On February 8, during the Super Bowl LX commercial break, Netflix released a 90-second censored teaser. Brad Pitt, bearded and long-haired, moves through a late-1970s Hollywood backlot. The clip ends with two words: "Coming Soon." That is the only official video footage that exists for The Adventures of Cliff Booth. With the IMAX premiere set for November 25 — four months away — audiences are still waiting for a full trailer.
The Film and Its Predecessor
Understanding why this project carries the weight it does requires understanding where it comes from. In 2019, Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood grossed $377.4 million worldwide against a $90 million production budget and received ten Academy Award nominations, winning two: Best Supporting Actor for Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, and Best Production Design. The remaining nominations included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and Best Original Screenplay — a breadth of recognition that positioned it among the most honored films of that year.
The story was set in 1969 Los Angeles. Cliff Booth was a taciturn Hollywood stuntman and the loyal companion of fading actor Rick Dalton, played by DiCaprio. The film ended with Booth repelling an attack by members of the Manson Family. The Adventures of Cliff Booth picks up eight years later, in the late 1970s, with Booth no longer working as a stuntman but operating as a Hollywood "fixer" — someone hired to make problems disappear. The film is directed by David Fincher, and Tarantino is responsible for the screenplay.
Three Reasons This Film Carries Serious Weight
The first is the creative tension built into the project's DNA. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was unmistakably Tarantino: slow-burning, dialogue-heavy, and suffused with California nostalgia. Fincher operates from a different set of principles entirely. Se7en, Fight Club, Gone Girl, The Social Network — his work is defined by precise visual control, cold tonal palette, and a highly structured editing rhythm.
Tarantino has explained why he chose not to direct: "I love this script, but I'm still going down the same road. That makes me a little reluctant. My last film has to be made when I don't know what I'm doing." He then added: "I think David Fincher and I are the two best directors."
The second factor is the production team assembled around Pitt. Director of photography Erik Messerschmidt won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Mank in 2021 and has worked with Fincher on Mindhunter and The Killer. Editor Kirk Baxter, Fincher's long-term collaborator, won back-to-back Oscars for The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network, compose the music. The infrastructure around this film is as decorated as any production in recent memory.
The third is the awards-season positioning that has already begun to take shape. Gold Derby has listed the film as an early contender in multiple categories for the 2027 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Fincher, Best Actor for Pitt, and Best Original Screenplay for Tarantino. The precedent from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — ten nominations, two wins — provides a meaningful baseline. Fincher's relationship with the Academy is long and complicated: The Social Network, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Fight Club have all left marks on the organization's history without producing a directing win. Whether this collaboration changes that pattern is one of the more substantive questions the awards season will answer.
The Marketing Anomaly
Fincher's recent release cycles offer a reference point. Mank received its full trailer approximately six weeks before its premiere. Gone Girl received its first full trailer roughly three months ahead of opening. Applied to The Adventures of Cliff Booth, those timelines would place a full trailer between early September and mid-October — eight to twelve weeks before the November 25 IMAX date. The fact that nearly five months have passed since the Super Bowl teaser without any additional video material is unusual for a production of this scale. San Diego Comic-Con on July 25 and the Venice Film Festival in late August represent the most plausible near-term windows for new material to surface.
