Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor's working relationship with director David Fincher got off to an excellent start in 2010 when, together with fellow composer Atticus Ross, Reznor collected an Oscar for The Social Network's musical score. Reznor and Ross also received a Golden Globe nomination in 2012 for their work on Fincher's next film, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and are working with the director once again on his upcoming thriller, Gone Girl.

Based on the novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne, a happily(?) married man whose life is turned upside-down when his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike) vanishes. Despite launching a campaign to try and find her, Nick himself soon becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance, and the investigation shines a light on the dark underbelly of his marriage.

Fincher isn't known for making happy-go-lucky movies. His past feature films, which include serial killer thriller Se7en and the black humor of Fight Club, contain some of the most shocking and memorable scenes in recent cinema history, and Reznor himself is no stranger to grim imagery. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, however, Reznor admitted that while working on the score for Gone Girl he's found it to be even more disturbing than he had anticipated.

"This film has been really fun to work on. It’s been an interesting challenge with some different parameters, and it keeps us on our toes. That’s what makes it good. It’s a much darker film than I was expecting. The book is not exactly uplifting or happy, but it’s a nasty film."

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to anyone who's been following the marketing for Gone Girl; a cover image shot for an issue of EW recreated Annie Liebovitz's famous photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, with Ben Affleck's character shown embracing the half-dressed corpse of his wife on an autopsy table. Reznor added that his and Ross' primary goal in scoring Gone Girl was to try and create an extension of Fincher's vision.

"Not really knowing what I’m doing in the world of scoring films, the best decision Atticus and I made starting with The Social Network was really just to listen and really try to understand what David is thinking. It’s clear he has a pretty realized vision in his head, and he’s thought a lot about whatever project he is working on, and I've always felt like our role is in service to that. How do we translate the role that he thinks music should be, and the tones and textures and spaces it’s allowed to take up, and then make it better than that? So step one in all the projects we’ve done with him is just to sit and let him talk about it and listen before any music is written or before any palette of sounds is chosen. That’s been the right strategy so far."

The first trailer for Gone Girl set the mood with a cover of Elvis Costello's "She" performed by the Psychedelic Furs' lead singer Richard Butler. For those who already love Fincher's talent for dark tales, Gone Girl looks like one of the must-see thrillers of the year. Just remember to brace yourselves for some nastiness.

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Gone Girl is out in theaters on October 3, 2014.

Source: Entertainment Weekly