Fincher doesn't play chess, but puts ink down for a DRAGON TATTOO
Contrary to earlier speculation, David Fincher is not set as the director or 'Pawn Sacrifice', the chess epic based on the build up to Bobby Fischer's famous match with Boris Spassky in 1972, that has been scripted for the screen by Steve Knight ('Eastern Promises', 'Dirty Pretty Things'). The Playlist report;
"while Fincher did take a meeting with the filmmakers to "help them out" in what we imagine was an advisory role, we've been told he was never in the director's chair and is not going to be."As someone who really wants to see the chess drama made, let's hope Fincher's suggestions included his thoughts on who show direct. Instead he's now firmly tied to an English-language adaptation of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' as his next film, so those hankering for some dense, Finchery drama shouldn't give up on life just yet.... Written by the late Steig Larsson, the first in a crime novel trilogy has already been made into a film in it's native Sweden, and got favourable reviews on it's release last month, so it'll be interesting to see how Fincher will put his own spin on the material to set it apart. It's a clever and self referential murder mystery, based around a journalist who's forced into writing for an ageing publisher to save his reputation. His role soon turns down detective street, as he unravels his beneficiaries' convoluted and complex family tree to get to the bottom of a long unsolved murder. He his helped along the way by 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo', Lisabeth Salander, a young antisocial punk with a gift of hacking. Carey Mulligan has been suggested for the part, but as of yet 'she's not received any official calls'. We can but hope, though the suggestion is Fincher wants an
unknown. 'American Gangster' and 'Schlinder's List' writer Steve Zaillian has adapted the novel for Sony, with shooting to begin in October/September time. The book itself is the first in a series of 3, so it's entirely possible this will evolve into yet another trilogy. Fincher should be a good match for the themes, which he continues to be drawn too after 'Zodiac' and 'Se7en'. He's currently doing the rounds for 'The Social Network', a movie based around the history(?) of Facebook, and is still tied to the 'Heavy Metal' remake, which is something I'm personally very excited about. With all these different projects going on, and the polarising 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', it'll be good to see Fincher getting to work with the sort of material that really shows him off as a director of the tense, dark and twisty.