It’s not lost on anybody that studios are currently chasing blockbusters. The mid-budget, original movie — something made for $30-60 million — almost doesn’t exist anymore. Instead, executives are trying to maximize branded content, hoping to build the next cinematic universe, and aiming to create films that can reach a global market. David Fincher has certainly seen the landscape change, but instead of fighting against it, he’s embraced new opportunities as they’ve arrived. Most notable has been his relationship with Netflix where he launched “House Of Cards” and has returned with his incredible series “Mindhunter.” A character driven show about process and procedure (and oh yeah, serial killers), the biggest thing resembling a setpiece might be a montage sequence in the second episode. It’s an example of the kind of the narrative that, according to Fincher, you just don’t find in movies anymore.
“There’s no time for character in movies,” he told Financial Times. “No, now. Look at ‘All The President’s Men‘ — everything is character. Now, movies are about saving the world from destruction. There aren’t a lot of scenes in movies, even the ones I get to make, where anyone gets to muse about the why. It’s mostly the ticking clock. And in this show it’s hard to find the ticking clock. But the thing is: I don’t care if the whole scene is five pages of two people in a car sipping coffee from paper cups as long as there’s a fascinating power dynamic and I learn something about them. And I do not care if the car is doing somewhere between 25 and 35 miles per hour.”
The director believes that studios are now working from a formula — explosions, romance, heroics — and if you want to work in that world, that’s fine, but it’s not necessarily for him.
“Look, many people at studios are still fighting the good fight. There are executives there who are friends of mine. But if you want to make studio movies, you stay in their lanes, which are romantic comedy, affliction Oscar bait, Spandex summer, superhero tentpole, moderately budgeted sequel,” Fincher stated candidly.
All this being said, the filmmaker still believes in the movies, even if what it means to go to the theater has changed. “The cinema isn’t dead. It just does something different. The place is still filled with kids, it’s just they’re all on their phones. It’s a social event like a bonfire, and the movie is the bonfire. It’s why people gather but it’s not actually there to be looked at,” Fincher said. “Because the bonfire is always the same.”
In short, it time for studios to start changing the bonfire.
The must-see “Mindhunter” is now streaming on Netflix.