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David Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American music video and film director known for his dark and stylish portraits of the human experience.

Early life and career

Born in Denver, Colorado, Fincher was raised in Marin County, California. He moved to Ashland, Oregon in his teens where he graduated from Ashland High School.

Inspired by the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, he began making movies at the age of eight with an 8 mm camera. Filmmaking seemed the perfect outlet for a kid who could spend all day drawing and loved to make sculptures, take pictures and tape-record stuff. Fincher eschewed the film school route, getting a job loading cameras and doing other hands-on work for John Korty's Korty Films. He next got a job at Industrial Light and Magic in 1980 with his first screen credit being for Return of the Jedi, and stayed until 1984. He left the company and directed the documentary The Beat of the Live Drum. Based on its strength he went on to helm TV commercials, shooting his first one for the American Cancer Society, a grim hint of things to come showing a fetus smoking a cigarette. Though he would go on to direct spots for Revlon, Converse, Nike, Pepsi and Levi's, Fincher soon discovered that the slightly expanded format of music videos was an even better place to try things out.

Propaganda Films

With his sights set on a directing career, he along with Steve Golin, Sigurjón Sighvatson and Dominic Sena founded the talent management and advertising and video-production company Propaganda Films in 1986, which would soon become the biggest player in the field of advertising and music videos. Directors such as Meiert Avis, David Kellogg, Michael Bay, Antoine Fuqua, Neil LaBute, Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski, and Alex Proyas among others honed their talents at Propaganda before moving on to feature films. The company shut down in 2001 after key members left. The same year, Fincher, Golin, and Kellogg, among others, formed the talent management and advertising and music production company Anonymous Content.

Music videos

Fincher directed big-budget music videos for artists such as Madonna (including "Express Yourself" and "Vogue"), Jody Watley, George Michael, Aerosmith, Paula Abdul, the Rolling Stones (including "Love Is Strong"), Nine Inch Nails ("Only"), the Wallflowers and A Perfect Circle, as well as commercials. Like a number of other music video directors, he then moved into film.

Features

Alien³

Fincher's debut was Alien³ (1992), which was then the most expensive picture ever made by a first-time director. Unfortunately the film was not a pleasant experience for Fincher, having had a difficult time with the people at 20th Century Fox, who built sets without a finished script and made production a nightmare. While it received an Oscar nomination for special effects, the film was not well received by critics or movie goers (Though a much acclaimed extended version of the film was released with the Alien Quadrilogy boxset that appears to have won back many fans, despite his non-participation in the restoration or subsequent DVD). Depressed and disillusioned, Fincher retreated back into the world of commercial and music video directing, earning a Grammy for the Rolling Stones's "Love Is Strong" (1994), and fearing that he would never work in film again.

Se7en

Fate finally came knocking on Fincher's door with Andrew Kevin Walker's screenplay for a grisly detective story titled Se7en (1995). The relentlessly grim story of two detectives (played in the movie by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) tracking down a serial killer who bases his killings on the seven deadly sins, the movie grossed more than $100 million domestically (over $300 million internationally), making Fincher a "hot" director.

The Game

Next came the dark adventure film, The Game (1997), a nightmarish, The Twilight Zone-style thriller which projected the same sense of suffocating enclosure and mounting despair as had Se7en. The film boasted almost as much feel-bad cynicism as Se7en, but failed to get the warm reception enjoyed by its predecessor. The story itself focuses on a closed off San Francisco businessman (Michael Douglas) who receives an unusual gift from his young brother (Sean Penn), in which he becomes the main player of a roleplaying game that takes over his life. It has in recent years became a cult film.

Fight Club

Fight Club was a screen adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name about two men who open up a club devoted exclusively to bare knuckle fighting for males. Featuring Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Se7en collaborator Brad Pitt, the 1999 film was easily one of the most publicized of the year but was an early disappointment at the box-office and received mixed reviews. Fight Club was panned by most critics (called "macho porn" by Roger Ebert) and alienated audiences leading to its box office failure in the United States.

However many critics and audiences later had a change of heart and the film appeared on many 'best of the year' lists and soon developed a following. Entertainment Weekly, which had originally given the film a negative grade of D, later ranked the DVD #1 on its list of "The Top 50 DVDs You Need To Own." The DVD market, which was experiencing rapid growth at the time, caused Fight Club to not only break even, but actually become profitable. It has over the years became a modern classic.

Panic Room

In 2002 he followed up with the thriller Panic Room, which introduced some innovative uses of computer graphics. Though the film had good gross at the box office, it was not as well received as Se7en, Fight Club or The Game. The story follows a more conventional route for Fincher, as a single mother (Jodie Foster) and her daughter hide away in a safe room in their new house, away from criminals (Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam and Fight Club collaborator Jared Leto) bent on finding a missing fortune.

