The misadventures of Cliff Booth are looking considerably more exciting now that Brad Pitt is back in the driver's seat. The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a gritty 1977-set spinoff of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, takes place eight years after the original film, with David Fincher directing Quentin Tarantino's script. However, the project very nearly took a different turn, with Tarantino abandoning the sequel despite Pitt already being attached, leaving the filmmaker feeling guilty about disappointing his longtime collaborator.

Tarantino recently opened up about the guilt of walking away, admitting that letting Pitt down was what made the decision particularly difficult.

Quentin Tarantino has a retirement plan, and apparently Brad Pitt was not supposed to be part of the farewell package. Bound by his self-imposed 10-film limit, the filmmaker decided to leave The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth behind, reserving his final directorial outing for an original story rather than another trip down Hollywood's memory lane. Unfortunately, Pitt was already attached, making the exit considerably less painless than Tarantino might have hoped.

“[Pitt] was the one I felt I was really letting down when I didn’t do it,” Tarantino admitted to Empire. “I felt bad about that.”

Fortunately, Brad Pitt had another old friend to call. David Fincher, who previously and famously directed the actor in Seven, Fight Club, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, cinematic legends, entered the picture after Pitt expressed disappointment about losing Cliff Booth.

Pitt asked Fincher to read Tarantino's screenplay, provided the original filmmaker approved. Tarantino, who was apparently not expecting this particular Hollywood plot twist, was delighted.

“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” Tarantino recalled to Empire. “I was like, ‘Really? You think he’d be interested?"

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Fincher was happy to take Cliff Booth off Tarantino's hands, though he apparently had a few things to take off the screenplay, too, a topic that Tarantino has touched on.

Quentin Tarantino was thrilled to have David Fincher take over The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, although keeping the director interested proved an exercise in careful diplomacy. Fincher was instantly “smitten” with the project, but Tarantino worried that one wrong word might send the Social Network filmmaker running for the hills. The screenwriter found himself navigating their early conversations with rather unusual nervousness.

Tarantino likened the experience to trying to win over “this gorgeous woman,” admitting he was careful not to say anything that might ruin his chances. Beneath the colourful analogy was genuine admiration for Fincher's decision to dedicate a year and a half to someone else's screenplay. Having a director of Fincher's calibre embrace his material meant considerably more than a professional courtesy, particularly for Tarantino, who felt Hollywood often viewed him as a filmmaker who simply wrote for himself.

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What do you think of Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher's collaboration? Let us know in the comments!