The one movie David Fincher regrets most: “No one hates it more than me”
Since the early years of his directorial career, it was evident to almost everyone that David Fincher was a major talent. Through films like Se7en and Fight Club, Fincher injected some much-needed energy into the thriller genre at a time when American cinema was undergoing some major transformations. Since then, the Zodiac director’s visual style has evolved as he has undertaken more ambitious projects like The Social Network and Mank.
Recently, Fincher made a new addition to his filmography in the form of The Killer, which received mixed reviews before its streaming release. While his latest thriller might have been a slight misfire, there’s one project he will always regard as the biggest mistake of his illustrious career. Although fans have often reminded him about the disastrous impact of the movie, Fincher has always maintained that he is the one who dislikes it the most.
The film in question is none other than Alien 3, Fincher’s infamous sequel, Alien 3, which he has repeatedly disowned. During a conversation with The Guardian, the director insisted that his first major project was particularly problematic. He said: “I had to work on it for two years, got fired off it three times, and I had to fight for every single thing. No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me.”
While discussing his initial plans, Fincher claimed that he was a little naive to think that the studio would let him realise his vision: “It was a baptism by fire. I was very naive. For a number of years, I’d been around the kind of people who financed movies and the kind of people who are there to make the deals for movies. But I’d always had this naive idea that everybody wants to make movies as good as they can be, which is stupid.”
The filmmaker added: “So I learned then just to be a belligerent asshole, which was really: ‘You have to get what you need to get out of it.’ You have to fight for things you believe in, and you have to be smart about how you position it so that you don’t just become white noise. On that movie, I was the guy who was constantly the voice of ‘We need to do this better, we need to do this, this doesn’t make sense’. And pretty soon, it was like in Peanuts: WOP WOP WOP WOP WOP! They’d go, ‘He’s doing that again, he’s frothing at the mouth, he seems so passionate.’ They didn’t care.”
Although Alien 3 became a commercial success due to great box office numbers outside North America, Fincher still regards it as his greatest failure. Thankfully, he got the chance to prove himself after his flawed debut, and Se7en, his follow-up, was simply stunning. However, even amidst the chaos of Alien 3, Fincher’s technical prowess is still evident in certain segments.
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