We have all been holding out hope for David Fincher‘s take on Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA for Disney. While there have been multiple big screen versions of the tale, the prospect of Fincher helming a big budget one was too good to pass up. But, the project has stalled and restarted so many times it is impossible to tell if it will actually ever happen. A recent raised many hopes, but it looks like if that happens, it will be without Fincher at the helm.
In a recent interview with Little White Lies, Fincher confirmed his involvement with the movie is dead and explained why things fell apart between the director and Disney.
“It became very hard to appease the anxieties of Disney’s corporate culture with the list of names that allowed everyone to sleep at night. I just wanted to make sure I had the skill-sets I could turn the movie over to. Not worrying about whether they’re big in Japan.”
A similar fate befell Fincher’s biopic of Steve Jobs when Sony refused to cast Christian Bale as the Apple honcho. The interview does not state who Disney refused for the 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA cast, but they obviously were not as marketable as the House of Mouse may have wanted. Part of me hopes it was Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey, that would have been awesome. Fincher did indicate that one issue they had was with the lead character of Professor Pierre Aronnax being French in the film, the same nationality as the character in the novel.
Disney obviously cannot afford another big budget failure after JOHN CARTER and THE LONE RANGER. Whether 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA gets made or not, it will definitely not be under the bold direction of David Fincher.
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