Torso: David Fincher's latest film : News & more

Fincher talks Torso

2007-03-05T03:53:00.000-08:00

I believe for the first time, while discussing his two current projects with MTV's Kurt Loder - Zodiac & Benjamin Button Fincher had this to say about Brian Bendis's graphic novel adaptation:

Loder: You obviously have an affinity for the serial-killer genre. I'd imagine you don't want to make a career of it, but you are considering making a film version of "Torso," aren't you?
Fincher: I'm interested in that. I'm not interested in the serial killer thing, I'm interested in Eliot Ness. I'm interested in the de-mythologizing of Eliot Ness. Because, you know, "The Untouchables" was only two or three years of the Eliot Ness story. There's a whole other, much more sinister downside to it. And so that's of interest to me. We want to make it the "Citizen Kane" of cop movies. I also want to make a CG animated movie. And I've been talking about doing a remake of a movie I really liked in the '70s, "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud." Ever see that? And there's a World War II movie that Robert Towne is writing that I really love.
All kinds of stuff.

Sounds fascinating doesn't it? Everyone of those ideas! If only we could clone Fincher - we might actually see all those amazing ideas appear on screen!

Possible start date

2006-09-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Producer Bill Mechanic talks when the film might start shooting - but I think he's very optimistic - Fincher is still finishing up Zodiac! For the record Bill hopes that Torso might start lensing sometime in 2008. Hey I'm all for it - the more Fincher the better! But I'd rather not get my hopes up.

Any news that filters thru will of course be found here!

McFarlane talks Torso

2006-08-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

Why does McFarlane keep talking about Torso like he wrote it? And why is he talking about it to ESPN??? From the article:

The other movie I am working on which is also a "comic" sort of picks up on Elliot Ness' life after leaving Chicago and putting Al Capone away. That's the one that David Fincher is signed up to direct. There is a screenplay being written now, the outline was just handed in. And everybody wants him to do this as his next movie, but he has another one lined up with Brad Pitt, so hopefully, worst case, it would be his second one -- he just finished "Zodiac," sort of a serial killer film, and he might want a breather from another serial killer story. Hopefully we can just keep this rock being pushed uphill.

Bendis talks Torso.

2006-04-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yay! Mini update. Bendis is Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Comicon and this is news from his panel as describe by the always informative Comics Continuum:

"MONROEVILLE, Pa. -- When it comes to films based on his properties, Brian Michael Bendis says, "I have no control, I just ride the wave."
He seems to be nativigating pretty well of late, providing an update on three projects during his panel at the Pittsburgh Comicon on Saturday.
The Torso movie got a positive jolt recently.
"To the shock of me and Marc Andreyko, David Fincher signed on to direct," Bendis said, "which is great because he is the only one who should direct it."
Fincher's signing cleared the way for a new deal with Paramount for the film's rights.
"I was at Paramount about a month ago and had an awesome meeting," Bendis said. "It sounded great."
Ehren Kruger is writing the adaptation, which will count Todd McFarlane among its producers."

Read the article for exciting news on other Bendis projects such as Jinx and Powers - which would all make great movies!

The Don talks SPOILER WARNING

2006-01-24T00:19:00.000-08:00

Again props to IESB with this cool video interview with producer Don Murphy where he talks a bit about the Torso movie, he praises Fincher and says that his (Don's) vision for the movie is that of a "Chinatown dark brooding piece" which sounds tre(very) cool. He also mentions how Fincher would film the movie - it starts with Ness during mayoral elections but then flashes back through the Torso murders - again tre cool. Check out the interview he also talks bout the Transformers film.
I LOVE THE DON!

McFarlane (yuk) talks

2006-01-20T02:07:00.000-08:00

Look at that stare, hear the ego, the most deluded man in comics - its Todd McFarlane! What his involvment in the film I don't know but coming from him it sounds like he wrote and drew the damn comic! He really has a bad relationship with Bendis when he started writing for Marvel. Anyways this are a few excerpts from an "interesting" interview he conducted.

On Ness - "He was a young guy I think he actually passed away at 44 so he was a kid, so some of the people that you think of, you could argue even Costner was too old for that role cause I think Ness was only like 26 when he put Capone away," McFarlane argues. " this is supposed to be taking place 6 or 7 years later, so mid 30's, it sort of opens it up a little bit but I think that a guy like, well one of the guys I think they are leaning towards is Matt Damon. " PICK LEO!!!!

