David Fincher might just be ready to tackle another serial killer – right after he tackles another serial killer… In September, it was announced that Fincher was interested in TORSO – the true story of Eliot Ness chasing down a murderer in Cleveland. The film has a studio (Paramount) and a star (Matt Damon) but has had trouble getting off the ground. Perhaps now he’ll be moving onto THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, if screenwriter Eric Roth is to be believed. Roth wrote Fincher’s latest epic, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, and at a press conference for the film revealed that they might be on their way to collaborating again.
First off, if you haven’t heard of the (non-fiction) book, it tells the intertwining stories of Daniel Burnham and H.H. Holmes. Burnham was one of the chief architects of Chicago’s 1892 world’s fair. Inadvertently, the creation of the landmark “White City” provided perfect cover for the dashing serial killer H.H. Holmes, who opened a hotel near the fair to lure in his victims. He ultimately confessed to killing 27 people.
Here’s what Roth had to say: “Fincher’s actually interested in it… I want to do a whole thing showing how skyscrapers were built. I love the fact that, in Chicago, there’s no low ground to put skyscrapers in. There’s just water. They do this special thing where they actually squash — I don’t know how to describe it. But I want to show that like he did in “Zodiac” with the Transamerica building going up. That kind of thing.”
Seems like a perfect project for Fincher, whose sweeping visual style would be perfect for telling the tale of creating one of the U.S.’s most beautiful cities. Of course, the fact that a serial killer is running loose using the growing metropolis to his advantage might also be kind’ve cool…