Tarantino Surprises AFI Fest With First 17 Minutes of Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth Sequel
Quentin Tarantino turned a routine anniversary screening into the night's biggest surprise. At AFI Fest on Friday night, the filmmaker screened the first 17 minutes of The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, the upcoming sequel to his 2019 hit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, instead of simply discussing the original film, according to reports from Deadline and TheWrap.
The surprise came during a special screening of the original movie at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, followed by a question-and-answer session with Tarantino, as reported by Just Jared, citing Deadline and TheWrap. Rather than only talking about the sequel, Tarantino offered the audience a chance to watch its opening scenes.
The new film is written by Tarantino, with David Fincher taking over directing duties. Brad Pitt returns as Cliff Booth, the stuntman and longtime associate of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the original film. Pitt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role in the 2019 movie.
Eight years later, a new life for Cliff
The footage picks up in June 1977, eight years after the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Cliff has seemingly moved on from his stuntman career and is working as a manager at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, the movie theatre that Tarantino owns in real life, according to TheWrap's eyewitness account.
The opening scenes also introduce new faces around Cliff. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II appears in a movie being shown at the theatre, while Peter Weller plays Cliff's father, who owns a pawn shop. The footage shows Cliff buying stolen items, including a Best Director Oscar, before the action escalates, TheWrap reported.
The sequel follows Cliff as he takes on work as a Hollywood fixer, solving problems for people in the entertainment industry. The cast also includes Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan and Carla Gugino, alongside Abdul-Mateen II and Weller.
Why the surprise landed
Part of the appeal is the unusual handover at the top: Tarantino, who directed the original, wrote the screenplay for the new instalment rather than returning to direct it. Speaking about the original movie during Friday's event, he described its world as folklore, telling the crowd, via TheWrap: “It’s not about a story, the fact that it’s just about this folklore that’s a mix of real things that happened back then and real people and a real industry, and then also this kind of fantastical version that I created.”
The movie arrives in IMAX theatres on November 25, before making its streaming debut on Netflix on December 23, according to Just Jared.
Sources: Deadline and TheWrap, as reported by Just Jared (24 October 2026); Variety.