David Fincher had his idea for the Harry Potter film series rejected because it was too “creepy.”
The 62-year-old filmmaker met with Warner Bros. executives to explore the possibility of overseeing the beloved wizarding franchise but ultimately his vision was deemed too dark.
He told Variety: “I was asked to come in and talk to them about how I would do Harry Potter.
“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.’”
The Fight Club director explained producers didn’t consider his take on the franchise as they had something more wholesome in mind for the adaptations of the J.K. Rowling novels.
He added: “They were like, ‘We want Thom Browne schooldays by way of Oliver.’”
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Fincher has previously worked on adaptations of books including Gone Girl and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but he wasn’t concerned about the popularity of the novels when he took on the jobs.
He said: “Is there a built-in audience? That’s somebody else’s job. Those books get sold to movie studios when it’s shown that there’s a built-in audience, so I’m usually coming into the food chain after it’s been decided that this is something tasty. I was interested in Gone Girl in spite of the fact that it was a bestseller … I liked the idea of punishment for our narcissistic leanings as it relates to finding a mate.
“With Dragon Tattoo, I’m much more fond of Chinatown and the shoe leather in that than I am in any hacker thing. But I loved this broken girl who’s given a chance to do research with this guy that she’s not quite so sure about. And I don’t even know that he’s kind to her; I think he just treats her the way you want to be treated, and for her, this is so revelatory.”
“And if you’ve ever been to Sweden, you’re talking about a country about the size of California with the population of L.A. County. There’s a lot of room in them thar hills for serial killers and for dumping bodies. And I loved the idea of really, truly getting winter across in an investigation.”
When it came to directing the thriller movie Zodiac, his 2007 chronicle of the 35-year investigation into the Zodiac killings, the filmmaker admitted he had long been fascinated by the true-crime tale.
He said: “[The Zodiac killer] was a boogeyman when I was a seven year old, and I was kind of going through the process the main character was going through — what happened? I felt kindred to that.”
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic
Here is a first look at the new Harry Potter themed land coming to Universal’s Epic Universe theme park, set to open in 2025.
