Following the back-to-back productions of The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher has been taking his time in settling on his next project.  He’s been developing a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Disney for years, and the project finally started to gain traction earlier this year with Fincher courting Brad Pitt as his star.  However, Pitt ultimately passed on the role in favor of David Ayer’s WWII film Fury, leaving Fincher’s 20,000 Leagues without a star or a greenlight.

Despite these two crucial facts, we learned last month that Australia had agreed to an enormous tax incentive ($22.5 million) for Fincher to shoot 20,000 Leagues down under, making the remake that much more attractive for Disney.  Now word comes that since the film still doesn’t have a lead actor, potential production has been pushed to 2014.  Hit the jump for more.

At some point, Australian firstborn children are going to be offered so that the country can get David Fincher‘s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  Disney had previously asked for a 30% subsidy location rebate similar to what Fox got for The Wolverine.  Today, Deadline is reporting that Australia will make a $22.5 million one-off payment to get the project, which could create up to 2,000 jobs for the country.

Despite this overture, Disney hasn’t given Fincher a greenlight on his blockbuster feature because it still lacks a lead actor.  Brad Pitt had been circling the lead role of Captain Nemo, but ultimately passed.  Fincher was recently looking at Channing Tatum, but the actor has an incredibly busy schedule.  Until Fincher can find an available movie star, 20,000 Leagues is going to have to wait in dry dock.  In the meantime, Fincher might pursue Gone Girl or The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Fans of David Fincher have been itching to see a new feature film from the director since 2011’s release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and we received a fairly promising update on his potential next project just yesterday.  The filmmaker has been developing a big-budget remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for quite some time with an eye towards making it his next film, and yesterday we learned that Disney is being wooed by a major tax credit to shoot the film in Australia this year.  Though Fincher was hoping to nab frequent collaborator Brad Pitt as his star, the actor had yet to officially sign on to the project.

Now a new report has surfaced with plenty of updates on all things Fincher, including word that he’s looking at a number of actors—including Channing Tatum—to possibly lead 20,000 Leagues given that Pitt has passed, that he may have to push production on the remake back to next year and film something else in the interim, and the possibility that he might not helm any of season two of the Netflix series House of Cards.  Hit the jump to read on.

David Fincher will require a massive budget if/when he gets 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into production.  Fincher courted his Benjamin Button/Fight Club/Seven star Brad Pitt to headline, partly to secure a big name that would push Disney to greenlight the project.  Pitt even said he’d love to do it if “schedule and time allocation” allowed.  Contrary to reports posted earlier today, Pitt is not set to star.  However, Disney may have found a way to forge on financially with or without Pitt.  The Australian government is ready to offer a 30% tax rebate worth almost $20 million if Disney shoots the remake Down Under.  Hit the jump for details.

Opening this weekend is director Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Side Effects.  Written by Scott Z. Burns (Contagion, The Informant!), the film is about “a successful New York couple (Rooney Mara and Channing Tatum) whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily’s psychiatrist (Jude Law)—intended to treat anxiety—has unexpected side effects.”  The film also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones.

At the recent Los Angeles press junket, I landed an exclusive interview with Burns.  We talked about his feelings regarding Soderbergh’s retirement, how he originally wanted to direct Side Effects himself, changes to the script during development, his writing process, and much more.  In addition, I got updates on rumors he might be writing the new Blade Runner, what happened to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and what it was about, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, David Fincher’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and more.  Hit the jump to either read or watch the interview.

Screenwriter Scott Z. Burns has been working on quite a few interesting projects over the past couple of years.  Director David Fincher enlisted the scribe to work on his big-budget remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Burns was also tapped to pen a draft of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  Steve recently sat down with the screenwriter to talk about his upcoming thriller Side Effects, and during the course of the conversation Burns talked about the status of both 20,000 Leagues and Apes, discussing why Rupert Wyatt dropped out of the director’s chair for the Apes sequel.  Hit the jump to read on.

Those hoping for another Brad Pitt/David Fincher collaboration in the near future have reason to keep their fingers crossed.  Fincher has been developing a big-budget remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Disney for quite some time, and last month we reported that the Mouse House was set to take a close look at the project for greenlight consideration while Fincher was courting Pitt for a lead role.  Now Pitt himself has spoken up about the prospect, and he sounds enthusiastic about teaming up with his Fight Club director for a fourth time.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

After the one-two punch of The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher has taken his time in choosing his next feature project.  He helmed the first couple of episodes of the new Netflix series House of Cards with Kevin Spacey, but with modest box office returns on Dragon Tattoo the follow-up adaptation has been slow-going.  Fincher has a number of options on his plate at the moment, but he’s been pretty passionate about getting his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea remake off the ground for the past couple of years.

Now it looks like there’s finally some movement on 20,000 Leagues, as Fincher is courting frequent collaborator Brad Pitt to lead the project as sailor Ned Land while Disney decides whether to greenlight the film.  Hit the jump for more details.

Last weekend Sony held a big press junket in New York City for director David Fincher‘s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I got to participate in a press conference with Fincher, Rooney Mara, and Daniel Craig.  Click here if you missed it.  As most of you know, Dragon Tattoo is the first in Stieg Larson’s Millennium trilogy and it centers on a disgraced journalist (Craig) who’s hired to investigate the mysterious 40-year-old disappearance of a young woman.  Mara plays Lisbeth Salander, a brilliant young hacker who teams up with Craig.