Films colour - "I talked to David, when he was first thinking about it he said this should be B&W , cause he read the novel, which is in black and white, and he was going ok cool, cool. But at that time, Sin City hadn't come out, it was just coming out and obviously there is the success of it " he said. " I think that Sin City was also appealing to a certain crowd, where I think Torso is beyond that crowd. Torso could have more of that Road to Perdition crowd. It can be big and wide ranging and it's not about let's go see if we can get all the comic book crowd and all the people that just dig big stylistic king fu movies, which is a big portion of the Sin City group. I don't know, we'll see how much the studios and everyone digs in their feet on what they think is going to come out of it. "

Bill Mechanic talks

2006-01-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

One of the producers of Torso Bill Mechanic (also produced Fight Club and got fired) talks a little about Torso and his career in movies. It is quite a career and it is a wonderful article by the always informative HollywoodReporter. Highly recommended.

Exerpts:

And down the pike at Paramount is the recently announced David Fincher thriller "Torso," based on the '90s graphic novel about a real-life Cleveland serial killer chased by famous gangster-basher Eliot Ness.
"Torso" came about because Murphy knew that comic artist Todd McFarlane had been sitting on the rights to the graphic novel for years. "After Eliot Ness has cleaned up Chicago, he's in Cleveland during the '30s Depression as public safety officer dealing with the Torso Killer, possibly America's first serial killer," says Murphy, who took the project to ex-Fox chairman Bill Mechanic, who first brought in "Barbershop's" George Tillman, and then "Fight Club" director Fincher.

Bendis talks how the Torso deal came about

2006-01-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

From the best comic newsite in the world Newsarama:

“I don't think the details of any of this are that interesting,” Bendis wrote, “but we had first set this up at Miramax where mark and I wrote a draft. We had a great time doing that. There was some struggle as to what type of movie Miramax wanted to make from it. They were doing a lot of inexpensive thrillers at the time. Dracula 2000, etc and we all thought Torso should be something on the level of a LA Confidential, The Untouchables, or Seven. A big epic directed by someone... just like David Fincher.

“We got Torso back but Miramax kept our script which was really a bummer, but they bought it and they can do whatever they see fit. That's the way it goes in Hollywood. The amazing part is that Bill Mechanic's company jumped in and David Fincher showed interest and all the other pieces fell into place.

“I can't tell you enough how well Marc Andreyko and our manager David Engel and lawyer Shep Rosenmen handled all of this out there in LA. So, though there are many steps to go before a movie starts getting made, this is absolutely the kind of movie I had always hoped in my dream of dreams that Torso might be. But, man, never did I think it could get anywhere near this close. David Fincher, like many of us, is one of my favorite directors and the Fight Club DVD extras are inspiring.

“Torso was two years of my life, years of research and drawing, and it did get me my first work at Marvel. That and Jinx got me Daredevil and it got Marc's excellent book Manhunter. If any of this makes you feel like picking up the collection from Image comics... go with that feeling…

“As for Jinx at Universal i am just a week away from completing my first draft, so fingers crossed. But it felt good.

“And no, I am not leaving comics. Sorry avengers fans comics are the best medium for storytelling in the world and I am lucky to work on the best characters ever created. Trust me, nothing beats comics or the people that make them.”

Fincher + Bendis = Torso!!!!

2006-01-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

Torso announced. From DarkHorizons:

David Fincher Uncovers A "Torso"

David Fincher is making room in his schedule for "Torso," a thriller based on a graphic novel written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andrey-ko, which he will direct for Paramount Pictures says The Hollywood Reporter."Torso" tells the true but relatively unknown story of Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness' time after his Al Capone days, when he moved to Cleveland to be the city's public safety officer. Torsos began appearing in the river, and Ness began receiving notes taunting him to catch the killer. Ness, who had no experience in police work, put together a team of ex-officers to apprehend the serial murderer. The graphic novel was written by Bendis and Andreyko and drawn by Bendis in the late 1990s. Ehren Kruger is writing the adaptation, which will be produced by Bill Mechanic, Don Murphy and Todd McFarlane. Its expected he'll get to work on this once he wraps production on Paramount's "Benjamin Button" adaptation. Fincher's next film "Zodiac" is due out in the Fall.

OMG this is such exciting and huge news! I own the graphic novel and it is a fantastic read but will need a polish to make it to the screen. I've got alot more to post and redesign on this page so stay tuned!