A surprise ending to the night
Quentin Tarantino appeared at AFI Fest in Los Angeles on Friday night for a screening of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and stayed for a question-and-answer session about the film. As the evening appeared to be finishing, he gave the audience at the TCL Chinese Theater an unexpected preview: the opening 17 minutes of The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.[S1][S3][S4][S5][S7]
The footage showed Brad Pitt's character, stunt double Cliff Booth, employed as a cinema projectionist while also carrying out less reputable business on the side. Pitt returns to the role that earned him an Oscar, and the new story is placed in 1977, eight years after the events depicted in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.[S1]
Why Tarantino returned to the character
Before the preview, Tarantino told the crowd how he had come to revisit Booth. He said he tends not to retain favorable reviews but does remember critical ones, and he recalled a line someone wrote describing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as the first world the director had created that he would want to inhabit. He agreed that element was present.[S1]
Tarantino said he was fond of Booth and of how Pitt portrayed him, seeing the figure as a kind of paperback hero who could carry a string of adventures. Over time, he explained, he began devising a different outing for the character, this time a misadventure, and wanted to find out where it would lead.[S1]
The director also described how deeply he has settled into the film's invented world, having written a Once Upon a Time novel as well. He said he has had little to occupy him besides building out that mythology, work he began before making the movie and continued in the years afterward. According to Tarantino, the audience does not need to know every detail, but he finds it reassuring that he does.[S1]
A writer first, and a release plan
Tarantino said that among his own films this is the one he would choose to watch, and that he can return to it repeatedly. He stressed that he cares deeply about his stories and invests in them, yet he appreciates that this particular film lacks a conventional plot, comparing the experience to simply spending time with the characters.[S1]
With rehearsals for an upcoming play ahead of him, Tarantino described his current priorities as those of a writer, which he said informed his choice not to direct Cliff Booth. He remarked that as he grows older, being a man of letters suits him better, listing screenplays, books and plays while excluding poetry. David Fincher took on directing duties for the new project.[S1]
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is scheduled to arrive in IMAX on Nov. 25 and to begin streaming on Netflix on Dec. 23.[S1]
