David Fincher is one of the most sought-after directors working today, but Hollywood producers know that he chooses his projects carefully. There’s a Hollywood rumor that when movie producers offer Fincher a directing job, they don’t actually expect him to accept it. When Fincher commits to a movie, he commits all the way, and inspiring that kind of commitment takes a special kind of project.
Occasionally, Fincher has signed on to helm a movie that fell through before shooting began, or he’s mulled over the decision and realized it’s not a good fit. So, here are 10 movies that David Fincher almost directed.
World War Z 2
A sequel to World War Z has been in and out of development since the first film exceeded expectations and grossed over $500 million at the worldwide box office. The producers hired David Fincher to direct the project and it was set to shoot in July 2019.
However, in February 2019, the sequel was called off due to concerns about the budget. The first film suffered from similar budgetary issues as it went wildly over its agreed budget and ended up being one of the most expensive movies ever made.
Catch Me If You Can
David Fincher was offered the chance to direct Catch Me If You Can, a crime caper based on the life of con man Frank Abagnale, Jr., but he turned down the offer to helm Panic Room instead.
Steven Spielberg ended up directing the movie with a young Leonardo DiCaprio playing Abagnale and Tom Hanks playing the FBI agent on his tail.
Batman Begins
After the embarrassing failure of Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, with its Bat-nipples and rubber lips, Warner Bros. wanted to reboot the Caped Crusader’s big-screen adventures with a darker, grittier take on the character.
Before this job was given to Christopher Nolan and the Memento visionary went on to change comic book movies forever, the producers offered the gig to David Fincher, who turned it down.
Columbine
When Dave Cullen’s book Columbine was published, examining the events of the titular school shooting, producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall bought the film rights with David Fincher in mind for the director’s chair. As Fincher seriously considered going forward with the movie, he eventually decided against it as he and the producers agreed that the subject matter was too taboo and challenging.
Instead, the producers adapted the book as a play called The Library, which was directed by Steven Soderbergh and starred Chloë Grace Moretz.
Steve Jobs
Aaron Sorkin’s script about the life of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which was eventually directed by Danny Boyle with Michael Fassbender playing Jobs, was initially set to be directed by David Fincher, who previously collaborated with Sorkin on The Social Network.
The producers didn’t agree with Fincher’s decision to cast Christian Bale in the lead role, but it was his steep $10 million fee that hammered the final nail into place.
Mission: Impossible III
After Brian De Palma directed the first Mission: Impossible movie as an old-school spy thriller and John Woo directed the second one as an explosive actioner, David Fincher was lined up to direct the third one.
However, he eventually dropped out of the project, paving the way for J.J. Abrams to take the job as his directorial debut. Abrams even quit his creative duties on Lost to shoot the threequel.
The Girl Who Played With Fire
When he was hired to direct a Hollywood adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher was excited to pioneer a super-dark, hard-R franchise for adult audiences to combat the swarm of superheroes.
He was planning to adapt the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire, with Rooney Mara reprising the lead role. However, the first movie underperformed at the box office. It wasn’t a bomb, but it didn’t make enough to kickstart a franchise.
Cleopatra
Angelina Jolie has been developing a big-budget remake of Cleopatra as a starring vehicle for herself for a few years now. David Fincher was once in the running to direct the movie. However, he dropped out when he decided to focus on Gone Girl instead.#
When the Sony hack revealed that producer Amy Pascal called Jolie a “minimally talented spoiled brat” in an email to a colleague, the Cleopatra remake was pretty much dead in the water.
Heavy Metal
A few years ago, David Fincher attempted to mount a remake of the adult-oriented animated cult classic Heavy Metal. The idea was for a different A-list filmmaker to helm each segment, with Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Zack Snyder, and Gore Verbinski lined up to each direct a segment.
Fincher recycled some of his concepts from the unproduced Heavy Metal remake for his Netflix sci-fi anthology series Love, Death & Robots.
Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
When Colin Trevorrow departed from Star Wars: Episode IX following creative differences, Lucasfilm scrambled to find a new director. They ended up rehiring J.J. Abrams to take back the torch he passed on to Rian Johnson when he made The Force Awakens (another movie that Fincher was offered and turned down).
David Fincher was one of the filmmakers that Lucasfilm’s infamous president Kathleen Kennedy met with before Abrams was hired. Fincher turned down the offer, because of “the kind of intestinal fortitude one would have to have” to follow up the success (and shortcomings) of the previous Star Wars movies.