David Fincher's '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' is Dead; 'Gone Girl' and 'Dragon Tattoo' Sequel Updates

With David Fincher moving forward on an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, recently signing Ben Affleck for the lead role, it had many wondering what that meant for his big budget version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The film had already been met with delays as Fincher and Disney were unable to find someone to star in it, and considering the studio had just suffered two highly expensive flops in the span of a year (lookin' at you John Carter and The Lone Ranger), it was looking like the project was in serious trouble.

ThePlaylist reports that the project has actually been dead for months, and a recent report that the Aussie government was helping to fund it was a desperate bid to keep it alive, as the production would have created a number of jobs Down Under. Fincher tried everything to get the film going, approaching Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, and finally Chris Hemsworth, but nobody took the bait.

So that puts Gone Girl totally in the pole position for Fincher, with the search for a female lead netting names like Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, and Emily Blunt. The latest said to be circling the role are Abbie Cornish, Julianne Hough, Olivia Wilde, and Rosamund Pike, who may be the frontrunner at this point. Affleck plays a journalist who moves home to Missouri after some trouble and opens a bar. But he becomes a suspect when his wife goes missing on their 5th wedding anniversary.

And what does this mean for that sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? There has actually been some progress on The Girl Who Played with Fire, with Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven) brought on to rewrite the script. It looks like Sony has decided to pony up and pay Daniel Craig to return, but the problem is scheduling, and it may prevent Fincher from taking the helm. He'll be directing Gone Girl this fall, while Craig will be on Broadway until early 2014, which is when the film would need to shoot because he has the 24th James Bond movie soon after. That means Sony will either have to wait until 2015 or go with another director.




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