Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Is Getting A Sequel — With A Big Caveat
Can you make a Tarantino film without Tarantino?
Quentin Tarantino has to plan his next move carefully. The filmmaker once vowed to retire after directing 10 films, and 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood left just one slot on his dance card.
What might have been Tarantino’s 10th and final film, The Movie Critic, was shelved in 2024, and nothing has been announced to replace it. That hasn’t stopped the director from building out the Tarantinoverse in other ways: he published a novel in 2021 to accompany Once Upon a Time, and he’s apparently focused on screenwriting ever since. Writing a script isn’t the same as directing, after all, and that means Tarantino can develop as many stories as he wants, as long as he hands the scripts off.
It’s an interesting approach that presumably staves off Tarantino’s self-imposed pressure to retire. While we haven’t seen this strategy in practice just yet, a surprising new film deal will put it to the test.
Netflix’s Once Upon a Time sequel will follow Brad Pitt’s Hollywood stuntman on another misadventure.
Netflix is developing a sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino wrote the script, but he’s handed it to Netflix’s resident auteur, David Fincher. He’ll helm the sequel, while Brad Pitt will reprise his role as Hollywood stuntman Cliff Booth. The Oscar-winning actor is no stranger to a Fincher production: the duo collaborated on Se7en, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There are certainly worse choices to direct Pitt in a Once Upon a Time sequel (Twice Upon a Time?), but it’s still strange to see the franchise move to a different director on a streaming platform.
However, this won’t be the first time Netflix distributes a sequel to a film that premiered in theaters. In 2021, the streamer bought the rights to produce two sequels to Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, and there’s a chance their partnership could continue after Wake Up Dead Man arrives in 2025. Whether Netflix intends to do the same with Once Upon a Time and build a franchise out of one film remains to be seen, but this could be the start of an intriguing back-and-forth between streamers and studios.
