Update: Neil Gaiman said on his personal blog yesterday that he is still co-writing the Black Hole script with Roger Avary. Seems rather stoked on Fincher’s involvement as well. Thanks to /Film reader ‘Nancy.’
“David Fincher tackling STDs, not like herpes, worse,” is the imagined, beaded brow pitch to the studio. It worked. The director of the Oscar-shunned modern masterpiece Zodiac, as well as Fight Club, is attached to direct a film based on the comics-turned-acclaimed graphic novel, Black Hole, by Charles Burns. Brad Pitt’s Plan B is producing the project, but like DiCaprio’s Akira, no official word if Pitt is involved to star. Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman were set to adapt the screenplay in 2006, but no word if Fincher is doing his own thing here.
Set in the ’70s, Black Hole is a 12-issue comic that followed teenagers who spread “the Bug,” a fictional, incurable STD that causes the sexually-active to develop horrific physical deformities, as well as those who didn’t catch it but reacted to the plague. As you might expect, this turns the infected teens into social outcasts, and the plot synopsis at publisher Pantheon Graphics reads, “What we become witness to instead is a fascinating and eerie portrait of the nature of high school alienation itself - the savagery, the cruelty, the relentless anxiety and ennui, the longing for escape. And then the murders start.”
Fincher’s next theatrical release is December’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt, which is already receiving almighty buzz. Unlike Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, I don’t think Fincher has crafted his end-all-be-all American classic yet. And while Black Hole sounds too fun and twisted to be it, I hope he’ll next be gearing up for the serious sci-fi epic Rendezvous with Rama, one of several projects he’s latched to, another being the Eliot Ness serial killer flick Torso. But a Fincher Ghost World, are you friggin’ kidding? The eclipse has played into some strangely bi-polar news today, and this may be the peak of awesome.
Of note, Alexandre Aja was originally on board to direct this, but he has other fish to fry (and can I just add that a mere two /Film comments for his upcoming Piranha 3D periodically had me questioning life?).
Along with Blankets, Black Hole has been in my “graphic novel requisite procrastination” queue on Amazon for at least six months. I didn’t realize it was originally published by the long-gone Kitchen Sink Press, a company I fondly remember back in the day when I bought comics, if only for seeing its Crow titles amongst the latest The Maxx and Pitt. Damn, this is going to be cool flick, nostalgia can take a hike. And shout out to Paramount Pictures for booking Fincher for three flicks in a row now. That rocks.
Discuss: With Black Hole, will David Fincher do for sex what Darren Afonofsky did for hard drugs and Keith David in Requiem for a Dream?
Source Link: Variety
February 20th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Wow, this will be VERY interesting material to adapt. The book has an almost Elephant Man element to those who have STDs. It’s possible Fincher will handle the material well, but certian elements of how the STDs are presented are so off-putting, it may be a total turn-off to a lot of audience members. Hard to say, but an excellent idea to adapt this! Looking forward to it!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 12:16 am
I love when Fincher movies enter my life but this sounds dumb.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:38 am
Knowing Fincher, he’ll be off the project in under six months.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:45 am
1) like you said hunter, fincher with a graphic novel of this content is a homerun. sex doesn’t necessarily need the PR boost, but safe sex certainly does. its a good comparson to the tragedy of requiem/heroin/keith david.
2) yes, the eclipse is making this a very odd day - but odd is always rad.
3) speaking of ‘keith’s’…i thought i was the only sam keith junkie left! i have been gradually collecting every 1st edition of ‘the maxx’ series for the past 7 or 8 years - i’ve got about 70%. i’ve only read 1-5, as i’m waiting for the day when i have the entire series so i can sit down and enjoy the full-on mind-fuck (you have no idea how hard it has been to resist the urge to read!). the 90’s mtv liquid tv cartoon was the best, and slowly collecting the series has become a favorite hobby of mine. i’ve always gone back and forth about how a live action flick would be, but i’m not sure its necessary. of course i’d watch it, but i’m so nuerotic about the maxx, that i’d probably only be happy with an extremely literal translation to film. however, in these current days of zack snyder… (by the way, sam keith has a wolverine/hulk mini-series from a few years back that is one of the best i’ve ever read. good sloppy drawings/artwork, with a trippy ass story)
February 21st, 2008 at 12:53 am
@ OC
Nice sentiments. Personally, I do want to see a theatrical version of The Maxx but it would have to be as bugged-out as you and I desire. I think Spike Jonze could deliver it, and it definitely shares semblance with WTWTA to some extent.
I never tied my arm to the Liquid Television series like I did to The Maxx comics, but the episodes were cool. It was similar to Spawn on HBO (no comment from me on the Spawn movie, ugh). If Aeon Flux can become a movie (never saw it), The Maxx def can.
And remember “The Specialists” on LTV? I thought Stallone’s film was related to those episodes up until I saw it. My lil’ brother was pissed! Hah. Those who know, know.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:36 am
I sure hope it’s nothing like Requiem for a Dream, that movie f&cking blows.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:20 am
oh man… im so glad aja isn’t directing this movie…he would have taken all of the heart and importance out of the story and left it a shitty horror flick with a weak social thru line that arises at the end in the form of some deformed giant headed mutant in a wheelchair….or something…. fincher will do this book justice
ps…move blankets and black hole up on your que…theyre two of the best books ever written and itll only take a few hours between the two to read them…then move on to fun home
February 21st, 2008 at 8:21 am
oh man… im so glad aja isn’t directing this movie…he would have taken all of the heart and importance out of the story and left it a lame horror flick with a weak social thru line that arises at the end in the form of some deformed giant headed mutant in a wheelchair….or something…. fincher will do this book justice
ps…move blankets and black hole up on your que…theyre two of the best books ever written and itll only take a few hours between the two to read them…then move on to fun home
February 21st, 2008 at 11:40 am
Neil said on his blog yesterday that he and Roger Avary are writing the script for it and that he’s excited Fincher is directing. But I don’t know what control Fincher will have after it’s written of course.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:40 pm
This seems like a David Cronenberg film more than a Fincher film to me. But I am always interested in what Fincher chooses to work on, so we’ll have to wait and see. If done right, this could be a very important film.