Some filmmakers are auteurs with very distinct and often signature styles to them.
That includes “Zodiac,” “Se7en” and “Fight Club” helmer David Fincher whose techniques have become familiar that the term ‘Fincher-esque’ has been used to describe those attempting to ape his style.
Speaking with Empire though, Fincher himself revealed that while he doesn’t like the term – having a distinct style does have advantages with one of them being able to subvert expectations of his big fans:
“‘Fincher-esque’ makes me a little queasy. Although I think it’s a good thing to have an audience have some expectation of you because it gives you opportunities to subvert that. When you’re making a movie like ‘Gone Girl,’ it’s not a bad thing that people have seen ‘Seven’ and know that s–t can go seriously off the rails. The threat of that is actually kind of positive. You get to play with expectations. It’s your responsibility to be aware of that and use it to your advantage, as opposed to letting it get in the way of the story you’re trying to tell.”
Fincher of course has mostly been all about streaming in recent years. With the effective elimination of mid-budget dramas from the big screen, Fincher has setup camp with Netflix and remains a big fan of the streamer:
“They have never been easy to get made. I don’t think that for so many years it was knees akimbo to get your weird $60 million dramas made. What Netflix has made possible is for people to still give attention to things that are in the $30-$50 million range, instead of just splitting the world down the middle, between a $200 million or $14 million movie. I like enough money to get into trouble and not enough money that you get hurt if it doesn’t do $60 million its opening weekend.”
Fincher also revealed he once talked about doing a James Bond movie, around the time of “GoldenEye” back in 1995, but says “I don’t think I would flourish in that environment.”
