie is particularly unusual: David Fincher directs from a screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino, while Pitt returns to the performance that earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The new movie takes place in 1977, eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Cliff is no longer spending most of his time working as Rick Dalton’s stunt double.
Instead, he has become a Hollywood fixer — the person called when powerful people need complicated problems handled quietly.
And according to Netflix, those problems include murder, blackmail, theft and extortion.
With new official images offering a closer look at Brad Pitt alongside Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Netflix is finally revealing more about one of its biggest upcoming Hollywood movies.
Cliff Booth Is Back — Eight Years Later
Audiences first met Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Set in 1969, the movie followed fading television actor Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cliff, his longtime stunt double, driver and friend.
Pitt’s relaxed but dangerous performance quickly became one of the movie’s defining elements.
He ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role.
Now the character is returning without Tarantino behind the camera.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth jumps forward to 1977, placing Cliff in a Hollywood that has changed considerably since audiences last saw him.
Netflix describes the new setting as a world where Los Angeles no longer needs the same kind of stuntman Cliff once was.
Cliff, however, has found another way to make himself useful.
Cliff Booth Is Now a Hollywood Fixer
The biggest new detail concerns Cliff’s occupation.
When he isn’t making money working as a bartender or projectionist, Cliff operates as a fixer.
That means dealing with uncomfortable situations involving people connected to Hollywood — often through methods that might not exactly follow the law.
The setup moves the character naturally into crime-thriller territory.
Instead of simply doubling for an actor on movie sets, Cliff can now become involved with producers, performers, criminals and other figures moving through 1970s Los Angeles.
Netflix describes the film as involving murder, blackmail, theft and extortion.
That is a major tonal clue.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood mixed Hollywood nostalgia with comedy, drama and an explosive alternate-history ending. This time, Fincher appears to be using Cliff as the center of an LA crime story.
Elizabeth Debicki Plays the Agent Who Pulls Cliff Into the Story
One of the important new characters is Karen Crosby, played by Elizabeth Debicki.
Karen is a talent agent who contacts Cliff on behalf of one of her clients.
That client is Charlie Peters, a major television star played by Scott Caan.
Charlie is notable for insisting on performing his own stunts — an interesting detail considering Cliff’s history as a professional stuntman.
Exactly what problem Karen needs Cliff to solve has not been fully revealed.
However, the phone call appears to be an important entry point into the larger story.
Through Charlie, Cliff encounters several other people whose lives begin to overlap in increasingly complicated ways.
Scott Caan Joins the Story as TV Star Charlie Peters
Scott Caan plays Charlie Peters, a successful television actor with a reputation for performing his own stunts.
The character fits naturally into the film’s 1977 Hollywood setting.
By this point in Cliff’s life, the entertainment industry he once knew has changed, and characters such as Charlie represent another generation of screen personalities operating within that world.
The newly released images give audiences their first substantial look at Caan alongside the film’s other major characters.
Charlie’s relationship with Cliff could become particularly interesting because both men have connections to stunt work, even if they approach it from completely different positions in Hollywood.
Carla Gugino and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Join the Ensemble
Charlie’s world also introduces Cliff to Toni Peters, played by Carla Gugino.
Netflix describes Toni as Charlie’s perceptive wife, although the studio is keeping further details about her role under wraps.
Another major addition is Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Roderick “Hot Rod” Harrison.
Hot Rod is a professional football champion who has made the transition into acting.
That places him directly within the movie’s larger theme of people attempting to navigate Hollywood at a particular moment in Los Angeles history.
The cast also includes Peter Weller, Corey Fogelmanis, Matt Groove, JB Tadena and Karren Karagulian.
Rather than building the movie solely around Pitt, the new material suggests Fincher and Tarantino have created a much larger collection of personalities around Cliff.
The Verdusco Brothers Bring a Criminal Threat
Not everyone Cliff encounters comes from the entertainment business.
Matt Groove and JB Tadena play Eddie and Fernando Verdusco, mysterious brothers described as gangsters creating trouble throughout Los Angeles.
Netflix has deliberately avoided revealing exactly how the brothers connect to Cliff and the other characters.
Their presence, however, reinforces the film’s shift toward crime.
Cliff has always been a character capable of extreme violence when necessary.
Putting him into direct conflict with figures from LA’s criminal underworld creates a natural opportunity to explore that side of him further.
David Fincher Directs Quentin Tarantino’s Screenplay
The most fascinating element of the entire project may be what is happening behind the camera.
Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay, but David Fincher is directing it.
That means audiences will get a Tarantino-written Cliff Booth story interpreted through Fincher’s filmmaking style.
According to Netflix, the idea began after Pitt contacted Tarantino and suggested Fincher as the director.
Tarantino responded enthusiastically to the possibility.
