Tarantino Screens the First 17 Minutes of the Cliff Booth Sequel at AFI Fest

Quentin Tarantino closed a Friday night AFI Fest event at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood by screening the first 17 minutes of “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” the sequel to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” according to USA Today and TheWrap, which was in the room. The footage was the first public look at the film, which David Fincher directed from Tarantino’s screenplay.

The evening began as an IMAX screening of the 2019 original, followed by a question-and-answer session with Tarantino. At the end of the Q&A, he offered the audience a choice. “Well, I could talk a little bit about ‘The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,’ or I could show you the first 17 minutes,” he said, according to USA Today. He showed the footage. Before it rolled, Tarantino urged the audience to shut off their phones, and security guards stationed throughout the theater watched for the flash of a phone screen, USA Today reported.

Brad Pitt reprises the title role. In the 2019 film, Pitt played Cliff Booth, a stuntman and the longtime stunt double and assistant to Rick Dalton, the fading movie and television star played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Pitt won the Academy Award for the performance. The sequel was written by Tarantino, who directed the original, and directed by Fincher, to whom Tarantino handed the directing job, USA Today reported.

Netflix confirmed the surprise in a press release afterward, according to What’s on Netflix. The film will open in IMAX theaters globally on November 25, 2026, for a two-week exclusive run, and will begin streaming on Netflix on December 23, 2026. USA Today noted that the sequel is one of the rare Netflix films to open in IMAX theaters before it streams.

TheWrap, which was in the theater, published a rundown of the footage. Its opening titles set the film eight years after the original, moving the story from 1969 to 1977, and Booth has seemingly left stunt work behind. The published logline for the film has Booth earning his keep as a bartender and a cinema projectionist while working as a fixer, solving problems for Hollywood figures. The follow-up also features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Scott Caan and Elizabeth Debicki, TheWrap reported.

Tarantino told the audience that his affection for the character is what brought him back to it. “I love the Cliff Booth character. I love the way that Brad played him,” he said, according to USA Today. TheWrap reported that he also told the crowd the original is the film of his that he would most like to rewatch, because of its hangout atmosphere, and that the AFI Fest screening was the first time he had ever seen it in IMAX.

Fincher attended the event, walked the red carpet and was in the theater for the screening, but he did not address the audience about the sequel footage, leaving the presentation to Tarantino, according to USA Today. Fincher told Empire this week that he cut 60 pages from Tarantino’s 230-page draft, which he called “essentially two movies,” and that the finished film runs about two and a half hours, TBS News reported.

The title is rendered “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” by USA Today and TheWrap. Some Netflix-focused coverage shortens it to the singular, “The Further Mis-Adventure of Cliff Booth.”

Sources: USA Today; TheWrap; Netflix via What’s on Netflix; Empire via TBS News.