Anthony Hopkins’ unofficial sequel to David Fincher’s ‘Seven’: “The notion was pretty short-lived”
As much as Hollywood continually refuses to believe otherwise, not every successful movie needs a sequel. David Fincher’s Seven definitely didn’t, but two decades after its release, Anthony Hopkins ended up taking top billing in an unofficial sequel of sorts.
Because he despises Alien 3 with every fibre of his being and shows no signs of backing down from that stance over 30 years later, Fincher has always viewed his intense, atmospheric, and acclaimed crime thriller as his real feature-length directorial debut, which is fair enough. If that was really the case, it would easily be one of the finest first films in modern history.
The studio was hardly falling over itself to get it made, though, with Fincher fighting hard to maintain the dark, dingy, and distressing elements that had first drawn him to Kevin Andrew Walker’s screenplay. The suits wanted to dial things down, lighten things up, and sacrifice key story points, and when Seven hit cinemas in September 1995, it was clear the filmmaker was right to stand his ground.
Naturally, after recouping its budget almost ten times over at the box office and becoming regarded as one of the best thrillers of the modern era, sequel talk began behind the scenes. Obviously, Fincher had nothing to do with it and had no interest in returning to the well, but that didn’t stop New Line Cinema from trying.
Sean Bailey and Ted Griffin had penned a script about an FBI agent who drafts in a retired doctor, eventually played by Hopkins, who purportedly has psychic abilities, to help them solve a string of murders. At first glance, any connections to Seven were tenuous, but that didn’t deter New Line from attempting to stuff Solace into an ill-fitting box.
The alleged plan was to rebrand it with the new, and woeful, title of Ei8ht, and refit the federal agent into a returning William Somerset, as played by Morgan Freeman in Fincher’s classic. To the surprise of nobody, Griffin explained to Bloody Disgusting that the brief flirtation with a direct Seven sequel wasn’t his call.
“In truth, the notion of turning Solace into a Seven sequel was pretty short-lived,” he said. “The concept was to change Merriwether [Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Solace character] into Somerset.” There was a conversation held between the two parties, but Griffin knew it was a lose-lose situation.
“I think Sean and I had one meeting with the New Line execs where we discussed how to pitch it to Morgan Freeman, but that meeting never came about,” he explained. “There was a rumour that David Fincher had called Freeman and talked him out of pursuing it, but David has never confirmed or denied that to me. I think Sean and I felt at the time that the movie would, at the very least, get critically lambasted if it was presented as a sequel to Seven, but it was New Line’s dime.”
Ultimately, Solace began shooting 13 years after Griffin and Bailey had written their first draft in 2000, and it would be another two years until it was released. When it was, it was largely panned and didn’t make much money, and the only interesting thing about the movie is that, at one point, it was in line to become the Seven sequel nobody asked for, wanted, or needed.
