Quentin Tarantino Shows First 17 Minutes of 'The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth' at AFI Fest

Quentin Tarantino closed a screening and onstage conversation at AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Friday night, Oct. 23, by showing the audience the first 17 minutes of "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth," the follow-up to his 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." The event at the TCL Chinese Theatre marked the first public look at the film, which Tarantino wrote and David Fincher directed, with Brad Pitt returning as stuntman Cliff Booth.

According to Deadline's Pete Hammond, Tarantino had just been asked about the new film at the end of his Q&A when he told the crowd, "Well, I could talk a little bit about The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, or I could show you the first 17 minutes." The evening had been billed as a screening of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," which received 10 Oscar nominations, followed by a conversation with the filmmaker.

What the footage showed

TheWrap's Casey Loving reported that opening titles set the film in June 1977, eight years after the events of the first movie, and that Booth is shown working at the New Beverly Cinema, the Los Angeles arthouse theater Tarantino bought in 2007. The footage opens with a sequence from a film playing at the theater, "Soul Brothers Die Hard," featuring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Roderick "Hot Rod" Harrison, while Booth recites lines along with the movie from the projection booth. Booth then calls his father, a pawn shop owner played by Peter Weller.

TheWrap said a pair of men played by Karren Karagulian and Corey Fogelmanis later meet Booth at the theater, where he pays them for stolen goods that include an Academy Award for Best Director. The outlet noted that neither Tarantino nor Fincher has won that award, despite three nominations each. The Hollywood Reporter's Kirsten Chuba described the footage as showing Booth working as a cinema projectionist while handling more unsavory business on the side.

Deadline reported that the film's logline describes Booth, when he is not earning his keep bartending or as a projectionist, as a fixer who solves situations for Hollywood figures. The cast also includes Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan and Carla Gugino; TheWrap said Caan plays a TV star and Debicki plays an agent.

Why Tarantino returned to the character

Before showing the footage, Tarantino explained why he revisited Booth. "I loved the Cliff Booth character, I loved the way that Brad played him, and there was this aspect of him as sort of like a paperback hero," he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I could see like a series of paperbacks with Cliff Booth getting involved with this adventure or that adventure or something like that."

He added, per THR, "As time went on, I just thought about coming up with a different adventure, getting him in now a misadventure. I wanted to see what would happen with that." Tarantino also said that "if I'm going to watch any of my movies, it would be this one," referring to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." TheWrap reported that the AFI Fest screening was the first time he had seen that film in IMAX.

Speaking about his decision to write rather than direct the new film, Tarantino told the audience, "As I'm getting older, being a man of letters is more my thing, so screenplays and books and plays — everything except poetry," according to THR. He has also written a novel set in the world of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood."

TheWrap reported that Tarantino also discussed the original film's casting, saying the late Burt Reynolds had been set to play George Spahn before Bruce Dern took over the role after Reynolds' death. "We did the script reading with him, so actually the last performance that Burt Reynolds ever gave was as George Spahn," Tarantino said.

Fincher's edit and the release plan

The footage arrived days after Fincher and Tarantino gave a joint interview to Empire magazine. As Variety's Anna Tingley reported on Oct. 20, Fincher told Empire, "The first draft I read was 230 pages. It was essentially two movies," and said he cut roughly 60 pages. Variety noted that Pitt previously worked with Fincher on "Se7en," "Fight Club" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

"The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth" is scheduled to open exclusively in IMAX theaters on Wednesday, Nov. 25, before premiering on Netflix on Wednesday, Dec. 23, according to Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap and Variety. Variety described the theatrical window as a two-week global IMAX run.

Tarantino also used the AFI Fest appearance to discuss "The Popinjay Cavalier," his first stage play. Deadline previously reported that Sacha Baron Cohen will star in the swashbuckling comedy, which is set in 1830s Europe and is produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Previews are scheduled to begin Feb. 23, 2027, ahead of an official opening on March 18, 2027, at the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End.