It was recently announced Ben Affleck would lead director David Fincher‘s adaptation of Gone Girl, which put the question as to what was up with his big budget, 3-D take on Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea over at Disney. After all, wasn’t the Australian government doing everything they could to lure the production down under?
As it turns out, that’s exactly what that was, a bit of a fishing expedition as The Playlist reports Fincher has been off the project for months with Gone Girl his only target.
The most recent reports on Gone Girl had Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt vying for the title role, but now The Hollywood Reporter says Rosamund Pike (Jack Reacher) is now the frontrunner as production is expected to begin this fall.
UPDATE: Variety is reporting Abbie Cornish, Olivia Wilde and Julianne Hough are also in the running for the title role in Gone Girl and have submit audition tapes.
Of course, with Gone Girl in the wings and 20,000 Leagues dead, what about The Girl Who Played with Fire, the sequel to Fincher’s 2011 remake The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Budgeted at $90 million, Dragon Tattoo went on to make over $232 million worldwide, which isn’t exactly stellar numbers, but still decent for a dark, R-rated thriller released during the Christmas holidays.
Prior to today we already knew Dragon Tattoo screenwriter Steve Zaillian had already been paid a large amount to script the sequel, which is to say Sony has already dedicated funds toward the future of the franchise and now The Playlist says the writing continues.
The Playlist quotes sources close to Fincher saying Andrew Kevin Walker, screenwriter of Fincher’s Se7en, has quietly been rewriting Zaillian’s The Girl Who Played with Fire screenplay and is almost done. The site notes, however, the window to shoot the sequel would be small with Daniel Craig on Broadway through mid-January and expectations he’ll begin working on James Bond 24 with Sam Mendes shortly thereafter. Oh, and there’s post on Gone Girl to consider, not to mention Rooney Mara‘s schedule.
I can’t believe Sony would want to wait until late 2014 or early 2015 to continue the Millenium series. If they had to wait would they even continue it at all? I, for one, want more, but I’m a Fincher fanboy and really enjoyed Dragon Tattoo so if you ask me, get The Girl Who Played with Fire in production now.