Shortly after the press conference ended, I got to sit down with Fincher for an exclusive interview.  We talked about deleted scenes (the first cut of Dragon Tattoo was 3 hours and seven minutes!), extended cuts, if he would change his previous movies like George Lucas has changed Star Wars, what filmmakers/collaborators he shows his films to first, if he does test screenings or just friends and family screenings, his favorite Star Wars movie, and I got updates on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Cleopatra and House of Cards.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

One of the most talented directors working today, David Fincher is somebody whose films are eagerly anticipated by a multitude of fans from the moment they’re announced. When word got out that a “Facebook movie” was in the works, 99% of people wrote it off as a cash grab. That all changed when Fincher signed on to The Social Network as director (a script by Aaron Sorkin didn’t hurt either). Fincher is currently doing the press rounds for his latest directorial effort: a large-scale R-rated adaptation of the wildly popular book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Steve is in New York for the film’s press junket and he recently got the chance to sit down with the director for an exclusive interview. While we’ll have the full interview up early next week, we wanted to share what Fincher had to say about a few of his potential upcoming projects. The director gave updates on his 3D adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the biopic epic Cleopatra starring Angelina Jolie, and the Kevin Spacey-starred Netflix series House of Cards, for which he’s directing the pilot. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

With the release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo now merely a month away, all eyes on what project David Fincher will choose next. His Curious Case of Benjamin Button scribe Eric Roth is currently in talks to rewrite the epic Cleopatra, a project that Fincher is circling, but now another Fincher alumnus is boarding one of his next possible projects. Deadline reports that Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker is set to work on the script for Fincher’s remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The previous draft was written by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum), but it appears that Fincher’s looking to tweak the project a bit more.

The director has previously mentioned that his version of the Jules Verne adventure classic will be in 3D, and will probably be 70% CG. Disney is producing Leagues, but I’m wondering how dark Fincher plans to skew the material, especially given the addition of Walker. The director has still yet to choose his Dragon Tattoo follow-up, but if he takes a liking to Walker’s rewrite then Leagues is a serious contender. Personally, the thought of Fincher and Walker taking on a high seas adventure sounds absolutely fantastic.

Scott Burns doesn’t rewrite. I found out this interesting tidbit a year or so ago when Burns, at a lecture for The University of Texas, revealed there was only one draft on The Informant! This was surprising not only because of how rich a script The Informant! is, but in that it seemingly disregards centuries of screenwriting scripture yore.

Burns’ latest the multiple interweaving narrative epidemic horror flick Contagion, I thought, must surely prove to be the exception to this rule. There’s just no way that Burns could have successfully dealt with all these “Short Cuts”-like stories (Cotillard’s detective, Fishburne’s morally compromised CDC official, Damon’s overprotective father, Law’s scumbag journalist a.k.a. blogger, Winslet’s do-good crusader) all in one draft. But Burns is not your typical screenwriter. When pressed on how many drafts of Contagion there were – he replied matter-of-factly “just really one”, and maintained that he still doesn’t go through the rewriting process. This just couldn’t be. And in the interview that followed, I attempted to delve into Burns’ anti-conventional approach to the art and the thematics at the heart of Contagion. He also spoke about his adaptation process and how it pertains to the upcoming Fincher directed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Hit the jump for the whole conversation.

While director David Fincher is undoubtedly deep into post-production work on his latest effort The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, he recently talked a bit about one of the many other projects on his radar. Fincher has been developing an adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for a while, but we haven’t really heard much about the project as of late. However, the director recently revealed that his version would probably be 70% CG, providing an update on the film and reassuring fans that the film is still definitely something he plans on doing. Hit the jump to see what Fincher had to say.

Director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) is a busy man and now he’s about to become even busier.  Bekmambetov has announced that in addition to co-producing (with Tim Burton) an adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, he will also direct the movie.  Here’s what Bekmambetov said he was going for with the book (which you can see a trailer for by clicking here):

It is not a comedy at all – it is a very entertaining, epic history lesson for millions and millions of teenagers. If you remember Night Watch, it is maybe in the vein of that kind of movie. We are keeping the traditional look of Lincoln – the big hat and the beard. He has to be historically correct, but with a few special weapons. There is only one book, but there will be many opportunities to develop and explore this world if we get to do sequels. I hope we will start this winter. We are shooting in America.”

Hit the jump for updates on Bekmambetov’s other projects including Wanted 2, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Moby Dick, and more.

Yesterday we reported director David Fincher was in talks with Disney to direct an adaptation of Jules Verne’s 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea after the studio had passed on McG’s take on the classic adventure story back in November.  Now, Heat Vision is reporting that Fox is developing their own futuristic adaptation of the novel to be directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) from a script by Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans), which will be produced by filmmakers Ridley and Tony Scott.

Since 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is in public domain anybody can adapt it, it’s just a weird coincidence that two major studios are doing it at the same time.  It will be interesting to see if Disney backs down now since Fox’s take on the project seems like it’s almost ready to go while Disney still has to still finalize a deal with Fincher and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum), who will then start to write the film.  It also seems unlikely that this will be Fincher’s next film since he’s currently attached to direct The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo next.

Needless to say, everyone at Collider is itching to see Fincher’s take on the material.  But if Fox gets out of the gate first, it’s hard to see Disney moving forward with the same movie.  I’m sure we’re going to hear a lot about both films over the next few weeks.