Netflix - The Adventures of Cliff Booth: From Stuntman to Studio Fixer, Brad Pitt’s Anti-Hero Takes Center Stage

By Mulder, 09 february 2026

The Adventures of Cliff Booth is officially stepping out of the shadows with the release of its first teaser, and the feeling is unmistakable: this is not a simple spin-off, but a full-fledged cinematic event that feels as audacious as it is improbable. Directed by David Fincher and written by Quentin Tarantino, the film revisits one of the most enigmatic characters from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by placing Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth squarely at the center of the frame, no longer as a magnetic supporting presence but as the driving force of a sprawling period comedy-drama that blends Hollywood mythology, bruised masculinity, and behind-the-scenes power games. From the first images teased during Super Bowl LX and now expanded through this newly unveiled teaser, the tone feels unmistakably Fincherian, coldly precise, darkly humorous, and visually obsessive, while still carrying the unmistakable narrative voice of Tarantino, whose dialogue rhythms and fascination with alternative Hollywood histories remain fully intact.

What makes this project especially fascinating is its unusual genesis, one that already feels like cinema lore in the making. In April 2025, Netflix quietly acquired Quentin Tarantino’s script, initially titled The Continuing Adventures of Cliff Booth, before Brad Pitt personally approached David Fincher to take the director’s chair, reuniting the duo more than a decade after The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Quentin Tarantino, openly acknowledging that he did not want his final directorial effort to retread familiar territory, chose to step back from directing while remaining deeply involved as writer and producer, a decision that gives the film a unique creative tension: a Tarantino script filtered through Fincher’s famously controlled, methodical filmmaking style. The result, if the teaser is any indication, looks like a collision between two cinematic philosophies rather than a compromise, with Cliff Booth reimagined as a Hollywood studio fixer navigating the murkier corners of the early 1970s industry.

The story expands Cliff Booth’s backstory and places him in a new professional role that feels like a natural extension of what audiences only glimpsed in 2019. Once a stuntman operating on the margins, Booth is now embedded deeper in the machinery of Hollywood, cleaning up messes, leaning on favors, and surviving on a code that belongs to another era. Timothy Olyphant returns as James Stacy, reinforcing the direct narrative bridge to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, while the ensemble cast adds layers of intrigue and unpredictability. Scott Caan, Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, Holt McCallany, Corey Fogelmanis, and JB Tadena orbit Pitt’s Booth in what appears to be a dense web of shifting loyalties and volatile egos, while later casting additions such as Barry Livingston, Lauren Glazier, and Peter Weller further reinforce the film’s generational and tonal breadth.

Behind the camera, the scale of the production is just as striking as the names involved. Shot between July 2025 and January 2026, principal photography transformed parts of California into a meticulously reconstructed vision of 1970s Los Angeles, including entire storefronts rebuilt around the Highland Theatre in Highland Park. The attention to period detail visible in the teaser,  cars, signage, costumes, and lighting—feels obsessive in the best possible way, amplified by the return of Erik Messerschmidt, whose work under David Fincher has consistently favored controlled compositions and subdued palettes that subtly heighten tension. Produced by David Heyman, Ceán Chaffin, Stacey Sher, alongside Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino, the film has also become notorious for its cost, with Quentin Tarantino himself confirming a budget hovering around $200 million—the largest he has ever been associated with—making it not only a creative gamble but a massive financial statement from Netflix.

The teaser itself plays like a promise rather than a summary, offering fragments of Cliff Booth’s new life, flashes of violence, dry humor, and a sense that Hollywood is no longer a playground but a battleground. Longtime Tarantino fans may recall his 2021 comment about someday exploring Booth’s wartime experiences in a POW camp, and while this film appears more focused on Booth’s fixer era, that deeper mythology still hangs over the character, enriching every silent stare and sudden outburst. With a release planned both in select theaters and on Netflix in 2026, The Adventures of Cliff Booth positions itself at the crossroads of prestige cinema and streaming-era spectacle, driven by the rare collaboration of two of modern cinema’s most exacting auteurs and anchored by Brad Pitt in a role that already feels inseparable from his screen legacy.

Synopsis : 
Showcases more of Cliff Booth's backstory in his new role as a Hollywood fixer

The Adventures of Cliff Booth
Directed by David Fincher
Written by Quentin Tarantino
Produced by David Heyman, Ceán Chaffin, Brad Pitt, Stacey Sher, Quentin Tarantino
Starring  Brad Pitt, Scott Caan, Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, Holt McCallany,, Corey Fogelmanis, JB Tadena
Cinematography : Erik Messerschmidt
Production companies : Plan B Entertainment, Heyday Films, Panic Pictures
Distributed by Netflix
Release date : 2026