The most coveted female role in Hollywood has gone to a relative unknown.  Rooney Mara, whom director David Fincher helmed in the upcoming The Social Network, is set to star in his next film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  Based on the best-selling Stieg Larsson novel, the film is slated to be part of a trilogy for both the director and studio Columbia Pictures.

Mara beat out other stars such as Kristen Stewart, who worked with Fincher on Panic Room, and Natalie Portman, who refused to audition for him for this role.  Smart move on her part.  I think not.  Mara is the sister of better known (and hotter) actress Kate Mara (Brokeback Mountain, Iron Man 2) and has a lineage in football (you can look it up, her name will give it away to true football fans).

The Millenium Series of Larsson books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.  You can add Rooney to the list of ladies who should be making a household name for herself, with the likelihood of her being penciled in for all three films in the possible series as well.  The studio has already secured thespian Daniel Craig to co-star in the film.  So, share your thoughts on the big deal for this coveted role.  Source: Variety

While we still don’t know who is going to be cast in the red-hot female lead role in the upcoming David Fincher film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, we do know that Daniel Craig has been added to the cast for the possible trilogy.  From Comingsoon:

ComingSoon.net has confirmed that Daniel Craig will star in David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on Stieg Larsson’s posthumously published crime thriller trilogy, “The Millennium Series.” The deal includes two sequels based on The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

Craig will play a key journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, in the films.  As journalists are want to do, he stirs up dirt and generally uncovers of a lot of corruption in the film.

Craig is a fine addition to any cast, so this is just another feather in the cap of the film at this point.  I’ll keep you abreast of more news on the project as it makes its way to me.

What was rumored only a few weeks ago has become official. Variety is officially reporting that Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland), Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield will star in David Fincher’s The Social Network, the story behind the founding fathers of Facebook.

Eisenberg will play Mark Zuckerberg while Justin Timberlake will play Sean Parker (Napster co-founder and Facebook founding president) while Garfield will portray Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder who had a major falling out with Zuckerberg once the site made it big.

I have heard from various reports that the script for The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War, “The West Wing”), is a dark and black-hearted meditation on greed and corruption along the lines of John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Along with the great David Fincher (directing) and Aaron Sorkin (screenplay), the very busy Scott Rudin and Kevin Spacey are among a plethora of co-producers under the Columbia banner.

With the talent involved and the early script reports, The Social Network should be a movie worth looking out for next year, as production is slated to begin in the coming months.

Jessica Biel has little, if anything, to do with this post.  Yes she dates Justin and that is about as far as it goes.  I merely put the photo there to see if I could get a virus on my computer.  That aside, the post’s title kind of says it all doesn’t it?  Brilliant on my part or not enough of a tease to read on?  Hmmm…nevertheless, Scriptshadow is claiming that Jesse Eisenberg (the upcoming Zombieland) and Justin Timberlake (the past of Cam Diaz) are rumored to be the leading men for David Fincher’s next big movie The Social Network, based on the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.  Anybody have a guess as to who would play whom here?  Well, if you guessed Justin would play Napster creator Shawn Fanning and Jesse would play Zuckerberg, as Ed McMahon used to say, “Yes, you are correct sir.”  These are still unsubstantiated rumors at this point though, so I caution any super strong reaction positive or negative one way or the other.

There certainly is irony in “The Lake” possibly playing Fanning, considering his music was probably illegally downloaded once or twice through the brilliant Napster service.  Would he bring a venom to the role to make Shawn look like a worse guy than he is?  And while Eisenberg and Zuckerberg both have a similar look and it might make sense for “geek to play geek” for lack of a better term, does Jesse have enough chutzpah to pull this off?  Would a great director like Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) entrust such a large project to an unproven guy?  Hard to know for sure.  We talked about the film before and the film was officially greenlit last week, but beyond that these roles are still up in the air.  You like these choices or do you have a better alternative?  Hit us with ‘em.

