David Fincher, perhaps only second to Quentin Tarantino (or Ridley Scott) in attaching himself to projects, has re-teamed with “Se7en” scribe Andrew Kevin Walker, and are now at work at an adaptation of “The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud.”
Based on the novel by Max Erlich, the story is about a man who has intense, horrifying nightmares where he is repeatedly killed by being bludgeoned and then drowned. He decides to try and track down the real life places where the events occur and as he digs through newspaper records it becomes clear that these events actually happened, and his dreams might be images of a past life where he was murdered, leading him to try and find the culprit.
The book was adapted once already in 1975 for a forgettable film starring Michael Sarrazin and Margot Kidder, so we’ll gladly welcome another stab at this intriguing material. We thought “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” was the director’s worst film to date, and the Facebook drama “The Social Network,” filming right now and scripted by Aaron Sorkin, isn’t filling us with hope that it won’t just be a bunch of young actors walking down various corridors and talking about the Internet. But with the talented Walker on board, we’re extremely curious to see Fincher at the helm of a psychological horror film, a genre that isn’t done often or well enough.
But, as we mentioned at the start, this still has a long way to go before being actually made. Here’s a quick rundown of the many projects Fincher has attached himself to in the past few years:
-“Heavy Metal,” the omnibus film based on the classic comic
-“Chef,” a sexy food comedy with Keanu Reeves ($100 bucks this one is dead)
-“Torso” aka “Ness” about the famed gangbuster tracking down a serial killer
-“The Killer,” about a top assassin who finds his conscience while being tracked down by a cop
-“Black Hole,” based on the Charles Burns graphic novel about an STD that causes strange mutations
-“The Goon,” an animated adaptation of the graphic novel by Eric Powell
Here’s hoping that at the very least “Peter Proud” keeps that Keanu Reeves comedy on the backburner. Ugh.