He’s associated with pitch black fare, though it’s easy to forget that David Fincher has covered a fair amount of ground in his career as a director. The man who had Kevin Spacey suffocating a dog in the opening moments of House of Cards also brought us a fantastical, part-sea-bound feast in THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. With this in mind it’s not a big surprise to see he was once attached to a version of Jules Verne’s classic tale 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. Originally shot by Richard Fleischer, who mastered star Kirk Douglas as well as a giant rubberized squid, the Fincher take has been outlined by the man himself, courtesy of Playboy. No doubt sandwiched between a naked woman and an article about extreme kite surfing, the man behind the upcoming GONE GIRL talks about the considerable time he spent on the project. It goes without saying his interpretation would have gone beyond the already diverse parameters Verne was renowned for:
It was smart and crazy entertaining, with the Nautilus crew fighting every kind of gigantic Ray Harryhausen thing. But it also had this riptide to it. We were doing Osama bin Nemo, a Middle Eastern prince from a wealthy family who has decided that white imperialism is evil and should be resisted. The notion was to put kids in a place where they’d say, “I agree with everything he espouses. I take issue with his means—or his ends.” I really wanted to do it, but in the end I didn’t have the stomach lining for it.
This certainly sounds like an interesting meeting of authorial visions, however there is a solid tradition of serious directors scuppering adventure stories via an overload of psychology (I’m thinking Ang Lee’s HULK). Having said that, it does seem the teenage boy in Fincher was struggling to get out for this one and it would have been fascinating to see how he handled the creature aspect. He also discusses the challenges of finding material that excites him:
I have a lot of trouble with material. I don’t like most comedies because I don’t like characters who try to win me over. I don’t like being ingratiated. I don’t like obsequiousness. I also have issues with movies where two people fall in love just because they’re the stars and their names are above the title.
You could regard the lengthy development time invested in LEAGUES as a wasted opportunity. The director may disagree, having been sent on a worldwide hunt for possible locations – at least he got a bit of a holiday out of it. In addition to GONE GIRL he is also adapting Channel 4 drama Utopia for HBO. That featured a man getting his eyeball removed with a spoon so looks like Fincher is back to his “old tricks”.
Source: FirstShowing
