David Fincher can officially do no wrong. I appreciate that other opinions may be available, but his resumé is frankly astonishing. Seven, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Game, The Social Network, Benjamin Button. What we’ve seen so far of his re-working of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo looks mightily impressive as well.
Impatient lot that we are, talk quickly turns to next projects and although he has a lot of irons in the fire, Fincher may next turn his attention to a remake of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, itself based on a Jules Verne novel about one Captain Nemo and his futuristic proto-submarine the Nautilus. The original film was most celebrated at the time for the impressive finale, with a giant squid doing battle with the Nautilus, though as we might expect, those effects have since become exceedingly dated. Quite what Fincher will do with the material is anyone’s guess.
Tone-wise, an interesting dimension is that Andrew Kevin Walker (who scripted Fincher’s “Seven” and cameoed as a neighbour in Panic Room) looks set to work on the script and although he has never returned to the high water mark of Seven, his work since has remained within the horror/gothic milieu (The Wolfman, Sleepy Hollow, 8mm), which would surely mean a departure from the none-more-Disney stylings of the original.
Fincher may sign up for a reworking of Cleopatra instead, though either way this is going to wind up as a second remake on the trot for him, which seems unusual for so individualistic and unique a director. We will let you know as soon as we do. In the meantime, check out the trailer below for the original 20,000 Leagues. Can you see Fincher doing this?
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhyuey4xU3Q’]