Fincher was already a fan of Cliff Booth and saw the screenplay as an opportunity to make an LA crime story centered on a character he liked.
The collaboration is particularly interesting because Fincher and Tarantino have highly recognizable but very different filmmaking styles.
Tarantino is closely associated with dialogue-heavy storytelling, nonlinear narratives, genre influences and explosive violence.
Fincher, meanwhile, has built films around psychological tension, crime, obsession and carefully controlled visual storytelling.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth brings those approaches together.
Fincher Says This Is Really an LA Story
Fincher has also offered an important clue about how he approached the movie.
Rather than viewing it simply as another story about stunt performers or the movie business, he sees the film more broadly as a story about Los Angeles.
Netflix’s newly released feature quotes the director explaining that the movie is not really a stunt story, movie story or even purely a Hollywood story.
For Fincher, it is an LA story.
That distinction matters.
The new images show characters moving through offices, homes, bars and other environments that help establish a specific sense of 1970s Los Angeles.
Fincher has cited the 1975 film Shampoo while discussing the atmosphere he discovered during production.
That film similarly uses its characters to explore a particular time and social environment in Los Angeles.
Fincher Cut About 60 Pages From Tarantino’s Original Script
Another fascinating detail about the collaboration emerged this week.
Fincher revealed that Tarantino’s original screenplay was considerably longer.
According to current trade reporting, Fincher removed roughly 60 pages because the original version effectively contained enough material for two movies.
That does not necessarily mean the deleted material will ever be filmed.
Instead, it demonstrates how Fincher adapted Tarantino’s screenplay into the movie he wanted to make while preserving the central character and story.
It is also a reminder that this is not simply Tarantino directing another chapter in his own universe.
Fincher is interpreting the material through his own filmmaking approach.
What About Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton?
One major character from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will not be returning alongside Cliff.
Leonardo DiCaprio is not expected to reprise his role as Rick Dalton.
That makes sense given the new premise.
Cliff is no longer primarily defined by his work as Rick’s stunt double. Eight years have passed, and the new movie is designed around Cliff’s independent life.
The absence of Rick also gives the filmmakers room to determine who Cliff Booth is when he is no longer standing beside the actor who previously employed him.
The new supporting characters effectively become Cliff’s connection to the Hollywood world.
Why Brad Pitt’s Return Matters
Cliff Booth is one of Pitt’s most acclaimed performances.
The role earned him his first acting Oscar after decades as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
Returning to an Oscar-winning character always carries some risk.
A sequel can expand what made a character interesting, but it can also diminish the impact of an original performance if the new story has nothing meaningful to add.
This project has several advantages.
Tarantino created Cliff and wrote the new screenplay. Pitt clearly wanted to revisit the character. And Fincher provides a completely different directorial perspective.
Pitt and Fincher also have significant history together.
They previously collaborated on Se7en, Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
That makes The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth their latest major collaboration after years apart.
When Will The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth Be Released?
Netflix is giving the movie a theatrical window before its streaming debut.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth will begin an exclusive global IMAX run on November 25, 2026.
It will then arrive on Netflix on December 23, 2026.
That means audiences interested in seeing Fincher’s recreation of 1977 Los Angeles on the biggest possible screen will have the opportunity to watch it in IMAX before its streaming release.
The strategy also positions the movie as one of Netflix’s major releases for the end of the year.
New Images Give the Best Look Yet
Netflix’s newly released photographs provide a much clearer look at the world Fincher has created.
Brad Pitt appears again as an older Cliff Booth, while other images introduce the characters played by Debicki, Caan, Gugino and Abdul-Mateen II.
Rather than relying entirely on familiar imagery from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the photographs establish a distinct 1977 environment.
The combination of offices, bars, Hollywood personalities and criminal figures supports Fincher’s description of the movie as a story about Los Angeles itself.
For audiences following the project, these images provide one of the strongest indications yet of how different Cliff’s second adventure may feel.
Final Thoughts
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is becoming much more than a conventional Hollywood sequel.
Brad Pitt is returning to an Academy Award-winning character, Quentin Tarantino has written a new chapter for him, and David Fincher is bringing that screenplay to the screen through his own distinctive filmmaking style.
Moving the story eight years forward to 1977 also gives Cliff Booth a reason to evolve.
He is no longer simply Rick Dalton’s stunt double.
He is a bartender, a projectionist and, most importantly, a Hollywood fixer dealing with the kind of problems most people would rather keep hidden.
With Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Peter Weller joining Pitt, the film has also assembled an impressive ensemble around him.
The latest images and plot details make one thing particularly clear: Fincher is not attempting to recreate Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
He is taking one of its most memorable characters and dropping him into a darker 1970s Los Angeles crime story.
Audiences will get their first chance to see how that experiment works when The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth opens in IMAX on November 25 before arriving on Netflix on December 23, 2026.
