David Fincher Biography

David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director and music video director. Fincher was nominated the Academy Award for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and his 2010 film The Social Network. For The Social Network, Fincher won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. His most recent film is 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel of the same name.

Early life and career

Fincher was born on August 28, 1962 in Denver, Colorado, the son of Claire Mae (née Boettcher), a mental health nurse who worked in drug addiction programs, and Howard Kelly Fincher, who worked as a bureau chief for Life under the name Jack Fincher. When Fincher was two years old, the family moved to San Anselmo in Marin County, California. Fincher moved to Ashland, Oregon in his teens, where he graduated from Ashland High School. Inspired by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Fincher began making movies at age eight with an 8 mm camera. Fincher eschewed the film school route, getting a job loading cameras and doing other hands-on work for John Korty's Korty Films. He was later hired by Industrial Light & Magic in 1983, where he worked on productions for Twice Upon a Time, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. In 1984, he left ILM to direct a commercial for the American Cancer Society, that would show a fetus smoking a cigarette. This quickly brought Fincher to the attention of producers in Los Angeles and he was given the chance to direct the documentary The Beat of the Live Drum featuring Rick Springfield in 1985. Though he would continue to direct spots for companies like Revlon, Converse, Nike, Pepsi, Sony, and Levi's, Fincher soon discovered music videos and went on to direct many promos.

Propaganda Films

Set on a directing career, Fincher joined video-production company Propaganda Films and started off directing music videos and commercials. Like Fincher, directors such as Michael Bay, Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, Paul Rachman, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski, Alex Proyas and others honed their talents at Propaganda Films before moving on to feature films.

Music videos

Fincher directed big budget music videos for artists such as Madonna (including "Express Yourself", "Vogue", "Oh Father" and "Bad Girl"), Billy Idol ("Cradle of Love"), Paula Abdul (including "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me", "Straight Up", "Forever Your Girl" and "Cold Hearted"), Aerosmith ("Janie's Got a Gun"), The Rolling Stones (including "Love Is Strong"), Roy Orbison ("She's a Mystery to Me"), Nine Inch Nails ("Only"), A Perfect Circle ("Judith"), Jody Watley (including "Real Love" and "Most of All"), Howard Hewett ("Stay"), Rick Springfield ("State Of The Heart"), Jermaine Stewart (We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off), Johnny Hates Jazz ("Shattered Dreams"), Steve Winwood ("Roll with It", "Holding On"), Neneh Cherry ("Heart"), George Michael ("Freedom '90"), The Motels "Shame", Michael Jackson ("Who Is It"), The Wallflowers ("6th Avenue Heartache"), Wire Train and The Outfield, including "All the Love (in the World)", "Every Time You Cry" and "No Surrender", and Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie". His video for Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence" won Henley the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1990. He also earned back-to-back MTV Video Music Awards for Best Direction in 1989 for "Express Yourself" and in 1990 for "Vogue". In 1990, he earned three of the four available nominations in the Best Direction category.

Features

After directing several music videos, Fincher's feature debut was Alien 3 (1992). While it received an Oscar nomination for special effects, the film was not well received by critics or moviegoers. Fincher became involved with several disputes with 20th Century Fox over script and budget issues. In "The Director's Cut", he blames the producers for not putting the necessary trust in him. Fincher stated in an interview with The Guardian in 2009:

"No one hated it more than me; to this day, no one hates it more than me."

After this, Fincher retreated back into the world of commercial and music video directing, including the video for the Grammy Award winning track "Love Is Strong" (1994) by The Rolling Stones.

In 1995, Fincher directed Seven. The film, based on a screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker, told the story of two detectives (played by Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) tracking down a serial killer who bases his killings on the seven deadly sins. The film grossed more than $100 million domestically (over $300 million internationally). The chairman of New Line Cinema, Arnold Kopelson, originally refused to allow filming of the shocking climactic scene. With the aid of Brad Pitt, who stated that he would not be involved with the picture if its ending were changed, Fincher was allowed to film the original scene and use it in the final cut.

After the success of Seven, Fincher went on to film The Game (1997). The story focused on a closed-off San Francisco businessman (played by Michael Douglas) who receives an unusual gift from his younger brother (Sean Penn), in which he becomes the main player of a role-playing game that takes over his life. The film had middling box-office returns despite being well received by critics.

Fight Club was a screen adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same name about an insomniac office worker who opens up a club devoted exclusively to bare knuckle fighting for men. Featuring Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Seven collaborator Brad Pitt, the 1999 film was an early disappointment at the box-office and received mixed reviews. Fight Club was panned by several critics and alienated audiences leading to its box office failure in the United States.

However, many critics and audiences later changed their opinions and the film appeared on many 'best of the year' lists and soon developed a cult following. Entertainment Weekly, which had originally given the film a D-, later ranked the DVD #1 on its list of 50 Essential DVDs. Exceptional sales have since established it as a cult film.

