As David Fincher awaits his first Oscar for The Social Network, he’s promoting the DVD and briefly talking on his 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea adaptation for Disney, his long-gestating Rendezous With Rama and, of course, the upcoming The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo film, starring Rooney Mara (via /Film).
Here’s what he had to say on Leagues:
– The film will be in 3D (ain’t getting more than that, so hush)
On Rama:
– “I think that there’s a lot of movies that could be my next film,” Fincher said, but the Arthur C.Clarke adaptation is on the shortlist.
– ” [Rama] has an amazing role for Morgan Freeman who is an amazing actor and would be amazing in this thing. The question was can we get a script that’s worthy of Morgan and can we get a script that is worthy of Arthur Clarke…”
– “…there have been people that have been interested in this idea and we have never been able to get a script.”
On Dragon Tattoo:
– Even though Fincher didn’t want to make another serial killer film, he was woed by the producing team of Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin as well as the studio, saying: “‘that there was a hope that you could do a franchise movie for adults.’ And I thought ‘fuck man, I’ve been working my ass off for twenty years, hoping that somebody would say something like this.'”
That’s all the news that’s fit to print on those Fincher projects via the man himself, but read Collider’s excellent interview to get some incite into his shooting style through the lens of The Social Network.
In other Dragon Tattoo news, character actor Stellan Skarsgard spoke on Fincher’s direction and Mara’s lead performance (via The Playlist):
– “When you shoot with [Fincher], he does 35 or 40 takes of almost every set up. Since he rolls all the time, it’s fine. You just get more and more energy from working with that drive. He’s a very good director, so I’m really having fun. I’m going to L.A. in a couple of days to continue doing interiors there.”
– “I think Noomi Rapace (who played Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish films) was fantastic, and this is another kind of Lisbeth Salander. I think [Rooney] will do something beautiful with it.”
Skarsgard also got in a bit about his other high-profile film in production, Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia:
On the plot of it all:
“The film starts with a wedding, with a lot of guests, and I’m only in the wedding, in the beginning…And then the film narrows down to fewer characters. I am actually my own son’s best man. My son, Alexander [in real life and in the film, to clairfy], is getting married to Kirsten Dunst, at the beginning, and I’m his best man and also Kirsten’s employer.”
And on Von Trier’s much-love/hated style of filmmaking:
– “…his way of shooting is so relaxed for the actors, if you don’t want to be in control of yourself. You really try to shoot the scenes in different ways and explore the possibilities of the scene. There’s no pressure and you’re allowed to make as many mistakes as you want.”
The actor goes on to tell a nice little anecdote about Von Trier’s directing him to rape Nicole Kidman in Dogville as though they were making a rom-com. Ah, art.
Melancholia is expected to premiere at this year’s Cannes while Dragon Tattoo is set for a year-end December 21 release. Skarsgard also has Thor and the indie A Somewhat Gentle Man hitting theaters on May 6th and January 14th, respectively.
Which of these upcoming films are you most excited for?