When the news broke that David Fincher would be teaming with his “Fight Club” star Brad Pitt to make a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed 2019 movie “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” for Netflix, many didn’t believe it to be true. (The news also broke on April Fools’ Day, which didn’t help.)
Director Steven Soderbergh was one of the few who knew it to be true. As a good friend of Fincher’s, he knows how close Fincher and Pitt are.
“I think they’re always on the lookout for something to do together,” Soderbergh told Business Insider in a recent interview, referring to Fincher and Pitt. “So this was, it sounds like, an unusual set of circumstances where Quentin decided he didn’t want to do it and Brad asked him, ‘Can I show it to David?’ and he said sure, and David read it and said, ‘Let’s do it.'”
However, Soderbergh admits there is one aspect of the news that did shock him.
“What’s surprising is Quentin’s agreeability,” he said.
The theory around Hollywood is that Tarantino, who has stated that he plans to retire after making his next movie, which will be the tenth of his career, didn’t want to end on a sequel.
Tarantino’s sequel script to “Once Upon a Time…” focuses on Pitt’s character Cliff Booth. Along with 1999’s “Fight Club,” Pitt and Fincher have worked together on 1995’s “Se7en” and 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as TV star Rick Dalton, who’s struggling to keep his career afloat in the changing landscape of Hollywood in the late 1960s. Pitt plays Cliff Booth, Dalton’s longtime stuntman and best friend. Pitt’s performance won him a best supporting actor Oscar.
Little is known about the sequel outside of the fact that the plot is focused on Booth, and that DiCaprio could return as Dalton in a cameo role.
Given that he’s friends with Fincher, did Soderbergh know about him taking on the sequel before the news broke?
“I was aware, but I was also very cognizant that this was a newsworthy piece of information,” Soderbergh said. “Actually, I was surprised it took that long for the story to come out. But it’s happening, and it’s happening soon.”
