When it comes to films, David Fincher has been relatively quiet over the past ten years.
Between 1995 and 2011, he churned out eight features, many of which are still considered hallmarks of modern cinema today – “Se7en,” “The Game,” “Fight Club,” “Panic Room,” “Zodiac,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Social Network” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.
Since 2012 though, things have outwardly slowed down as he segued into television – first helping launch the “House of Cards” remake before his acclaimed two-season “Mindhunter” series. In that period, he’s only tackled three films – the lurid thriller “Gone Girl,” the period drama “Mank” and the upcoming “The Killer”.
With time, some of his works have risen more in prominence than others. One that has been dubbed underrated is “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Critics and audiences really quite liked this film adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel, giving it an 86% (7.6/10) on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore.
Sadly, the economics prevented any follow-ups. The 2009 Swedish-language adaptation from director Niels Arden Oplev scored the same in terms of critic reviews but made $104 million at the global box-office off a $13 million budget – quite a profitable endeavour, which resulted in two direct-to-TV sequels.
Fincher’s film more than doubled that film’s gross at $239.3 million worldwide, which is very good for an R-rated dark adult thriller. As it was made on a budget of $90 million, its return wasn’t enough to justify any further entries.
Speaking at the recent Tribeca Film Festival about his past work, he was asked to reflect on it and says he remains very proud of the work but understands why it’s perceived as a disappointment:
“It would be interesting to see, if you took this piece of material that has millions and millions of people excited, and you did it within an inch of its life, would it support the kind of money it would take to do?
We pledged early on that we wanted to make a movie that was not embarrassing to its Swedish heritage. Atlanta for Sweden? No, We didn’t want to transpose it. We wanted it to be true to its essence.
I was proud of it. I thought we did what we set out to do. We did it the way that we could. And when people said it cost too much for what the return on investment was – okay, a swing and a miss.”
The film still managed to earn its star Rooney Mara an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, won the Oscar for Best Film Editing, and scored sound and cinematography nominations. The Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score also won a Grammy.
Fincher previously indicated that a script for the sequel “The Girl Who Played with Fire” had been written by both Steven Zaillian and later Andrew Kevin Walker – one that was “extremely different from the book”.
Ultimately Sony passed and moved on to making the Fede Alvarez-directed low-budget adaptation of the fourth book, “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” with Claire Foy taking over the Lisbeth Salander role. That film opened in 2018 and was a major bomb – taking in just $35.2 million off a $43 million budget.
Source: Twitter, The Playlist
