• David Fincher and Brad Pitt are making a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood."
• Tarantino, who wrote the sequel, agreed to let Fincher and Pitt continue the story of Cliff Booth.
• Steven Soderbergh says Fincher and Pitt are always looking for projects to work on together.

When the news broke that David Fincher would be teaming with his "Fight Club" star Brad Pitt to make a sequel to Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed 2019 movie "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" for Netflix, many didn't believe it to be true. (The news also broke on April Fools' Day, which didn't help.)

Director Steven Soderbergh was one of the few who knew it to be true. As a good friend of Fincher's, he knows how close Fincher and Pitt are.

"I think they're always on the lookout for something to do together," Soderbergh told Business Insider in a recent interview, referring to Fincher and Pitt. "So this was, it sounds like, an unusual set of circumstances where Quentin decided he didn't want to do it and Brad asked him, 'Can I show it to David?' and he said sure, and David read it and said, 'Let's do it.'"

However, Soderbergh admits there is one aspect of the news that did shock him.

"What's surprising is Quentin's agreeability," he said.

The theory around Hollywood is that Tarantino, who has stated that he plans to retire after making his next movie, which will be the tenth of his career, didn't want to end on a sequel.

Tarantino's sequel script to "Once Upon a Time..." focuses on Pitt's character Cliff Booth. Along with 1999's "Fight Club," Pitt and Fincher have worked together on 1995's "Se7en" and 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

"Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" stars Leonardo DiCaprio as TV star Rick Dalton, who's struggling to keep his career afloat in the changing landscape of Hollywood in the late 1960s. Pitt plays Cliff Booth, Dalton's longtime stuntman and best friend. Pitt's performance won him a best supporting actor Oscar.

Little is known about the sequel outside of the fact that the plot is focused on Booth, and that DiCaprio could return as Dalton in a cameo role.

Given that he's friends with Fincher, did Soderbergh know about him taking on the sequel before the news broke?

"I was aware, but I was also very cognizant that this was a newsworthy piece of information," Soderbergh said. "Actually, I was surprised it took that long for the story to come out. But it's happening, and it's happening soon." 

• The law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett made a deal with Trump to avoid a punitive executive order.
• The firm joins a growing list of law firms, like Paul Weiss, that have made similar agreements.
• A Simpson Thacher associate resigned in response, accusing Trump of "weaponizing" the legal system.

The fallout from President Donald Trump's attack on big US law firms continues to deepen.

While a few firms are fighting Trump's punitive executive orders in court, others are striking deals with the administration — which include millions of dollars in pro bono work for Trump-aligned causes — to avoid them altogether.

The decision to seek deals with the Trump administration has divided the legal community. Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp, the first to make a deal with Trump, told his firm last month in an email that the firm had no choice because Trump's executive orders were an "existential" threat.

Others have characterized the deals as a capitulation and a dangerous precedent. Several associates at targeted law firms have resigned in protest.

On Friday, Siunik Moradian, a Los Angeles-based associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, joined them.

In an email to his colleagues, Moradian criticized the firm's decision to make a deal with the White House, which included about $125 million in pro bono work.

"By capitulating today, Simpson Thacher joins several other historic, powerful, influential, and well-resourced law firms in bending the knee and kissing the ring of authoritarianism," he wrote. "If even lawyers won't fight unlawful governmental weaponization of the courts, who will?"

Moradian then left his position at the firm.

In an interview with Business Insider, Moradian said he previously thought about leaving before Simpson Thacher made its deal with the Trump administration.

"It was something that I was contemplating ever since Paul Weiss and Skadden capitulated, and I saw that, to my surprise, firms were a lot more willing to cut a deal than I thought," he said.

"When the executive orders and the EEOC letters to the respective firms were sent out, I felt quite confident that these well-resourced law firms are not going to fold — they're going to fight this," he continued. "Once I saw that I was, I guess, misguided in that expectation, I had begun thinking what I would do if Simpson was put in that position as well."

Moradian told BI that "from a legal standpoint, it seems like an easy fight."

"I think what becomes really concerning for me is that these law firms are not making deals because of the strength of the Trump administration's claims or potential claims," he said. "They're extra-legal extortionist tactics, and it just seems like a dangerous precedent and something that the Trump administration is going to add to their playbook of weaponizing the legal system in the courts."

Moradian joins former Skadden associates Rachel Cohen and Brenna Frey — who also resigned over their firm's deal with the administration.

Trump has now secured about $940 million in pro bono legal work from a range of firms, including Simpson Thacher, Skadden, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Milbank LLP, and Paul Weiss.

