David Fincher talks 20,000 Leagues, “dull” superhero movies, The Game & more

In a lengthy conversation with Playboy, David Fincher talked about his past and future projects, and revealed his plans for the 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA remake. Fincher also explains why he's not interested in doing a superhero film, and says he probably shouldn't have directed THE GAME.

Yesterday we learned why David Fincher won't be directing 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for Disney, and in his interview with Playboy, he shared his vision for the film.

Dude, it was fucking cool. 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. A lot of people flourish at Hollywood studios because they’re fear-based. I have a hard time relating to that, because I feel our biggest responsibility is to give the audience something they haven’t seen. For example, Gillian Flynn and I are doing Utopia [about fans of a cult graphic novel] for HBO, and that’s all I’m focusing on next year.

It doesn't sound like Fincher is going to be directing a superhero movie anytime soon based on his comments on the genre, which is interesting considering he was at one point being eyed for a Spider-Man film.

I find it dull. I like to anticipate the energy of a movie audience that’s waiting for the curtain to come up and thinking, Well, one thing we don’t know about this guy is that we don’t know how bad it can get.

David Fincher goes on to say his wife told him not to do THE GAME, and he believes she was right.

We didn’t figure out the third act, and it was my fault, because I thought if you could just keep your foot on the throttle it would be liberating and funny. I know what I like, and one thing I definitely like is not knowing where a movie is going. These days, though, it’s hard to get audiences to give themselves over. They want to see the whole movie in a 90-second trailer.

I actually really like THE GAME, but the third act is a little wonky. Besides the previously mentioned Utopia, it was also recently announced he and author James Ellroy will be teaming up for a new series for HBO. It's been described as a crime noir set in 1950's L.A. and it might be one of the shows he is talking about in his comments below.

Studios treat audiences like lemmings, like cattle in a stockyard. I don’t want to ask actors or anyone else on a movie to work so hard with me if the studios treat us as though we’re making Big Macs. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is not a Big Mac. Gone Girl is not a Big Mac. This TV show I’m doing about music videos in the 1980s and the crew members who worked on them, or this other show, a Sunset Boulevard set in the world of soaps—they’re not Big Macs. I don’t make Big Macs.

The television series about 1980's music videos is news to me, but it sounds very cool, especially since David Fincher is involved. The director always picks interesting projects to work on, and I'm glad he's going to be busy developing multiple television series. Which TV show from the director do you want to see the most?

David Fincher's GONE GIRL opens on October 3, 2014.