In the 1990s, David Fincher wanted to direct a James Bond movie. He quickly realised it was never going to happen
David Fincher considered directing a James Bond film in the mid-1990s, around the time Pierce Brosnan was being cast, but the franchise’s owners were not interested. His account suggests a clash between his darker creative ideas and the established vision for Bond, a tension that had also shaped his experience directing Alien 3.
The article places the story alongside the forthcoming 26th Bond film, which Denis Villeneuve is set to direct, and notes that the series is approaching its longest gap between instalments. Fincher later made the assassin thriller The Killer, while his next film, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, is due in IMAX at the end of November and on Netflix on 23 December.
In short
- Fincher explored directing Bond after Timothy Dalton.
- The franchise’s owners did not want his approach.
- Denis Villeneuve is set to direct Bond 26.
Explained simply
James Bond is a British secret agent at the centre of a long-running series of films, made by Eon Productions. In the 1990s, Pierce Brosnan was chosen to play Bond, while American director David Fincher was building a reputation for darker, unsettling films such as Alien 3.
Bond films are developed within an established franchise, so a director’s ideas have to fit its approach to the character and series. Fincher’s account points to a mismatch between his creative style and the owners’ vision for Bond, a kind of tension he had encountered on Alien 3. That helps explain why being interested in the job did not mean he could shape the film as he wished.
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