David Fincher and Netflix are parting ways after more than a decade, with the filmmaker set to leave the streamer when his exclusive deal expires.
According to reports, the director, who made “Mank,” “The Killer” and the upcoming “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” along with series “House of Cards,” “Mindhunter” and “Love, Death & Robots,” will not renew his exclusive contract with the streaming giant. The deal expires next year.
It’s unclear what, if anything, led to the split, but rumors have persisted that Netflix did not acquiesce to all of Fincher’s demands during the production of “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” a highly anticipated follow-up to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” that sees Brad Pitt returning to the role of stuntman Cliff Booth (the role that won him an Academy Award in 2020). Tarantino wrote the screenplay for the new movie and produced the film.
According to unsubstantiated reports, after principal photography, Fincher asked for significantly more time to reshoot/reconfigure the movie; Netflix finally relented but not with the budget or resources that Fincher asked for. Still, the movie is barreling towards its November 25 Imax release, ahead of a December 23 debut on the service.
Recently, Netflix also canceled development on Fincher’s Americanized “Squid Game” series “Heckler.” Other projects that Fincher had worked on at Netflix included a “Chinatown” spinoff series, a western feature called “Bitterroot” and a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope” with Denzel Washington attached to star. It’s unclear if any of these projects will continue to be developed beyond the expiration of his deal with the streamer.
Noah Baumbach also recently left Netflix to make a movie for Clockwork, the new imprint at Warner Bros., and on the television side Shawn Levy, producer of “Stranger Things,” decamped for Disney+. (“Stranger Things” creators the Duffer Brothers had already left for Paramount because they wanted to direct a feature that would have theatrical exhibition.) Additionally, Netflix’s output deal with Skydance Animation came to a premature end, with this fall’s “Ray Gunn” and an untitled project from Rich Moore being the last two projects from the pact.
Fincher’s “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” arrives on Netflix on December 23, after an Imax run beginning on November 25.
