While David Fincher‘s recent career turn to television might seem surprising, those familiar with his history have always known he’s had an affinity for the small screen format. The director has an extensive list of music videos to his name, and an almost equally long list of commercials. That said, he’s certainly broken ground in the Peak TV era thanks to “House Of Cards” and now, “Mindhunter,” his latest must-see Netflix series. However, it turns out that Fincher almost put his mark on one of the most iconic series in HBO’s catalog.
Chatting with Esquire, the filmmaker was asked about which TV show writer’s room he’d enjoy being a fly on the wall in, and in his answer, he reveals the gig that didn’t quite happen.
“I’d probably go to ‘The Sopranos‘ season five or six. I would like to watch David Chase work. It seems like a very complete world in somebody’s head,” Fincher shared. “And then maybe ‘Deadwood‘ season one. At one point, I was two millimeters from saying yes to directing the pilot, and part of it was I was just so fascinated with David Milch. Milch and Chase are masterful. They both have a great ear as to how things can be presented or how you can get things out of characters. I think that’s an odd gift, and it intrigues me.”
We can hear every “Deadwood” fan freaking out right now because that certainly would’ve been amazing. Fincher doesn’t reveal why he didn’t take the job that eventually went to Walter Hill (“Warriors,” “48 Hours“), but it would’ve been somewhere in the five year stretch between 2002’s “Panic Room” and 2007’s “Zodiac.” But it seems Fincher can’t put a foot right at HBO, with the network scrapping two developing shows he had brewing, “Videosyncrazy” and the remake of “Utopia,” a couple years back. No matter, it looks like Fincher has a very comfortable home at Netflix, where he’s doing some incredible work.