Here’s a new chapter in the Chronicles of Narnia. With Greta Gerwig’s upcoming adaptation of The Magician’s Nephew moving into early 2027, Netflix is dispatching Brad Pitt to the Imax screens where the gentle god-lion Aslan was once primed to roam.
The actor’s much-anticipated (and yet to be definitively titled) Cliff Booth — which finds him reprising his Oscar-winning role as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, former stuntman to the stars — will bow on Imax screens on Nov. 25 for a two-week global engagement. The David Fincher-directed sequel will then speed directly onto Netflix on Dec. 23, just in time for the Christmas holidays.
Netflix previously set Film Twitter ablaze back in February with a surprise Super Bowl trailer drop for the the follow-up to Quentin Tarantino‘s 2019 Best Picture-nominee that netted Pitt his first-ever Best Supporting Actor statuette. While Tarantino wrote the script for the follow-up, Fincher took over the director’s chair, reuniting with Pitt for the first time since 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Based on that early look, Cliff’s solo vehicle will feature plenty of behind-the-wheel action, detailed period production design and the character’s famously dry wit. “I don’t possess many talents, but I know better than to get in the way of a good story,” Pitt remarks early on in the minute-long clip, which featured visible onscreen marks obscuring presumably R-rated imagery. The teaser also concluded without flashing an official title, suggesting the name could still change before the film drives into theaters.
Watch the Super Bowl teaser below and read on for everything you need to know about Cliff Booth.
What’s the story?
The ’60s are most definitely over. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood famously wrapped up with Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) avoiding her real-world 1969 death at the hands of Charles Manson’s followers, who unwisely decided to break into the home of fading star — and Cliff’s employer — Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) instead. The Adventures of Cliff Booth picks up roughly a decade later in 1977, as indicated by a prominently displayed movie poster for that year’s Diane Keaton favorite Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Booth and Dalton have gone their separate ways, but the legend of what exactly happened that night lives on.
“You helped Rick subdue those hippie intruders, huh?” asks one such inquiring mind, played by Elizabeth Debicki. “Something like that,” Cliff responds, before coyly adding: “I don’t possess many talents, but I know better than to get in the way of a good story.”
The new story that Cliff becomes part of is once again Hollywood-adjacent and involves a menagerie of small-time crooks presumably engaged in all manner of malfeasance. Specific details about Tarantino’s plot are slim, but we do know that this script grew out of The Movie Critic, which the writer-director initially planned to be his filmmaking swan song. Cliff was a supporting character in that screenplay and gradually took center stage as Tarantino fully went down the spin-off road.
Who else is involved?
Besides Pitt, the only other Once Upon a Time cast member that’s coming back for seconds is Timothy Olyphant, who reprises his role as TV actor James Stacy — one of the real Hollywood figures that Tarantino brought into his fictional recreation of the town. Otherwise, it’s all fresh faces including Debicki, Scott Caan (whose late father, James Caan, was a staple of ’70s Hollywood), Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Fincher regular Holt McCallany, and Peter Weller.
Behind the camera, Fincher is joined by producers Pitt, Tarantino, David Heyman, Ceán Chaffin, and Stacey Sher, as well as his regular cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, who won an Oscar for shooting 2020’s Mank.
What are its awards prospects?
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood scored 10 nominations, and took home two statuettes — Best Supporting Actor and Best Production Design. Other nods included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay — all of which are categories where The Adventures of Cliff Booth could very easily repeat. Tarantino’s film was embraced by Academy voters for its evocation of that vanished era of the industry, and it’s easy to see them responding to Fincher’s take on the town’s gritty ’70s era as well.
When can I see it?
Look for Cliff Booth on an Imax screen for you on Nov. 25 and then stream it from the comfort of your couch on Dec. 23.
This post was originally published on Feb. 8, and was updated May 20 with the Imax release news.
