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‘Se7en’: David Fincher Talks The Thorny Shoot Of His Sophomore Feature: ‘Oh, My God, This Is That Problem Child From The ‘Alien’ Movies?’

At this point in his career, David Fincher is a Mount Rushmore figurehead of contemporary American cinema for a lot of moviegoers. But that wasn’t always the case. Flashback to the early ’90s, when Fincher, in his mid-20s and primarily a director of commercials, was tapped by 20th Century Fox to helm the much-anticipated sequel “Alien 3.”  The result was disastrous: a $60 million budget blockbuster with a troubled production that scored low with critics and failed to live up to anyone’s lofty expectations. And by the end of post-production, it wasn’t even Fincher’s film anymore. Angry producers took “Alien 3” out of the director’s hands to assemble their own edit, with Fincher being handed most of the blame in return.

READ MORE: David Fincher Extends Deal With Netflix & Says Streamer Allows Him To Take Risks

Many young directors would expect to be persona non grata in the industry after an experience like “Alien 3.”  But not Fincher: after the dust settled, he signed on to make a gritty serial killer script that New Line was passing around that, despite its own troubling test screenings, slingshot the director to stardom. And almost 30 years after its theatrical release, “Se7en” still rattles viewers, and proves to be quite the rebound for Fincher. To celebrate the film’s new 8k IMAX remaster, which premieres at TCM Classic Film Festival today, Fincher sat down with the LA Times to discuss how he successfully bounced back with his sophomore feature.

As per usual, Fincher didn’t shy away from discussing his messy stint on “Alien 3.” “Listen, “Alien 3” was a $60-plus-million movie. When it’s a big franchise movie, there are a lot of interlopers, a lot of people watching how things get spent,” said the director. But Fincher sees the aftermath of “Alien 3,” where he went back to doing commercials and a couple of music videos before signing on to “Se7en,” as a necessary part of his creative journey. And he has no regrets nor blame to dole out.  “Who wants to spend their time bitching and moaning about transgressions that were done to you?” he continued.  “That seems like a waste of time. I don’t think I was persecuted on “Alien 3,” but I definitely learned what my limits were.”

But artists like to constantly test limits, and after Fincher was accidentally sent the script for “Se7en,” he knew he had to try and make the film.  “There’s so few scripts that you read in this business where you go: What just happened?” Fincher said about first reading the script.  And with its smaller script and studio, “Se7en” wouldn’t be another movie for Fincher where producers were constantly meddling with his vision.  “When you’re making a dirty, skeevy little serial-killer movie for New Line, there’s a lot less oversight,” the director continued.  “I think everybody came into it thinking, ‘Oh, my God, this is that problem child from the “Alien” movies?’ And then, six weeks into it, they were like: ‘He is consistent. We’re watching the dailies and we like what we see. So maybe that was then and this is now?'”

With no producers overshadowing him, Fincher shot “Se7en” with the confidence that his vision would make it through to the final cut.  “Yeah, I’ve never been lacking for confidence, only because everybody makes mistakes,” Fincher said about the relative freedom he felt making “Se7en” in comparison to “Alien 3.”  “I’m going to make mistakes. The thing was, with “Alien 3,” I never liked being forced to make other people’s mistakes. I want to believe in the thing I’m doing. And [with “Se7en”] I finally had a piece of material that expressed that. The kind of movie I wanted to see. I like movies that challenge me, movies that make me go: Really? You want to get this close?”

And Fincher made the movie he wanted to make with “Se7en,” despite various setbacks. Some of those issues included rainy weather from El Niño, which forced Fincher to replicate rain for most of the film’s shoot, a producer flinching the use of several 30-gallon bags of cockroaches to get a shot just right, and New Line wanting Gene Hackman in as one of the lead detectives, only for the actor bristling at the film’s consistent night shoots. But Fincher’s biggest obstacle to retaining his vision?  The notoriously awful test screenings for “Se7en,” which put him at odds with producers again.  Fincher blames poor advertising for the low test audiences scores, but the situation put him in a stalemate with producers, with some of them wanting him to change the film’s infamous “box” ending to something less shocking.

But Fincher wasn’t about to betray himself, and he stood his ground in a meeting he set up with New Line president Michael De Luca.  Fincher recalled the incident: “I remember at the end of this meeting, I turned to Michael and I said, ‘I want to see you in your office across the hallway.’ And we got up and we left and we went across the hall into his office and we closed the door. And I said, ‘Dude, we talked about “Klute.”  We talked about “The French Connection.” We talked about the kinds of movies that we wanted to make. And I’m telling you, this movie is a good movie. It will be if we can complete the intention. And I need the money to finish this, and I’m coming to you and saying if you support this, I know I can make a better movie than what we screened.”  De Luca acquiesced, and Fincher finished his shoot of the film the way he wanted, with “Se7en” going on to be a smash hit for both the director and the studio.

Nearly three decades later, “Se7en” still has a very particular mystique in both Fincher’s filmography and the serial killer movie genre. But Fincher isn’t the sentimental type, and he complained about how producers wanted him to replicate the film’s ambience in other movies he’s made since, like 2007’s “Zodiac.” “Look, I’m happy about that. I like the movie,” Fincher said of “Se7en” and its legacy, but he doesn’t want to ever make the movie again.  “I went through that with Warner Bros. on “Zodiac.”  They were like, ‘Well, this isn’t scary.’ And I was like, ‘There are people who might disagree with you on that.’ I got blue in the face saying, “This is not “Se7en.” This is a 35-year cross between “All the President’s Men” and “River’s Edge.”” I’m sure there are people who would love to be able to hire you to do that thing that you did for New Line back in the mid-’90s, but I barely remember what that was. Hopefully we’ve all moved on.”

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