David Fincher Ending Netflix Deal After Six Years and Three Movies, Including ‘Cliff Booth’

David Fincher isn’t renewing his pact at Netflix after his deal at the streamer expires next year.

Fincher, the acclaimed director of “Fight Club,” “The Social Network” and “Gone Girl,” has enjoyed a long creative partnership with Netflix, starting with the company’s seminal television series “House of Cards” and “Mindhunter.” He forged an exclusive partnership with Netflix in 2020 and made three movies, “Mank,” “The Killer” and the upcoming “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth.”

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Fincher isn’t signing a new overall deal with another studio, meaning he could work with Netflix on future projects, according to Bloomberg, which broke the news.

He’s the latest in a string of talent who has recently parted ways with Netflix. “Marriage Story” director Noah Baumbach, who made his last four movies at Netflix, just signed a deal with Warner Bros. “Stranger Things” producer Shawn Levy set an overall television deal at Disney’s 20th Century after nearly a decade at the streamer. And Levy’s “Stranger Things” collaborators Ross and Matt Duffer moved their own deal to Paramount.

“Cliff Booth,” a spinoff of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” starring Brad Pitt, will premiere later this year. In a break from strategy, Netflix is releasing the “Once Upon a Time” spinoff in Imax theaters on Nov. 25 — a month before the movie lands on the streamer on Dec. 23. Moving forward, Netflix will be experimenting with theatrical release (and even plans to report box office on select titles) as a means to work with filmmakers who want their films to play on the big screen.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was a critical and commercial hit for Sony, and the studio’s motion picture group chair Tom Rothman has expressed his disappointment that Netflix is releasing the sequel.

“We were going to make the movie when Quentin was directing it, but he decided that he didn’t want to do it and changed course,” Rothman told Variety. “The only other person that he was comfortable directing his script was David Fincher, and David Fincher was exclusive to Netflix, so we were not going to stand in anybody’s way.”