Pages

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Fincher: "Leagues" DOA, No Longer On "Fire"?

It seems that director David Fincher's proposed adaptation of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo" has in fact been dead for months.


The Playlist post claims that the reports in the spring about the film getting a tax credit in Australia was a desperate move by the government to entice the filmmakers to proceed with the project.

The reasons for the project collapse are numerous. Fincher's first choice for the lead Brad Pitt changed his mind. Backup choices Daniel Craig and Matt Damon didn't want to be away from their families for at least five months of production.

Fincher considered Channing Tatum but Disney didn't want him--They wanted Chris Hemsworth but Fincher didn't. Ultimately Fincher chose to move onto to adapt "Gone Girl".

Add in the big-budget flops of "John Carter" and "The Lone Ranger," Disney skiddish to gamble on yet another $200+ million 3D tentpole film adaptation.

Another Fincher-related project--the English-language version of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo follow-up "The Girl Who Played with Fire" is also in sorta limbo.


 The next book in the series is set a year later. Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is approached by a young journalist couple with a meticulously researched thesis about Swedish sex trafficking ring involving high-ranking public and private figures. When both they and Lisbeth Salander's (Rooney Mara) abusive former guardian is found murdered, Lisbeth is pegged as the prime suspect. The trail leads to a dark incident in Lisbeth's past and a mysterious figure known only as 'Zala' who is the key to everything.

In a bit of irony one time "Leagues" scribe Andrew Kevin Walker has agreed to work on Steven Zaillian's earlier drafts of the script for the film and his work is almost finished.

The catch is the short window of availability for star Craig.

The only time before 2015 that Craig would be available to film 'Played With Fire' would be early next year.  But Fincher will probably be well into post on "Gone Girl".

So it looks as though Fincher will no longer call action on 'Played With Fire'---Fincher has his pay or play deal meaning he gets a nice bonus anyway.

No comments:

Post a Comment