Yes, The Social Network is that pesky Facebook film you keep hearing about. The same one that David Fincher is apparently directing. The same one that Kevin Spacey is apparently producing. Finally, the same one Aaron Sorkin has already written. In fact, according to the interview attached below, Sorkin said “Yes” to this film faster than anything else in his life. All it took was three pages into a 14-page book treatment and he was hooked. If you’re wondering what it was that hooked him so quickly, be prepared to keep wondering. Sorkin doesn’t even know the answer to that question.

So, exactly what we can expect from such a story remains to be seen, but there has to be something that would attract top-name talent. We just need to wait longer to find out what that is. At the moment, the film is in pre-production and slated for a 2010 release.

You can tell Sorkin doesn’t spend too much time in front of the camera as he spouts enough “ums” to make Alexander Ovechkin seem proficient in English, but it’s all good. Enjoy the interview.

Joseph Kosinski, director of the upcoming Tron Legacy, is set to bring Oblivion to screen, based on his own concept  and not on the video game of the same name. The great David Fincher will be alongside him behind the camera, serving as producer.

“The Hollywood Reporter” describes the project as such: The story centers on a battle-damaged soldier who, assigned to a desolate planet after a court-martial, patrols the bleak landscape in an effort to destroy the last vestiges of a primitive alien race. When a mysterious traveler arrives unexpectedly, their lives become inextricably linked as they are forced to question everything they know about this world and themselves.

If you haven’t seen it already, do yourself a favor and check out the concept footage from Tron Legacy that made its debut at Comic Con last week, here. Kosinski’s very new to the directing thing, with Tron being his first project, but it appears enough people have been impressed by what they’ve seen that they’re giving him a chance to bring his own idea to the screen, which he’s apparently been cooking up for the past four years. Having Fincher on board in any capacity is a good thing. I thought his last producer credit was for The Fall, but he apparently only served as “presenter.” The last two films he produced were Love and Other Disasters and Lords of Dogtown. Will Kosinski and Fincher strike gold together? Let us know what you think.

The long discussed and much ballyhooed (I think I have used that word twice in the span of a week, scary) Facebook Movie apparently has a completed script, and word on the street is that it is very good.  Essentially 4 nests out of 5 good.  This movie has been getting a lot of hype as it was in the news recently that David Fincher was in discussions to direct the film, which spoke volumes as to the expectations of the movie and the profile for this site was raised exponentially as a result.  The first draft, which was written by Aaron Sorkin, is done.  First off, it has a current title now of The Social Network.  Not surprisingly, the film will focus on a Mark Zuckerberg-like character (since he created facebook, and it will follow how it came to be.  ScriptShadow gives us a look at the script in its current form.  They tell us a number of things including the following:

…this is a story about two friends – one a computer genius, the other a business expert – who began a website that became the fastest growing phenomenon in internet history. Three years later, one was suing the other for 600 million dollars (or 1/30th of Mark Zuckerberg’s worth). It’s a story about greed, about obsession, about our belief that all the money in the world can make us happy. But it’s also unpredictable, funny, touching, and sad. It gives us that rare glimpse into the improbable world of mega-success.

That in and of itself is enough to give us a better idea of how Fincher may come into play.  Since we really didn’t know where the focus for the film might lie, i.e., a dude banging away at the computer crunching code (though there is sure to be some shots of that).  Apparently there are hints of a love story in the draft as well, or at least a breakup that would be the impetus to creating the network.  So, a number of things to ponder here.  What do you think of what you hear so far?  Drop it on us.

According to reports from various media outlets, Director David Fincher, of Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fame, is in talks to direct a movie about facebook, the social network website.  The film is being developed at Columbia Pictures, with a script by Aaron Sorkin, writer of A Few Good Men and Charlie Wilson’s War.  From Filmonic:

The film will focus on the evolution of Facebook from its 2004 creation on the Harvard campus by sophomore Mark Zuckerberg to a juggernaut with more than 200 million members.

