The original: After kinda screwing the pooch with his directorial debut Alien 3, David Fincher made up for a multitude of sins when it came to his sophomore effort. Se7en is the ultimate serial killer flick, with Brad Pitt's rookie detective teaming up with Morgan Freeman's disenchanted cop to catch the murderer whose killings follow the Seven Deadly Sins. It's gross and disturbing and has the best opening credits sequence in history. Also: best pre-Iron Man Gwyneth Paltrow performance? The sequel: Weirdly, the screenwriter behind Se7en never actually provided a decent follow up. Andrew Kevin Walker wrote grimy Nicolas Cage thriller 8MM, but that's about it. New Line Cinema didn't even bother contracting him to write a sequel, instead nabbing a a screenplay by the writer of Ocean's Eleven about a clairvoyant doctor who helps the FBI catch a serial killer. Then they got somebody to rewrite it as a sequel for Se7en. And yeah, they immediately retcon the first film so that Freeman's character was psychic all along, he just hadn't mentioned it before. Worst of all, they were going to call it Ei8ht. Like Se7en, innit? Fincher said he'd rather put cigarettes out in his eyes than direct it, soooooo.
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/
