Speaking to Empire, Tarantino and Fincher were effusive about working together. “One of the things that made this all work was my excitement over David doing my material,” Tarantino says. “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 calibre would spend a year-and-a-half of his life doing my material was, I thought, wonderful.” It’s unsurprising. A few weeks ago, Tarantino told Graham Norton Fincher is “my favorite director aside from myself.” So when Fincher agreed to make the movie, he wanted “the full effect, man.”
In the Empire interview, Fincher says Tarantino only “spent 11 minutes” on set since the first day of shooting. Nevertheless, the writer said it was “really exciting to see David work because he’s so connected. It’s like he’s giving birth to every shot.” After getting the go-ahead from Fincher to say “meticulous,” Tarantino continues, “intense marionette artist, alright? ‘Okay, no, no, no, that’s not right. Come in. Okay, stop, stop, stop. Okay, okay, do it again.'”
For his part, Fincher considered taking a more relaxed style on the movie. After all, it’s a sequel to Tarantino’s most successful hangout movie, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. His screenwriter wasn’t having it. Fincher says, “I remember at the beginning I said to Quentin, ‘I want to make sure I know this inside out because I want to limit myself to five/six takes.’And he was like, ‘WHAT?! I want the full effect, man. I want 28 takes for every single fucking set-up!’ I was like, ‘Okay, okay!'”
The audience can observe the full Fincher effect on November 23, when The Further Mis-Adventures Of Cliff Booth lands in some (but not all) IMAX theaters.
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