25 Things You Didn’t Know About Se7en
22. David Fincher Only Agreed To Do It Because Someone Sent Him The Wrong Script
Fortunately, Chechik passed, and the film needed a new director. When David Fincher was sent the script, he immediately signed on… but not for the movie the producers wanted to make.
You see, they’d made the mistake of sending him Walker’s first version of the Se7en screenplay - the dark as pitch version with the ugly, brutal ending, not the Chechiked-up version with the pixies and the chipmunks.
Any other director might have passed on it instantly, but Walker was in luck: Fincher was a kindred spirit, and he immediately got what the writer had been aiming for with his first run at the idea. The producers quailed, and tried to get him interested in the Chechik rewrite, but Fincher was insistent that he wanted to make the original version.
Not only did Fincher prevail, but he kept Walker involved throughout the development process. Hollywood isn’t well known for being kind to writers, so Fincher’s more collaborative approach with his screenwriters is a bit of an anomaly - but it makes for cracking movies.