David Fincher on His Unmade ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea’ Movie

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(Left) David Fincher on the set of ‘Mank’. Photo: Gisele Schmidt/Netflix. (Right) ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’. Photo: Buena Vista Distribution.

Preview:

David Fincher has opened up about his stalled adaptation of ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.’
He tried for a while to float a Disney-produced take on the Jules Verne story.
Currently, the film is still in limbo.

David Fincher is one of those accomplished directors whose career is littered with “near miss” projects that fans are eager to see but somehow or other just don’t make it through the studio system.

One of the biggest in recent memory is his aim to craft a new take on Jules Verne’s 1870 adventure/sci-fi novel ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas.’ It was in development for a few years via Disney, but ultimately didn’t set sail.

Now, in a new interview with Letterboxd, Fincher is opening up as to why.

What’s the story of ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas’?

‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’. Photo: Buena Vista Distribution.

Verne’s novel was previously brought to life by Disney in 1954 in a film starring James Mason and Kirk Douglas and in 1997 for an ABC mini-series starring Michael Caine and Patrick Dempsey.

It follows a group of scientists and whalers sent out into the open seas to take down a massive sea creature that’s been attacking ships.

They soon come to discover that the creature is not a monster at all, but a submarine designed by the emotionally damaged Captain Nemo.

What happened to Fincher’s adaptation?

‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’. Photo: Buena Vista Distribution.

Fincher had the likes of ‘Contagion’s Scott Z. Burns and ‘Se7en’s Andrew Kevin Walker work up drafts of the script. He aimed to have sometime collaborator Brad Pitt in a featured role, but Pitt passed on the script.

Disney suggested Chris Hemsworth, while Fincher countered with Channing Tatum.

As it turns out, Disney was –– to little surprise –– looking for more of a blockbuster take than the brooding, political version Fincher had in mind. According to the filmmaker:

“You can’t make people be excited about the risks that you’re excited about. Disney was in a place where they were saying, ‘We need to know that there’s a thing that we know how to exploit snout to tail, and you’re going to have to check these boxes for us.’ And I was like, ‘You’ve read Jules Verne, right?’ ”

And, as it turns out, it was tone that really scuppered the collaboration. In the original novel and its follow-up, it is revealed that Nemo is in fact royalty who participated in the real-life Indian Rebellion of 1857, an act which led to the death of his family and him fleeing to the seas. Fincher wanted to focus on these details and make it a serious film, but Disney didn’t want it to distract from the fun, action/adventure piece they were hoping to produce.

As Fincher explains:

“This is a story about an Indian prince who has real issues with white imperialism, and that’s what we want to do. And they were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, fine. As long as there’s a lot less of that in it.’ So you get to a point where you go, ‘Look, I can’t fudge this, and I don’t want you to discover at the premiere what it is that you’ve financed. It doesn’t make any sense because it’s just going to be pulling teeth for the next two years.’ And I don’t want to do that. I mean, life’s too short.”

Fincher went on to employ the “really kind of gross and cool and wet and steampunk,” interpretation he had for the movie on an episode of the Netflix series ‘Love, Death Robots’ he oversees called ‘Bad Travelling.’

And it’s quietly ironic that Disney recently bought from AMC and released –– at least on Disney+ in the UK –– an adaptation of the Verne novel that does keep the politics and Nemo’s grudge in place.

What is David Fincher currently working on?

(L to R) Gary Oldman and David Fincher on the set of ‘Mank’. Photo: Miles Crist/Netflix.

With various projects as ever on the go waiting for corporate overlords to give the greenlight, Fincher seems closer on a couple of potential next gigs than others on his list.

First off, there is the Western script ‘Bitterroot,’ written by Michael Gilio, which concerns an elderly rancher whose life savings have been stolen.

He sets out to get his money back by robbing banks and hunting down the thieves — all while being pursued by his son… who is the sheriff.

Comparisons have been made to Clint Eastwood classic ‘Unforgiven,’ so even with the riskier marketplace, this is a script that will surely be produced at some point. And it’s perhaps not surprising that given its long lifespan in the Hollywood marketplace, there has been at least one previous attempt to bring it to screens. Blind Wink Productions and Aversano Films were working on it with Gilio on board to both write and direct and Gore Verbinski to produce back in 2011.

Netflix owns the rights to the script, and Fincher has a long relationship with the company, but it has yet to confirm anything concrete about it.

And the hurdles faced by Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ are likely giving pause. Still, the streaming service has violent frontier limited series ‘American Primeval’ coming out on January 9th, so perhaps it will see how that does before making a decision.

A scene from ‘Squid Game’ season 2. Photo: Netflix.

Yet the Western faces some serious competition on Fincher’s To Do list, as the filmmaker has also been developing an American version of giant Netflix hit ‘Squid Game.’

The Korean drama series about the twisted and frequently lethal competition recently released its second season and is racking up huge viewership once more.

Much like ‘Bitterroot,’ we’re still waiting for anything approaching official comment from Netflix about a potential Fincher version, but it certainly feels like a solid match for filmmaker and topic.

A dark, satirical series where morality is questioned, and death lurks around every corner? Surely something he can do well.

Still, we’ll have to wait and see whether it actually surfaces.

The third season of the Korean original, meanwhile, seems set to arrive in a few months, as per a recent “leak” from the company which pointed to a June 27th date. But stay tuned for an official date.