Future Projects

Zodiac

Zodiac is an adaptation of Robert Graysmith's books about the hunt for the Zodiac Killer. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Brian Cox, Anthony Edwards and Mark Ruffalo. Recently, after several test screenings, it was revealed that the film's name may be changed to The Chronicles. It is planned for a March 2nd, 2007 release, although there is much speculation as to whether or not it will be released in New York and Los Angeles in December to qualify for the Academy Awards, or whether the widespread release date will be changed to sometime in December.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

A fantasy film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald's short story of the same name. The film will reunite Fincher with Brad Pitt. The film was originally scrapped after the effects budget exceeded 150 million, but has been greenlit once again.

Torso

David Fincher is also attached to direct an adaptation of Brian Michael Bendis' graphic novel Torso.

Trivia

Fincher was attached to direct Mission Impossible 3 before pulling out to work on Lords of Dogtown, which he also subsequently dropped. The former was ultimately directed by J.J. Abrams whilst the latter made its way to the screen under the supervision of Catherine Hardwicke.

Filmography

Theatrical films

• Alien³ (1992)
• Se7en (1995)
• The Game (1997)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Panic Room (2002)
• Zodiac (2007)
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2007) (filming)
• Torso (2008) (announced)

Music videos

• "Dance This World Away" Rick Springfield (1984)
• "Celebrate Youth" Rick Springfield (1984)
• "Bop Til You Drop" Rick Springfield (1984)
• "Shame," The Motels (1985)
• "Shock," The Motels (1985)
• "All The Love," The Outfield (1986)
• "Every Time You Cry," The Outfield (1986)
• "One Simple Thing," The Stabilizers (1986)
• "She Comes On," Wire Train (1987)
• "Should She Cry," Wire Train (1987)
• "Endless Nights," Eddie Money (1987)
• "Downtown Train," Patty Smyth (1987)
• "I Don't Mind At All," Bourgeois Tagg (1987)
• "Notorious," Loverboy (1987)
• "Love Will Rise Again," Loverboy (1987)
• "Johnny B," The Hooters (1987)
• "Storybook Story," Mark Knopfler (1987)
• "Can I Hold You," Colin Hay (1987)
• "No Surrender," The Outfield (1987)
• "Say You Will," Foreigner (1987)
• "Don't Tell Me The Time," Martha Davis (1987)
• "Tell It To the Moon," Martha Davis (1988)
• "Heart of Gold," Johnny Hates Jazz (1988)
• "Englishman in New York," Sting (1988)
• "Shattered Dreams" (second version), Johnny Hates Jazz (1988)
• "Get Rhythm," Ry Cooder (1988)
• "Most of All," Jody Watley (1988)
• "Roll With It," Steve Winwood (1988)
• "The Way That You Love Me" (first version), Paula Abdul (1988)
• "Holding On," Steve Winwood (1988)
• "Heart," Neneh Cherry (1989)
• "Bamboleo" (second version), Gypsy Kings (1989)
• "Straight Up," Paula Abdul (1989)
• "Most Of All" Jody Watley (1989)
• "Real Love," Jody Watley (1989)
• "Bamboleo" (third version), Gypsy Kings (1989)
• "She's A Mystery To Me," Roy Orbison (1989)
• "Forever Your Girl," Paula Abdul (1989)
• "Express Yourself," Madonna (1989)
• "The End Of The Innocence," Don Henley (1989)
• "Cold Hearted," Paula Abdul (1989)
• "Oh Father," Madonna (1989)
• "Janie's Got a Gun," Aerosmith (1989)
• "Vogue," Madonna (1990)
• "Cradle of Love," Billy Idol (1990)
• "L.A. Woman," Billy Idol (1990)
• "Freedom '90," George Michael (1990)
• "Bad Girl," Madonna (1993)
• "Who Is It?" (second version), Michael Jackson (1993)
• "Love Is Strong," The Rolling Stones (1994)
• "6th Avenue Heartache," The Wallflowers (1996)
• "Judith," A Perfect Circle (2000)
• "Only," Nine Inch Nails (2005)

See also

• List of directors

Books

• Henry Keazor, Thorsten Wübbena: Video Thrills The Radio Star. Musikvideos: Geschichte, Themen, Analysen. Bielefeld 2005, p. 260ss., p. 271ss., p. 303ss

External links

• David Fincher at the All Movie Guide
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Music Videos & Commercials at anonymous content
• Gears of War video game trailer - directed by David Fincher with music by Gary Jules
• Love Costs: Rescuing Se7en from Nihilism essay at 24 Lies A Second
• David Fincher interview with Paul Guyot of www.dvdtalk.com
• David Fincher interview with Michael Moses of www.drdrew.com
• David Fincher interview with Gavin Smith of edward-norton.org

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