‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Sequel Adds Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan

Elizabeth Debicki and Scott Caan have joined the cast of David Fincher‘s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” follow-up at Netflix, Variety confirms. The pair will star alongside Brad Pitt, who is reprising his Oscar-winning role as the zen stuntman Cliff Booth for the feature, which comes from a script written by the original film’s writer-director Quentin Tarantino.

Though the “Once Upon a Time” continuation still seems like somewhat of an unreal prospect to many fans of Tarantino and Fincher, the addition of more cast members indicates that it is, indeed, gaining steam as it heads towards a potential summer production start in California.

Netflix had no comment.

The project remains highly secretive, though it first emerged after Tarantino scrapped plans for what would’ve been his 10th (and allegedly final) feature, “The Movie Critic.” A script had been written and Brad Pitt had been cast in the lead role. The ’70s-set story was said to follow a film critic who wrote for a porn magazine. It had been rumored that Pitt would be playing some version of his “Once Upon a Time” character Cliff Booth, who in Tarantino’s novelization of his own feature was revealed to be quite the movie buff (but don’t get him started on the films Akira Kurosawa made after “Red Beard.”) However much of “The Movie Critic” has ended up in this untitled “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” follow-up remains unclear.

While Tarantino’s reputation is as a writer-director, he has written several scripts that he did not end up helming, including Tony Scott’s “True Romance” and Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk till Dawn.” For Fincher, this will be the filmmaker’s third consecutive feature at Netflix, after the Oscar-nominated Hollywood period piece “Mank” and the workday black comedy “The Killer.”

Funnily enough, Debicki was last seen in a different, mid-20th-century showbiz period piece with Ti West’s slasher threequel “MaXXXine,” released last summer. She also is an Emmy winner for playing Princess Diana in Netflix’s “The Crown.” Meanwhile, Caan acted alongside Pitt in Steven Soderbergh’s “Ocean’s” heist trilogy. He currently stars in Fox’s “Alert: Missing Persons Unit,” which just aired its Season 3 finale.

The news of Debicki being in talks for the film was first reported by What’s on Netflix, while Caan’s casting was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.