Fincher’s Heavy Metal

Another week, another David Fincher project! And… not one I really expected.

The guy who got Brad Pitt so animated in FIGHT CLUB will soon be doing some actual animation — he’s quarterbacking a new HEAVY METAL movie for Paramount. Like the 1981 cult film (a late-night dorm lounge fave in my college days), the new flick will feature a raucous soundtrack and will be comprised of loosely connected segments from different directors.

Besides Fincher, this time directors will include the property’s owner Kevin Eastman (co-creator of TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES) and Tim Miller, whose Blur Studios (a high-end house for dazzling videogame intros and cut-scenes) will handle the animation. Fincher will produce, and other directors for the R-rated flick will be forthcoming.

The long-running HEAVY METAL magazine featured adult sci-fi and fantasy tales with painted sequential art from international artists, and focused on boobs, excessive violence, nudity, futuristic cities, Julie Strain, barbarians, cleavage, and barbarians with cleavage. Several stories were adapted for the original feature, while the in-name-only sequel FAKK 2 was based on Eastman’s “Melting Pot” comic.

Fincher is still finishing THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON with cohort Brad Pitt, and is also attached to (among other things) the disturbing graphic novel BLACK HOLE, the Euro hitman comic THE KILLER, the long-in-the-works sci-fi tale RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, and the Eliot Ness murder mystery TORSO, based on the graphic novel.