This is a rather odd choice of director for this type of film in my opinion.  I think Fincher is one of the best director’s going today, in large part due to his visual flair and many of the high-tension environments he creates for his films.  I am not sure that a film about a website will qualify for such a director.  Of course, nothing has been signed, nothing is official yet, but for him to even be thought of here seems strange.  I am wondering where the tension is in this script?  A few dudes staring at computer code, talking about how the world can get connected through pictures of their friends?  I don’t know how this lends itself to drama either.  How hard could  it have been on a kid Zuckerman’s age?  Its not like he was in a 25 year fight, like Greg Kinnear’s Bob Kearns impression in Flash of Genius.  I don’t have the answer as to who might be a good choice for director here, since I don’t really know enough about the project, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions (even though it seems as if I am), but I am uncertain about Fincher in the chair for this one.  Your thoughts?  Ideas about how the script might go or who would be a good fit to helm?

Monumental news today! We learned David Fincher is in line to direct Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Blue Movie. The film will be based on a novel of the same name written by Terry Southern, who wrote the screenplay for Easy Rider and co-wrote Dr. Strangelove with Stanley Kubrick. Apparently that’s where the connection stems from.

Fincher describes the project as such, “I’ve always been fascinated by Stanley Kubrick, as all of the filmmaking community has. I happened upon this documentary called Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes about all of the meticulous research he did on all of his films. He kept everything in boxes. He had this entire warehouse on his property, dedicated solely to these boxes full of research material. His failed Napoleon project was touched upon and I wondered what other projects existed he never had the chance to bring to life. He directed so few, I figured there had to be more unmade films this genius hadn’t had the opportunity to undertake. I discovered this website detailing the many projects that had fallen by the wayside. One that jumped out at me was called Blue Movie, based on a book by Terry Southern.”

“Blue Movie” is about an Oscar-winning Hollywood director who decides to make a large-scale pornographic film involving an A-list husband and wife. It’s said that Kubrick made his version of Blue Movie in Eyes Wide Shut, with then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, but the adaptation for that film was credited to “Traumnovelle,” by Arthur Schnitzler.

Fincher talks about how he obtained the involvement of Pitt and Jolie: “After whizzing through the novel and acknowledging its storied attempt to make its way to film, I wondered who could possibly play the big-name husband and wife team if this were made today? It was pretty simple to come up with. Brad and Angie are certainly the premier Hollywood couple at the moment, and luckily for me, I happen to have a way of talking Brad into anything.”

Fincher has directed Pitt twice before in Fight Club and most recently the Best Picture-nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. “I couldn’t think of any couple the public would rather see copulate, really. Men love Angelina Jolie  and women love Brad Pitt. I’ll be sure to film them in close one-shots, so the audience can feel the power of what it’s like to make love to these people. Kind of how Hitchcock envisioned the prolonged kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious. This is just the next step.”

Of course, Fincher failed to explain exactly how the two stars came to agree to do the film. “I can only say that Brad owes me one. He and I have been friends for a long time and obviously this took great deliberation on both his and Angie’s part. She’s at least done nudity before in front of the camera. This time, being with her partner instead of a friend or stranger should make the connection more meaningful. She thought about what she said last year about showing Mr. and Mrs. Smith to their children, displaying the moment she and Brad fell in love. With Blue Movie, she can show their childrend exactly how they came into existence. With Brad, I promised we’d at least put make-up on his tattoo. He told me, ‘I still want that for myself.’”

Fincher was even willing to dispel some of the techniques he plans on using for the lensing of the film. “We’re shooting in IMAX format, because we want to add to the large-scale nature of the film. It will be a larger-than-life visual experience and we want it to feel that way. We’re also going to use the 3D technology developed by Jim Cameron for Avatar. We want it to be as realistic as possible. I told Brad we’d make him as bulbous as we can. To aid the process, I’ll shoot some if it with a fish-eye lens, just to accentuate certain anatomical aspects. He’ll be tumescent.”

“The film is going to be very self-reflexive, obviously, since it’s about a director filming a movie with two stars. Therefore, what you’ll see on screen will be a mockumentary of sorts with me playing the director and directing my actors. However, I promise you will get full screen action of the film my character is shooting.”

