Tarantino Shows First 17 Minutes of Cliff Booth Film at AFI Fest

Quentin Tarantino stunned roughly 900 fans at the Chinese Theatre on October 29 by screening the first 17 minutes of "The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth," the David Fincher-directed sequel to "Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood" that Netflix will release theatrically on November 25.

The surprise came at the close of a special AFI Fest 40th-anniversary screening of the 2019 film, followed by a Q&A with moderator Jacqueline Coley. When Coley asked about the holiday release, Tarantino replied: "I could talk a little bit about 'The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.' Or…I could show you the first 17 minutes." The lights went out, and the audience became the first anywhere to see footage from the new film.

Tarantino wrote the script but handed directing duties to Fincher, a frequent Brad Pitt collaborator. Based on the footage, the film returns Tarantino to his crime-fiction roots, in the vein of "True Romance," "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction," drawing on novelists Elmore Leonard and Raymond Chandler.

What does the footage reveal?

The sequel picks up in June 1977. Cliff Booth, played again by Pitt, now works as a projectionist at the New Beverly Cinema — an in-joke that drew a big laugh, since Tarantino owns that theater. His real profession appears to be that of a shady bag man and fixer. The character is darker than the amiable figure of the first film, closer to the cold-blooded version in Tarantino's novelization.

The 17 minutes include a Blaxploitation film-within-the-film, "Soul Brothers Die Hard," starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and scenes with Cliff's father, a pawn shop proprietor played by Peter Weller. Period-accurate production design promises late-1970s nostalgia to match the first film's evocation of the late 1960s.

What did Tarantino say in the Q&A?

Tarantino recalled the casting loss that stung most: Burt Reynolds, originally cast as George Spahn, died before filming. "The last performance Burt Reynolds ever gave was as George Spahn in the script reading," Tarantino said. Bruce Dern played the role in the finished film.

He also catalogued Easter eggs. Margot Robbie voiced the Pan Am flight attendant serving Rick Dalton — a nod to her early role in the short-lived series "Pan Am." And Pitt's denim "Canadian tuxedo" is not a tribute to Tom Laughlin's "Billy Jack" look. "It doesn't just look like Billy Jack's outfit; it is Billy Jack's outfit," Tarantino said. In his backstory, Cliff doubled for actor Jeff Cooper on "Born Losers" after Laughlin's stuntman twisted an ankle, and kept the outfit — plus 25 dollars.

Tarantino said much of the set decoration in Cliff's trailer came from his own collection, and he explained his method of building unseen history: "The audience doesn't need to know everything. But it's nice if I know everything."

AFI Fest runs through Sunday night in Hollywood. The footage suggests Fincher and Tarantino have built a crime picture steeped in the mythology of 1977 — one that audiences will judge when the film arrives November 25.