Sony Missed Out on Sequel to a $393M Hit Because Quentin Tarantino Only Trusted One Man

Landing a Quentin Tarantino movie at your studio is a rare feat. The director has only worked with three distributors for his films so if you released his biggest film ever, you’d think landing a follow-up would be a safe bet. After Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood earned nearly $393 million at the worldwide box office and won Brad Pitt his first Academy Award for acting, Sony appeared well positioned to continue its relationship with Tarantino through another story centered on Cliff Booth. Instead, the studio watched the project head to Netflix and now we know why.

Speaking with Variety, Sony Motion Pictures Group chairman Tom Rothman revealed the reason was surprisingly simple. Tarantino no longer wanted to direct the script himself, and there was only one filmmaker he trusted to take over. That filmmaker was David Fincher, whose exclusive directing deal with Netflix meant the Cliff Booth movie was always going to end up there.

“Quentin wrote a script. He didn’t want to direct it at that point. He only trusted David Fincher to direct it,” Rothman said. “David’s deal is at Netflix. We would’ve loved to have made it. We have an incredible relationship with Quentin. We had an incredible experience with that film. But that’s how it worked out.”

Sony Came Close to Another Tarantino Movie

Rothman’s comments also reveal this wasn’t just a one-off disappointment for Sony. After winning the bidding war for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, the studio appeared to be building a long-term relationship with Tarantino. Sony had already begun developing The Movie Critic, which was expected to become Tarantino’s next feature before the filmmaker ultimately abandoned the project after deciding it covered too much of the same creative ground as Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. The Cliff Booth movie looked like a second chance to continue that partnership, only for it to head to Netflix once Tarantino decided David Fincher was the only director he trusted with the character.

While The Adventures of Cliff Booth is an entirely new story, fans are also hoping it borrows from the expanded mythology Tarantino introduced in his Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood novelization. The book dramatically fleshed out Booth’s backstory with stories and details that never made it into the film, leaving plenty of material that could finally make its way onto the screen.

Creative Relationships Still Matter in Hollywood

In an industry dominated by franchise rights, streaming deals, and billion-dollar mergers, it’s refreshing to see a story where the deciding factor wasn’t money but trust. Tarantino has spent his career fiercely protecting his films and characters, making it notable that he was willing to hand Cliff Booth over to another director at all. The fact that he only considered Fincher says everything about the respect between the two filmmakers.

For Sony, it’s the second sting in what once looked like the start of a lasting partnership with Tarantino. For audiences, though, it’s hard to complain about the outcome. A Brad Pitt-led Cliff Booth movie directed by David Fincher from a Quentin Tarantino script is the kind of collaboration that only happens once in a blue moon, no matter which studio’s logo appears before the opening credits. And in this instance we’re going to be lucky enough to see it in IMAX.