Several firms, on the other hand, have fought back.

Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, and WilmerHale have all sued the administration over the executive orders. And this week, Susman Godfrey, the target of a similar executive order, joined them.

Moradian told BI that he sent his email across the firm to show there were differing views.

"If the only exposure that people have to what the Trump administration is doing is firms capitulating and releasing these really sanitized statements about how promising hundreds of millions of dollars of pro bono legal services and wiping their DEI and being beholden to the Trump administration is a good thing, I think there should also be voices that are vocally saying, 'No, this isn't a good thing,'" he said.

"Many more people than those that vocally quit are in opposition to this," he added.

Moradian told BI that the legal industry is "under threat" and that firms should take a stand. "I think what is alarming to me is the easiest time to resist this type of weaponization and illegal action is as early as possible," he said.

"This appeasement just seems incredibly shortsighted to me," he continued. "The Trump administration has started this fight with the legal system, and it's going to be harder to fight the more that these powerful institutions don't fight it."

Simpson Thacher did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

• Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher fights a 7-foot bodyguard at the end of 'Reacher' season three.
• The season revolved around the criminal organization behind a rug merchant.
• Here's what to know about "Reacher" season four.

Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) finally fought Paulie (Olivier Richters), the 7-foot tall bodyguard, at the end of "Reacher" season three — showing there's plenty left in the tank for the show ahead of "Reacher" season four.

The third season provides new challenges for Reacher, as he goes undercover to find a confidential informant working for Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall) whose rug company is a front for smuggling guns.

The real mastermind behind the operation is Francis Xavier Quinn (Brian Tee), an old enemy of Reacher's who tortured his former military colleague, Dominique Kohl (Mairah Robinson) to death — as seen in flashbacks.

So not only does Reacher have to dismantle a criminal organization, but he also has some revenge to attend to. The story is a change of pace for the hero, who usually solves his problems by punching them in the face, not working undercover.

Here's how the final episode wraps things up, and what to know about "Reacher" season four.

Reacher's fight with Paulie lasts for over 14 minutes.

The episode revolves around Reacher and his ally, Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), working with Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) and Guillermo Villanueva (Roberto Montesinos), who are agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The team infiltrates Beck's mansion to extract Duffy's informant, Teresa Daniel (Storm Steendon) and use the businessman's 50th birthday party as a cover. While Reacher sends his team inside to look for Quinn, he faces off with Paulie.

The fight takes place over 14 minutes in the episode, as the pair trade blows, choke each other with chains, and Reacher hits Paulie with a rake. At one point, the pair even tumble into the ocean and try to drown one another.

In February, Ritchson told Business Insider that Olivier Richters accidentally punched him for real during the fight.

Ultimately, it comes to an end in Paulie's office where he keeps a giant machine gun. Knowing that the hulking goon will try to shoot him with it, Reacher sneakily jams the barrel — which causes part of the weapon to explode when Paulie pulls the trigger. It sends chunks of metal flying into the villain's throat, killing him.

So while Reacher is absolutely ripped, he's also smart enough to use his surroundings to his advantage and not just his strength.

Neagley and the ATF take down Quinn's operation.

After Paulie's death, the rest of the episode is fairly straightforward as Neagley and the ATF agents fight Quinn and Beck's henchmen and take out the group of thugs trying to buy the weapons shipment. Duffy also saves Daniel, her informant, from being abused by one of the people buying the weapons.

But as Reacher arrives to finally get his revenge on Quinn, the villain's Russian employers arrive to get the money he owes. Neagley offers them the bag of cash in exchange for Quinn's life, knowing that Reacher wants to kill him to get justice for Kohl.

After the Russians depart, Reacher shoots Quinn in the head with a shotgun — just to make sure that he stays dead.

From there, it doesn't take long for the authorities to arrive and seize Beck's house, and Reacher rides off into the sunset on a Harley Davidson motorbike. Like the previous seasons, the finale wraps up the story but doesn't tease what's next.

'Reacher' season four doesn't have a release date yet, but the 'Neagley' spinoff is already filming.

Amazon gave the green light for "Reacher" season four back in October 2024, but it does not have an official release date just yet. Presumably, if production starts soon it will arrive in early 2026.

Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series includes 29 books, but the company has not announced which story the fourth season will be based on. However, Child told BI he'd like the show to tackle his book about the opioid crisis in America, "The Midnight Line."

Regardless of which book the show uses, "Reacher" fans don't have to wait too long for more stories from these characters. The "Neagley" spinoff series is in production, and Maria Sten is reprising her role as the title character.