David Fincher Officially Reveals Why He Changed Quentin Tarantino's New Script

1 day ago 11

Published Oct 21, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

There have been rumblings that the upcoming film The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is having behind-the-scenes trouble. The movie underwent reshoots recently, and reportedly missed the fall festivals because it wasn't progressing on time. It will, however, be given an extended IMAX-exclusive run before debuting on Netflix this December. The streamer has reportedly shelled out a fortune for the project, uniting three A-listers to write, direct, and star in it. Each of them was reportedly paid $20 million for their work, but the setup is most unusual for one of them: Quentin Tarantino. The writer-director is used to handling his own material, but is now relying on David Fincher to adapt it with Brad Pitt as the lead. Perhaps for the first time, his words aren't sacrosanct, with Fincher revealing that he cut a large portion of the script.

In a recent chat with Empire, Tarantino said that writing The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth wasn't at all like penning its predecessor, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino has famously chained himself to a self-imposed limit of 10 feature films as director, and has spent the last few years trying to find ways to extend his career as if Congress itself will hold him to his word. Since he's nine movies down already, Tarantino didn't direct Cliff Booth himself. He has also written a couple of books, and is set to make his debut as a playwright with the upcoming West End production, The Popinjay Cavalier.

Here's When the Movie Will Be Released

Speaking to Empire, Tarantino described Cliff Booth as "an Elmore Leonard paperback," while Fincher called it "a story around a bonfire." Revealing that he cut 60 pages out of Tarantino's 230-page original draft, the director added, "It wasn’t about the plot as much as it was about how the participants collided with one another in the back alleys of Hollywood in 1977. The first draft I read was 230 pages. It was essentially two movies. Somewhere in there was the Venn diagram of what Brad wanted to do, what I want to do, what Quentin wanted to do. Not 'want to do', but the areas we would focus on.” Also starring Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, and Scott Caan, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth will be released on IMAX screens on November 25, and on Netflix on December 23. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.