Lastly, Fincher left us with one more nugget of information. “I’ve already come up with the visual for the money shot. I’ve taken the camera around a house, through the handle of a coffee pot and into the locks on a door. I’ve also taken you through the inner workings of the brain, to reveal a gun pressed against Ed Norton’s forehead. This time, I’m going for ‘the insemination shot.’ Remember that awesome depiction of a bullet wound in Three Kings? Then you get the idea. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to top it.”

Never going unmentioned by the press when Pitt and Jolie are paired together, Jennifer Aniston was asked if she plans on seeing the film upon its release. In a quip worthy of New York Ranger Sean Avery, Aniston said, “Why would I see it, when I already lived it? Now the whole world can witness Angelina helping herself to my sloppy seconds.”

Everything you’ve just read is completely false. “Blue Movie” is a real book and Kubrick did consider making it into a film, but as far as Fincher, Jolie and Pitt are concerned, the story is completely bogus. April Fool’s Day has become somewhat fun since the age of the internet (was it really ever fun before?) and I just wanted to contribute to that. I hope you liked it. Enjoy the day. Real news again tomorrow. Fake news next year.

Today, JoBlo posted a link to a “Guardian” interview with director David Fincher. It’s a pretty cool read and covers a lot of subjects from his films. Of particular note was the exchange where Fincher acknowledged there was a time when he was approached to direct Spider-Man. Here’s the direct quote if you don’t feel like navigating the interview your yourself:

Q4: You’ve made films where improbable things look realistic. Did you ever consider making a superhero movie or fantasy, where things are bit more difficult to make believable?

DF: I was asked if I might be interested in the first Spider-Man, and I went in and told them what I might be interested in doing, and they hated it. No, I’m not interested in doing “A Superhero”. The thing I liked about Spider-Man was I liked the idea of a teenager, the notion of this moment in time when you’re so vulnerable yet completely invulnerable. But I wasn’t interested in the genesis, I just couldn’t shoot somebody being bitten by a radioactive spider – just couldn’t sleep knowing I’d done that. [audience laughs]

At the risk of not wanting to ape that story completely, I looked back at an “Empire” magazine and found this quick hit about the same subject:

“Would you ever make a superhero movie?”

“I wanted to do Spider-Man, but my take was a little too weird for everybody…I liked the superhero thing eight years ago, when it was quaint and passe, but now it seems too…We’ll see. Watchmen looks cool. I look forward to seeing them. There’s not any I want to make.”

Neither time did he particularly describe what his take was, but I guess it doesn’t really matter since we’re not going to see it anyway. It’s nice to dream, but sometimes dreams just lead you to frustration, like the Frank Darabont draft of Indy IV that went unfilmed thanks to George Lucas. Sometimes it’s best to just let it go…Damn you, George!

Here’s another tidbit of a possible future Fincher/Pitt re-team, from that same “Empire” interview:

Empire: You’ve talked about various projects together, like Fertig (aka They Fought Alone, based on the biography of American civil engineer-turned-World War II guerrilla fighter Wendell Fertig). Could that happen?

Fincher: (Deadpan) I’m not at liberty to comment. That’s ongoing litigation and I’m not a liberty to comment…Yeah, we’ve talked about a lot of stuff. I’m working on this thing right now, Black Hole (an adaptation of Charles Burns’ brilliant, bizarre graphic novel about an STD that causes mutations), which is Plan B, [Pitt's] company. We’ve talked about a lot of things, Fertig being one of them. I still have to talk him into Fertig. He doesn’t…

Empire: …fancy the idea of 18 months in the jungle?

Fincher: I don’t think anybody fancies the idea of that, unless we can shoot in, I don’t know, a resort! No, I think all of the criticisms leveled at the script, up until this point, have been valid ones, but I also think it’s just one of the great f*cking stories. I talk with (Chinatown screenwriter) Robert Towne twice a week and he’s working…It could be one of the five greatest movies ever made. It’s that huge. So hopefully we’ll get a script and we’ll put it in front of him and he’ll die to be involved.

I have to imagine we’ll all hop onboard after those boastful words.

That ends this edition of the David Fincher news watch. Also, if you were wondering, the headline is a reference to an old “Friends” joke I always thought was amusing. Check it out below: