Having broken out of Hollywood jail with the surprise hit of Se7en, David Fincher one again found himself as one of the most sought-after filmmakers in LA. It was that cache that netted him the job directing The Sky Is Falling, one of the biggest (and most notorious) spec scripts of the nineties, which meant that everyone and their mothers were chomping at the bit to helm it. It had a pretty dynamite concept, too, so you can see why directing it was such a coveted role: two clerics on an archaeological dig discover proof that God doesn't exist, and a hitman is sent to silence them before they can get the word out. Oh, and to cease the drug-addled killing spree they engage in once they realise there will be no divine retribution for their actions. It got compared to the similarly violent Natural Born Killers that came out around the same time; perhaps the controversial reaction to that film and the other hot button topics (ie religion) the script touched upon caused it to languish in development hell, with Fincher giving up on Howard Roth and Eric Singer's film in favour of The Game. Gore Verbinski attempted to get it greenlit later, too, but to no avail.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
