He failed to convince the production company with his ‘creepy pitch’.
Hollywood director David Fincher has revealed that he was in the running to take over as director of the Harry Potter films, but put producers off with his “creepy” plans for the blockbuster.
The 62-year-old filmmaker, who is best known for directing Fight Club, Gone Girl and The Social Network, told Variety that he once had an opportunity to take control of the colossal Harry Potter film franchise.
“I was asked to come in and talk to them about how I would do Harry Potter,” Fincher told the publication. “I remember saying, ‘I just don’t want to do the clean Hollywood version of it. I want to do something that looks a lot more like Withnail and I, and I want it to be kind of creepy.’”
He said Warner Bros. had something more traditional in mind for their series of adaptations of author J.K. Rowling’s best-selling books: “They were like, ‘We want Thom Browne schooldays by way of ‘Oliver’.’”
In the end, Chris Columbus of Home Alone fame directed the first two movies, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets the following year.
Alfonso Cuarón’s 2004 take on the third instalment, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, ended up with a slightly darker tone, which continued in Mike Newell’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005, and the last four films, all directed by David Yates.
Things didn’t turn out too badly in the end for Fincher.
The autuer would go on to make critically adored dramas such as Seven, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Zodiac.
He also has some exciting future TV projects on the horizon, overseeing an English-language spin-off to Netflix hit Squid Game, a show many have compared to his own 1996 film The Game.
As for the Harry Potter franchise, it was recently announced that JK Rowling’s bestselling books were being adapted for a new series.
The news angered many fans and devotees to the film series, who deem another adaptation “unnecessary”.
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When asked whether an involvement in the new television adaptation would interest him, Fincher replied: “Is there a built-in audience? That’s somebody else’s job.
“Those books get sold to movie studios when it is shown that there is a built-in audience, so I’m usually coming into the food chain after it’s been decided that this is something tasty.
He continued: “There are different things about stories that resonate with you based on movies you love and the kind of movies that you made. So I don’t know how I choose things to be involved with, but you get a hankering where you go, ‘I’d like to see this, and I’d like to see it done this way.’”
