Like many filmmakers, the lost and unmade movie list of David Fincher list is long, so long we did an entire feature out of it back in 2014, and it’s more than 30 films long. The list includes “Black Dahlia” (which Brian DePalma eventually made), “Mission Impossible 3,” “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” and more (interestingly enough, both “Mank” and “The Killer” were on it, then-unrealized projects that seemed like they would never get made).
One project not on the list and one that we didn’t clock at the time was apparently Marvel’s “Blade,” from a time long before the proper Marvel Cinematic Universe, written by David S. Goyer (“Man Of Steel” and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman’ trilogy).
Goyer was recently on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to talk about his Apple TV+ series, “Foundation,” and on it, he confirmed that he indeed wrote a “Blade” script for David Fincher early on in the filmmaker’s career.
“I did. I developed a draft with Fincher, and it was before he had done ‘Se7vn,” Goyer admitted when asked about the rumored project. “So I think he had done ‘Alien 3’ [at that point], and maybe he was developing ‘Se7vn.’”
Goyer didn’t really remember any script details, but what stuck with him and what he seemed to marvel over was Fincher’s detailed visual pitch, which would further inform the screenplay.
“I remember going to our producer’s office, and there was this giant conference table, and Fincher had laid out 40-50 different books of photography and art that were open with Post-It notes in them, and he said, ‘This is the movie,’” he explained. “And then he took us on a two-hour tour around the table, ‘Like this is the aesthetic, this is the vibe for this scene, that scene, this character,’ and it was such a fully fleshed out visual pitch. I’d never seen anything like that before, and there was no question that a lot of that thinking further informed my revisions. I remember that being pretty fundamental to me.”
As for “Blade Trinity,” the infamous ‘Blade 3’ movie that Goyer directed and Wesley Snipes was notoriously behaved on, Goyer wasn’t shy about it and basically reiterated what he’s maintained about it all these years. “Worst working experience of my professional career, without question,” he said again matter-of-factly.
“It was an incredibly fraught experience,” he said, describing it as one of the nadirs of his life. And despite the experience, Goyer had nothing but praise for Snipes, calling him one of the great actors of his generation.
Goyer also explained that Snipes’ infamous run-ins with the IRS were happening right in the middle of the filmmaking, which explains a lot (Snipes eventually almost served three years in prison). “All that stuff was happening right as we started,” he said. “That’s all I’ll say about it for now, but it was a mess.”
It’s a fascinating conversation, and you can watch and listen to it below.
