Thread by @FincherAnalyst

#GoneGirl (2014)

People Magazine (August 2, 2021)

(Found by Matt Sullivan @ComebackComic)

#GoneGirl (2014)

Entertainment Weekly (January 17, 2014)

Cover photographed for EW by David Fincher
December 14, 2013 (Los Angeles)

Notice the consistency in the "Rigor Mortis" position...

Rolling Stone (January 22, 1981)

Cover session for RS by Annie Leibovitz
December 8, 1980
John Lennon & Yoko Ono's apartment (Dakota Building, New York)

Lennon was murdered five hours later in the archway of the Dakota Building.

Entertainment Weekly (August 22/29, 2014)

Cover photographed for EW by David Fincher

"Fincher found inspiration in the way the media cover the abduction (or murder) of young, beautiful women (such as Laci Peterson). Suddenly a benign image can take on a sinister air."

"Fincher’s wedding photo is a commentary on "the picture that People Magazine would run the week after the wife has disappeared. Like, 'They look so happy. What happened?'""

#GoneGirl (2014)

The photo of little Rosamund Pike playing the cello is real.

She's the only child of opera singers Julian Pike and Caroline Friend.

David Fincher: "Rosamund is an interesting puzzle. And I'm somebody who sort of prides themselves on being able to see what the actor comes equipped with, what their weaponry is, what their— like Batman, what's on their utility belt...

... I look for an actor's utility belt, and she's one of those people that I just could never get a bead on.

That's kind of an important thing for Amy -- you want Amy to be somebody who's unfathomable. I asked her, 'Are you an only child?' And she said, 'Yes.'...

... And I realized that's what Amy had to have. The thing that children who are socialized with adults and not with other siblings have. This other thing that sets them apart. And from that point on we built Amy around Rosamund, tailored it to Rosamund, Rosamund was the one."

#GoneGirl (2014)

Luigi Ficacci - Piranesi. The Complete Etchings (2 Vol.) (Taschen, 2011)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi - Imaginary Prison. XIV. The Gothic Arch

#GoneGirl (2014)

#GoneGirl (2014)

"Tongue in cheek" match cut (min. 00:15:01)

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "I love the idea of romance amongst garbage. This reminds me of the Sid and Nancy poster. They're kissing and the garbage cans and paper towels and stuff's being strewn and flying through the air behind them."

Sid & Nancy (1986)

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "I kind of had this idea that I really wanted Carolyn Bessette. That was kind of my vision of Amy or the person that kind of kept lodging in my thinking."

Queen of the Nineties: the cult of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy

ft.com/content/3d9a16…

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "We found this photograph of Neil from probably the Golden Globes with an actress who shall remain unnamed because we lopped her head off and found this other flash-lit photograph of Rosamund from the same period and composited them together."

"I love the idea of introducing the stalker ex-boyfriend in this prom picture and that they seem so happy and so... They're so skinny and happy and youthful and clueless."

49th Annual Golden Globe Awards: Alyssa Milano and Neil Patrick Harris (January 1, 1992)

Notice the retouch on Neil Patrick Harris's ears to depict the actual ear plastic surgery he had later.

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher (Playboy, 2014): "You cast movies based on critical scenes. In Gone Girl, there’s a smile the guy has to give when the local press asks him to stand next to a poster of his missing wife. ..."

"... I flipped through Google Images and found about 50 shots of Affleck giving that kind of smile in public. You know he’s trying to make people comfortable in the moment, but by doing that he’s making himself vulnerable to people having other perceptions about him."

31st London Critics Circle Film Awards, BFI (February 10, 2011): Rosamund Pike

Her smile has been slightly Photoshopped to make it less open and honest, not unlike Amy's husbands' Nick.

#DavidFincher: "I used to think picture was half of the experience and sound was half of the experience. But I now really believe picture is 25 per cent of the experience and sound is 25 per cent of the experience, and the audience is half. They’re going to fill in the blanks."

"Their minds aren't blank slates when they come into the theater."

"I think it’s a good thing to have an audience have some expectation of you because it gives you opportunities to subvert that. When you’re making a movie like ‘Gone Girl,’ it’s not a bad thing that people have seen ‘Seven’ and know that shit can go seriously off the rails...

... The threat of that is actually kind of positive. You get to play with expectations. It’s your responsibility to be aware of that and use it to your advantage, as opposed to letting it get in the way of the story you’re trying to tell."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "This is such a beautiful 21st century exploration of the tragedy vampire. That Nick Dunne has, in some odd way, become kind of a celebrity, and she wants to get a selfie with him."

"It seems sort of innocuous, but the moment that the picture is taken and she has it in her hand, you kind of realize along with him at the same speed, 'This can't be good. This can't lead to anything but heartbreak.'"

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "Beyond something taking place on July 4th, beyond the idea of a search party looking for remains, whenever you have 80 feet of dolly track and a walk and talk on the sand, it has to hearken to 'Jaws.'"

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "Ellen Abbott is a creation, she's not meant to be based on anyone in real life in particular, but she certainly has aspects of her that are Nancy Grace-ish."

