Coming Soon: Gone Girl (Directed by David Fincher)

This is a new regular column I will writing entitled "Coming Soon."  The goal is to highlight an upcoming film, its potential box office, quality, and maybe even the effect it will on the studio projects going forward.  This is also just a fun way to get pumped about upcoming film projects in 2014.  The first film is Gone Girl.

Gone Girl is an upcoming film from genius director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network).  Fincher's gritty style has a way of turning the ordinary story on its head, this is true in Se7en, with a darker more in-depth look at the criminal mind.  Throughout most of his films Fincher's directorial style has added a much richer layer to every aspect of the story.  Who though a movie about the founding of Facebook was going to be a good film, not me, and it was my number one film of the year.

Enter the best-selling Gone Girl from Gillian Flynn.  I recently finished the book, and at the end thought "There is no one other than David Fincher who could direct this film."  Gone Girl, the book and film (I assume) tell the story of a married couple five years in, Nick and Amy Dunne.  On the day of their fifth anniversary Amy goes missing, the modern spin machine against the husband begins, and so does the understanding of complicated modern love stories.  The book builds to one of the most interesting endings, no spoilers, but it will sure be fun to watch Fincher blends his dark directorial style with the books tone.

Box Office

The film is not set to be released until October 3, but speculation on box office can always happen.  Fincher's last film was the film, was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the best-selling book.  This film adaptation of the book, made 102 million domestic, and 130 million in foreign markets.  With a production budget of 90 million, the film was not viewed as much of a domestic success.  The film also did not shy away from the dark aspects of the book like Lisbeth sodomizing the man who raped her, it was graphic, and maybe not exactly a movie that would work around a Christmas release.  Sony missed the mark.

What does this mean for Gone Girl?  Potentially nothing, the tone of Gone Girl is dark, but not as dark as Tattoo.  Girl will probably be rated R still.  Girl's release date of October 3rd is much smarter, and should prove to be a much smarter time to open this film.  While the production budget is still not listed, I think this film will even better, if its actually a good film, sounds logical, but the two do not always go hand in hand.

Quality, Popcorn flick, or Both?

The quality of the film is up in the air, once I see a trailer I will have a better guess on this aspect.  I know people have been a little concerned about Ben Affleck's casting, in well everything, these days, but I think he will do well in the role of Nick.  Rosamund Pike stole my heart in An Education, and while many are not familiar with most of her work, I think she will be solid as Amy.

The most interesting thing about the film adaptation is the style of the writing in the book.  The book goes between Nick and Amy chapter after chapter, and my guess is that this is not how the film will play out.  Gillian Flynn who wrote the book is also adapting the screenplay, this is her first film adaptation, but I think she will be up to the task.  Overall this is film I am pretty excited about.