Not to belittle the fervent love of our friend Hector Navarro, but when it comes to the best way to experience a blockbuster movie, IMAX beats 3D one out of every one time. Large format, feed it to my brain. It’s not just a huge screen; the best IMAX movies require IMAX cameras, or at least 70mm film. Does every movie need to be seen on a massive screen? Not necessarily. But, it’s also a damn fine bit of advertisement. That’s why it both makes perfect sense and no sense (hyperbole) for David Fincher’s upcoming Cliff Booth movie to open in IMAX.
The Fincher-directed movie, currently with the title The Adventures of Cliff Booth, is a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino has written the script for the new movie. Brad Pitt, who won an Oscar for playing Cliff, also returns. According to Variety, the Cliff movie—which is a Netflix movie—will land in IMAX theaters on Thanksgiving ahead of a December 23 drop on the streamer. The reason for this has, perhaps, less to do with this movie and more to do with another movie’s delay.
Previously, the IMAX screens for that weekend belonged to Netflix’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew, directed by Greta Gerwig. However, that movie has been delayed to 2027. Ergo, Netflix had all these screens and didn’t want to lose them. So, yeah, put a high-profile David Fincher movie in there. Now, do I think we needed a sequel about Cliff Booth? No. But does it going to IMAX make me more intrigued? Kinda, yeah. Weird, eh?
AMC, which until recently had refused to schedule movies from Netflix, will play the movie. Other cast members for Cliff Booth include Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Peter Weller, Matt Groove, JB Tadena, Corey Fogelmanis, and Karren Karagulian.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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