"For the most part, all of the Ellen Abbott show was pretty much done in one day, on the last day of shooting."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "When we were looking for somebody to play Andie, it was imperative that we find somebody who could divide the audience immediately."

"Okay, women are going to lean back in their chairs, be disgusted, cross their arms and go, 'He is a fucking prick.' And that men would put their chins on their hands, lean forward and say, 'Yeah, but I mean, it's kind of understandable.' And Emily Ratajkowski does that."

"I think it was Ben who said, 'Yeah, the girl in the Blurred Lines video.' And I had no idea. I mean, I kind of live in an igloo in East LA. But I had no idea until I saw it. I thought, 'Well, this girl is definitely divisive.'"

"And I was very worried that we were gonna be meeting with a supermodel, somebody who was, kind of, more interested in what the project was gonna do for them, than they were with what they were gonna do for the project."

"And Emily came in and I just thought she was great. She was absolutely no bullshit, she has no pretense, she takes direction amazingly, she really listens, and she is willing to take risks and fail. And that's what you have to have as an actor."

pagesix.com/2015/09/07/emi…

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "In this shot, Rosamund really looks like a Hitchcock blond to me. That really feels like Grace Kelly or something, the angle and the smudge of tears and snot."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "It's an interesting comment on society when characters in movies don't have to explain what luminol is. (FINCHER LAUGHS) It's a sign of the times."

"For those of you who don't know what luminol is, it's a compound that adheres to iron in your blood, so that even if you've washed blood away with soap and water, it can adhere to the molecules of iron in the blood stain that would be there and make it fluoresce."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "Singani 63 is an alcoholic beverage that's imported by Steven Soderbergh and I gave him a choice as to what scene he wanted his Singani to appear in."

"He chose a later scene where Rosamund Pike violates herself with the bottle. When she was offered either an exquisite French Chardonnay or the Singani, she chose the Chardonnay for actor reasons."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "There's a moment where Nick Dunne has to reach into his duffel bag or his backpack and get out a baseball cap that he's bought at the airport hoping that people don't recognize him from the television. I really wanted it to be a Yankees cap..."

"(FINCHER INHALES DEEPLY)... but being from Boston and not being very professional as an actor, Ben refused to wear a Yankees cap. We did not come to blows, but we had to shut down production for 4 days as we negotiated with Patrick Whitesell."

"What Patrick thought would be the best way to meet the requirements of the production and something that his client could live with, which I thought was entirely unprofessional."

Ben Affleck and David Fincher’s Spat in a Hat:

artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/ben…

https://twitter.com/cevangelista413/status/1291141483882520576

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "This is a scene where you see exactly how great Tyler Perry is, because he understands this better than you. When he tells you this is about public perception, he does it in a way that says he knows what he's talking about."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "The day that we shot this sequence, I think was the day that Ben and Rosamund finally realized how unhinged the third act of this movie was gonna be."

"It was definitely one of those moments where you thought, 'you will understand exactly what's going on in my head,' and I brought them over and I showed them the thing and they looked at me like, 'Okay. How does this fit in?'

I thought I was explaining myself so well."

"We took about an hour-and-a-half to get the continuity of the blood on Rosamund and that it could flake off and look like she'd been bloody all night.

We blocked this whole scene, we had all the extras there, we had the crane set up and...

... we were ready on the 21mm lens to be in the over-the-shoulder, and she drops, and we see everybody go crazy, and then the camera shoots up into the air."

"I didn't want the poster for 'Gone with the Wind'. I wanted her to fall after you say, "f**king bitch." She falls away from you and gives the press the photo of their careers. It has to be People magazine fodder for the next 15 years."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "I love when she looks over out the window and says, "I love him." And Ben, who has no idea what's being said in the room looks and sees her looking at him, tries to be supportive or appear supportive.

And he waves. And this wave is priceless."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "And then this innocuous, cute, squeaky-clean picture of prom goers is turned over to headline news. It's split down the middle like a Sherry Lansing poster and spattered with blood."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "I don't know where this idea of the villainous chin came in, but we teased Ben mercilessly during the making of the movie that he said yes to this movie...

... and then immediately got on the phone to his agent and said, 'Okay, I'm doing a villainous chin role. You have to find me a heroic chin role,' and that's how Batman came about."

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "So this is the only time that you see Missi Pyle [as Ellen Abbott] outside the box of a television, and she's priceless."

"He's so reasonable in the way that he's presenting this to her, which is, "Why would I ever be nice to you
after everything that you've done?"

And she's like, 'Don't you get it? It's not about you, it's about perception.'"

#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "#GoneGirl (2014)

David Fincher: "I love the moment in this interview where he is about to spill the beans. He says, Partners in crime,' and then he just can't do it. In that moment she owns him...

... Then it becomes this hug between girlfriends.

And he is done."

UNREALIZED CODA:

"‘Gone Girl’s Ben Affleck, David Fincher, Gillian Flynn Plot ‘Strangers On A Train’ Redo At Warner Bros" (2015)

deadline.com/2015/01/ben-af…

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