The Gone Girl Writer's Follow-Up Was A Huge A24 Flop (Despite Its Star-Studded Cast)

When Gillian Flynn's third novel, "Gone Girl," hit shelves, it absolutely blew up. And the 2014 movie adaptation from David Fincher was even bigger, turning Flynn into a name to be reckoned with almost overnight. The bestselling book about a woman who faked her own kidnapping was an astounding film debut that made it feel like anything Flynn touched would turn to gold. Though she would go on to write the screenplay to the criminally underrated Steve McQueen heist drama "Widows," the first big follow-up for Flynn after the massive success of "Gone Girl" was an adaptation of her second novel, "Dark Places," about a woman who tries to solve the decades-old murders of her entire family. "Dark Places" is a much more complicated novel than "Gone Girl," but with a screenplay and direction from the talented Gilles Paquet-Brenner and a seriously stacked cast, it seemed like the movie had a real shot to succeed. Unfortunately, "Dark Places" just didn't have the same magic as "Gone Girl," with overwhelmingly negative critical reviews and an abysmal box office return. 

Despite starring Charlize Theron as surviving family member Libby Day, Nicholas Hoult as true crime obsessive Lyle Wirth, and Christina Hendricks in flashbacks as Libby's mother Patty (with each bringing good work to their performances), "Dark Places" is a muddled mess that really feels like a disappointment in comparison to the wickedly sharp "Gone Girl."

Some novels are more difficult to adapt than others, and "Gone Girl" is fairly linear with a very specific narrator and narrative voice, whereas "Dark Places" has multiple narrators and perspectives, as well as taking place both in the past and the present, somewhat simultaneously in order to pace its mysteries. Amy Dunne, the protagonist of "Gone Girl," is a kind of girlboss villain for the ages, but Libby Day is more of a broken antihero, which is a tougher sell, too. Theron is great as Libby, with shades of her performances in Jason Reitman's "Tully" and "Young Adult," but unfortunately, the screenplay just doesn't deliver the story well enough for "Dark Places" to work.

"Dark Places" really is a killer novel, however, and thankfully, Flynn is going to get another chance to adapt the story, this time as a series for HBO. The story honestly would work much better as a series because it would allow for the flashback sequences to be more in-depth and have time to breathe, something the film just doesn't have. Not only that, but Flynn is going to have a much larger role this time around, co-showrunning the series with Brett Johnson ("Ray Donovan," "Mad Men") and co-creating and writing with Guerrin Gardner, her husband. While it's definitely a bummer that the "Dark Places" movie just didn't work, especially given that incredible cast, at least we're going to hopefully get an adaptation worthy of the source material. Only time will tell.