David Fincher is one of the biggest names in the movie industry, as he has gained widespread popularity as a filmmaker, and that too for a very good reason. Over the years, Fincher has given us numerous movies that survived the test of time, his films such as Panic Room, The Game, The Social Network, and many more films.
With unique directorial style, lowkey lighting, a green color tinting, and recurring usage of shadow, making his films stand out from the masses. With a knack for making character-driven movies, David Fincher had almost directed Blade, starring Wesley Snipes. However, he later abandoned the project for Se7en which was a hit at the box office.
David Fincher Almost Directed Blade
During an exclusive interview in Joshua Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, David S. Goyer, the writer of Blade Films stated how he had originally worked with David Fincher to bring the Blade project to life. Goyer explained that they had prepared a draft together and had a meeting with the producer of the film before he shifted his complete attention to Se7en.
“I developed a draft with Fincher before he had done Se7en. I think he had done Alien 3 and maybe he was developing Se7en. I developed a draft with him. I remember going to our producers office… There was this giant conference table. Fincher laid out 40 to 50 books of photography and art with post-it notes inside them. He said, ‘This is the movie.’”
The Dark Knight writer continued that Fincher had explained the important aspects of the project such as “the aesthetics of this scene, that character,” which made him make some revisions in the final version of the project.
“[Fincher] took us on a two-hour tour around the table of the aesthetics of this scene, that character. It was such a fully fleshed out visual pitch… I had never seen something like that before. A lot of that thinking infused my further revisions.”
The Fight Club director decided to leave the project and move on to Se7en when Blade started to hit too many roadblocks in development. While Fincher made the wise decision of directing Se7en instead of Blade, Denzel Washington has a lifetime of regret as he turned down to play the lead in the film.
Denzel Washington Regrets Turning Down The Lead Role in David Fincher’s Se7en
While we saw Brad Pitt in the lead role of Se7en, Denzel Washington was supposed to play the role instead of Pitt. The role would have been career-defining for him as a complex, tortured detective Somerset would have showcased Washington’s acting chops on the big screen. During an exclusive interview with CTV, he shared that turning down the role was one of his biggest regrets that he still has. He stated that when he read the script, “I was like, man, it’s just too much. Then I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh God.”‘
He continued that the film’s story was too overwhelming for him and could not be a part of it, and it was different than the scripts he was used to reading.
“Evidently it wasn’t for me, it was for Brad all the time. It was just too much when I read it, it was just different when I saw it.”
At the time, Washington had underestimated Fincher’s potential as he was a new director with no fame or recognition in the industry.
Se7en can be streamed on Hulu.
Source: Happy Sad Confused Podcast
