F

Flavorwire

David Fincher

Film

10 Famous Films That Were Abandoned by Their Directors

By Jason Bailey on

Lynne Ramsay is a tremendously talented director, as anyone who has seen her films We Need to Talk About Kevin and Ratcatcher can tell you, which makes the latest ripple in her career quite a bummer: when production began Monday on her latest film, the Natalie Portman-fronted Western Jane Got a Gun, Ramsay was nowhere to be found. Deadline broke the story (so beware; that site is notoriously cozy with studio types who might have it in their interest to paint Ramsay as wildly — and litigiously — irresponsible), reporting trouble right up to the start date. Ramsay still hasn’t issued comment on the matter, but the film’s producers have already lined up a replacement in the form of Gavin O’Connor, director of Warrior and Tumbleweeds (and the pilot of The Americans). Deadline branded Ramsay’s departure a “SHOCKER,” but it’s not as rare as you’d think; despite the intense work of developing a picture and preparing it, filmmakers have frequently walked away from pictures before — or even during — production. We’ve got a few examples for you after the jump. … Read More

Television

Watch the Trailer for David Fincher’s Netflix Series ‘House of Cards’

By Judy Berman on

From Veep to Scandal to Political Animals, Washington insider politics are all over primetime TV in 2012. On February 1st, David Fincher is bringing this world and its intrigue to an even smaller screen: your computer. Exclusive to Netflix and developed in collaboration with playwright Beau Willimon and the show’s lead, Kevin Spacey, House of… Read More

Film

10 Proposed Movie Sequels That We Do. Not. Want.

By Jason Bailey on

From Warner Brothers’ latest attempt to revive Casablanca to Searching for Keyser Soze, here’s a look at some of Hollywood’s worst sequel ideas for its greatest… Read More

Film

David Fincher Launches a Kickstarter Campaign for His Zombie Movie

By Caroline Stanley on

You would think that someone with David Fincher’s track record in Hollywood wouldn’t need to fund his own projects, that major studios would be stepping all over each other to work with him on any idea the famed director threw their way. But you’d be wrong. io9 reports that Fincher has turned to Kickstarter to get a long-gestating project, his PG-13 animated adaptation of Eric Powell’s comic The Goon, off the ground. If the $400K fundraising campaign is successful, he’ll have a storyboard version of the full film to shop around — complete with voice work by Clancy Brown (as the Goon) and Paul Giamatti (as Franky) — which will hopefully be enough to get someone on board to back the finished product. Click through to watch Fincher’s Kickstarter video and check out some concept art, then head here if you’d like to help The Goon get made. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. In case you missed it, a new — and much more exciting — trailer for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln debuted after last night’s presidential debate. Watch it here.

2. Netflix has announced that all 13 episodes of House of Cards — its original political drama that’s being executive produced by David Fincher… Read More

Film

The Riskiest Performances in Film

By Alison Nastasi on

Audiences at the 50th New York Film Festival will get an eyeful of Precious director Lee Daniels’ Florida noir The Paperboy tomorrow evening. The film gets a limited release this Friday. Well before its Cannes debut, the filmmaker was promising a multitude of moments in his story — about a reporter who returns to his hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate — featuring stars Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey, and Zac Efron “getting down.” The big tease resulted in one of Nicole Kidman’s riskiest performances, which we talk more about past the break. Who else made bold moves in their career? We explore other stars’ riskiest roles, below. Let us know who you’d add to the list. … Read More

Film

10 Awesome Meta-Movies That Will Melt Your Mind

By Jason Bailey on

The Cabin in the Woods, the wickedly funny and winkingly knowing horror/comedy from director Drew Goddard and co-writer Joss Whedon, hits DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, after a long-delayed theatrical run last spring that sent cinephiles spinning with pleasure. You see, Cabin is the latest example of our old friend the “meta-movie,” the films in which the act of moviemaking (and movie-watching) is part of the experience, and part of the narrative. After the jump, some thoughts on Cabin and nine more of our favorite self-aware motion pictures. … Read More

Design

10 Auteurs and the Typefaces They Love

By Matthew Bower on

If you think typeface isn’t an important element comprising a film’s aesthetic and conveying its story, you’re deeply mistaken. Don’t believe it? Try watching this video of mismatched fonts used in famous movie title sequences and see if there’s a difference. Typeface design has played a crucial role in cinema from the very beginning, when silent films relied on intertitle fonts that were both stylistically memorable and easy to read. Today, there’s an entire industry dedicated to movie title design, and typography plays a crucial role. But rather than tailor their typefaces to explicitly depict a film’s content graphically or pictorially (as many of Hollywood’s big blockbuster producers like Spielberg or Disney are wont to do), some directors prefer to make a more understated use of type design that reflects their artistic vision. Here’s a list of some of the most iconic love affairs between bold directors and the fonts that we can’t imagine seeing their movies without. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we learned nine things they don’t tell you about dating an architect. We fell in love with Catroulette. We browsed a David Fincher film title retrospective. We took a peek inside celebrity closets. We read 50 Shades of Grey with “Morgan Freeman.” We… Read More

Design

Comparing Book Covers with the Posters of Their Film Adaptations

By Emily Temple on

Earlier this week, we spotted the first poster for the upcoming (and much anticipated, at least by us) film adaptation of David Mitchell’s stupendous novel Cloud Atlas, and it seemed very familiar — sort of like a combination of the book’s US and UK covers, all glossed over in sepia. Curious, we spent a little time comparing other book covers with the posters of their film adaptations to see which movies maintained the mood of the book’s original cover, which twisted it around completely, and which became more iconic than the original covers. Click through to read through our findings, and let us know if you have any insights of your own on this topic in the comments. … Read More