David Fincher Couldn’t Agree With One Spider-Man Scene That Became a Dealbreaker for Sony
Director David Fincher is one of the top directors in the world. Known for his distinctive filmmaking style, Fincher’s movies are particularly psychologically intense and delve into the complex side of human nature, often leaving us all in a state of shock.
In fact, the director, who has helmed critically acclaimed flicks like Fight Club, Gone Girl, and Seven, was set to direct the popular Spider-Man movie for Sony. However, the director hit a snag with one scene that he felt messed up the integrity of the story. In the end, he chose to split with Sony due to the creative difference.
David Fincher’s Spider-Man is not bitten by a Spider
Directors like Martin Scorsese and David Fincher are generally not superhero admirers. When Fincher was once approached to take up the helm of directing the Web-Slinger movie, the reputed director dismissed the idea, claiming that it didn’t have much room for artistic exploration.
Fincher, who is known for making neo-noir narratives, revealed in an interview with The Guardian that he is not interested in featuring the traditional Spider-Man story in his vision of filmmaking.
In his vision, Fincher, who likes to go against the comic book convention, omitted the pivotal scene of his origin, “bitten by a radioactive spider,” and instead focused on an adult Peter Parker.
“They weren’t fucking interested,” [laughs]. “And I get it. They were like: ‘Why would you want to eviscerate the origin story? And I was like: ‘’Cos it’s dumb?’ That origin story means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I looked at it and I was like: ‘A red and blue spider?’ There’s a lot of things I can do in my life and that’s just not one of them.”
“I’m not interested in doing a superhero,” Fincher in an interview with The Establishing Shot candidly expressed that his Spider-Man stemmed from the character’s unique mix of durability and invincibility. In fact, Fincher like all the characters in his movies wants to see a flawed and complex Peter Parker.
“The thing I liked about Spider-Man was that I liked the notion of this kind of moment in time where you’re both totally vulnerable and completely invulnerable. I just couldn’t shoot somebody getting bit by a radioactive spider, I couldn’t go to sleep knowing I’d done that.”
However, according to Fincher himself, Sony wasn’t receptive to his idea for the project. Since Fincher’s unconventional take was not aligned with the studio’s vision, they eventually decided to go with Sam Raimi.
Apart from Fincher, Sony had Roland Emmerich, Tony Scott, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, and Michael Bay as potential directors. Finally, Raimi took up the franchise, directing all three successful Spider-Man films with starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker.
David Fincher has no time for Origin the Spider-Man
The visionary director’s ideas for the movie were further shared with Gizmodo. Unlike Raimi, who focused on featuring the relationship between Spider-Man and his love interest, Mary Jane, in the Fincher part, he would have focused on a different love story. He also wanted to kick off things with Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin and aimed to make Gwen’s death a significant plot point in the movie.
“My impression of what Spider-Man could be is very different from what Sam [Raimi] did or what Sam wanted to do. I think the reason he directed that movie was because he wanted to do the Marvel comic superhero”.
“It was not something that I felt I could do straight-faced. I wanted to start with Gwen Stacy and the Green Goblin, and I wanted to kill Gwen Stacy”.
Fincher stressed that instead of delving deep into Spider-Man’s origins like Raimi did in his movies, he had an idea to breeze through the part during the credits. It seems like he intended to dive straight into action and drama rather than spending time exploring the backstory.
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Currently, the director is busy promoting his neo-noir action, The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender in the title role. Based on the French graphic novel series by Alexis “Matz” Nolent of the same name, it follows a titular assassin who gets embroiled in an international manhunt following a botched hit. The Killer will be available to stream on Netflix on November 10.
