In a recent interview with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino, he revealed that he was letting down star Brad Pitt by walking away from the sequel. He said, “[Pitt] was the one I felt I was really letting down when I didn’t do it. I felt bad about that.”

Tarantino had already written the script for the then untitled Cliff Booth sequel, but after he left the director’s chair, the project was in jeopardy. The film was in the hands of Brad Pitt, and he was “disappointed that he wasn’t going to play Cliff Booth again.” Eventually, David Fincher was suggested to direct the sequel, which left Tarantino speechless. “You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was like, ‘Really? You think he’d be interested? Fucking yeah: show [the script] to him!”

Fincher has directed a slew of classic movies, including Fight Club, Zodiac, Se7en, The Social Network and Gone Girl. The director was in the midst of an exclusive Netflix deal, so with the streamer picking up the rights to the Cliff Booth sequel, he naturally came up. Tarantino was actually scared his excitement might scare Fincher away. He said, “The first couple of times we spoke, I was the male trying to talk this gorgeous woman into fucking me. I was trying to maneuver it so I wouldn’t say anything that fuck shit up,” he said. “One of the things that made this all work was my excitement over David doing my material. I’ve gotten a lot of respect as a screenwriter, but I still feel that people think that I’m a director who just writes shit for himself. The fact that a director of David’s caliber would spend a year-and-a-half of his life doing my material was wonderful. It said a lot about what was on the page.”

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth follows Brad Pitt’s Booth after the events of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. On his own again after his stint as Rick Dalton’s stunt double, Booth finds himself back in L.A. as a fixer who must use his wits as everything he knows about loyalty is questioned. The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth hits IMAX theaters on November 25 and Netflix on December 23.