In 2006 the British magazine Total Film voted Fight Club number four in the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, beaten only by Jaws, Vertigo and Goodfellas at 3, 2 and 1 respectively.

In 2002, Fincher followed up with the thriller Panic Room. The film earned over $92 million at the U.S. box office. The story follows a single mother (Jodie Foster) and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) as they hide in a safe room of their new house, away from criminals (Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, and Fight Club collaborator Jared Leto) bent on finding a missing fortune. Fincher acknowledged Panic Room as a more mainstream thriller, describing the film, on the DVD's audio commentary, as "[basically] a date movie" and a "really good B movie" about "two people trapped in a closet".

Five years after Panic Room, Fincher returned on March 2, 2007 with Zodiac, an adaptation of Robert Graysmith's books about the hunt for the Zodiac Killer that starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr., Anthony Edwards, and Brian Cox. The first of Fincher's films to be shot digitally, the majority of the film was recorded on a Thompson Viper Film Stream Camera. However, high-speed film cameras were used for the Blue Rock Springs and Presidio Heights murder scenes for the slow-motion shots. It was originally to be released in the fall of 2006 but was pushed back after Fincher refused to cut 20 minutes off the film.

Zodiac was one of the best-reviewed films of that year, with only two other 2007 films appearing on more top-10 lists (No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood). However, the film struggled at the box office in the U.S., earning only $33 million, but did well overseas with a foreign gross of $51.7 million. Worldwide, Zodiac was a decent success. Despite an aggressive campaign by the studio, expectations surrounding Robert Downey, Jr.'s supporting performance, Fincher's direction and Vanderbilt's adapted script, the film did not earn a single Academy Award nomination.

A story about life and death, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story of the same name. The film was Fincher's third with Brad Pitt. The film started shooting in November 2006 in New Orleans, before moving on to the Virgin Islands, Montreal, and L.A.. Both Zodiac and this film are co-productions of Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. The budget for the film was estimated at $150 million, partly due to the CGI effects used to reverse the aging in Brad Pitt's character. The film is the first PG-13 film directed by Fincher. It received 13 nominations at the 81st Academy Awards, including Fincher's first nomination for Best Director. It won three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects.

Fincher directed the 2010 film The Social Network, about the legal battles of Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook. The film features an Oscar-winning screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, adapted from the book The Accidental Billionaires. Featuring a young cast ensemble, the film was produced by Scott Rudin, Kevin Spacey and Michael DeLuca. Filming started in October 2009 and was released a year later, to critical acclaim. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross created the Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film, Fincher had long been a fan of Reznor's work in Nine Inch Nails, even putting a remix of "Closer" in the beginning of Seven and directing the music video for "Only". The film went on to win many awards, including four Golden Globes (including Best Motion Picture " Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score), three BAFTAs (including Best Direction), and three Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing.

Fincher directed the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was based on the book by Stieg Larsson, with a script written by Steven Zaillian. The film was shot in Sweden, with Rooney Mara (who played Erica Albright in The Social Network) as Lisbeth Salander, Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, Robin Wright as Erika Berger, Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger and Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger. The film was released on December 21, 2011. Along with Dragon Tattoo writer Steve Zaillian is in the early stage of scripting The Girl Who Played with Fire, which Fincher has the option to direct. While he has not yet committed to the project, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker has admitted that (should he sign on) he would prefer to shoot both the second and third Millennium book adaptations back-to-back, for both practical and artistic purposes. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the soundtrack for the film (their second collaboration with Fincher). It received five Academy Award nominations at the 84th Academy Awards including: Best Actress for Rooney Mara, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Sound Mixing and won one award for Best Film Editing.

Fincher is executive producer of the Netflix television series House of Cards; he also directed the first two episodes. The series has received critical acclaim, receiving 9 Primetime Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Fincher for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the first episode.

Filmography

Released Films

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Executive Producer	Notes
1992	Alien 3	Yes			Nominated - Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Director
1995	Seven	Yes			Blue Ribbon Award for Best Foreign Language Film Fantasporto for Best Film Hochi Film Awards for Best Foreign Language Film Sant Jordi Awards for Best Foreign Film Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Director Nominated - DVD Exclusive Awards for Best DVD Audio Commentary
1997	The Game	Yes
1999	Fight Club	Yes			Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director
2001	The Hire		Yes
2002	Panic Room	Yes
2005	Lords of Dogtown			Yes
2006	Love and Other Disasters		Yes
2007	Zodiac	Yes			Nominated - Bodil Award for Best American Film Nominated - Palme d'Or Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association for Best Director Nominated - Empire Award for Best Director Nominated - London Film Critics' Circle for Director of the Year Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director NominatedToronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Director
2008	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	Yes			London Film Critics Circle Award for Director of the Year National Board of Review Award for Best Director Nominated - Academy Award for Best Director Nominated - Saturn Award for Best Director Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Direction Nominated - Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Nominated - Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Director Nominated - Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Nominated - Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directing- Featured Film Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Director Nominated - New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director Nominated - SFX Awards for best director Nominated - Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director
2010	The Goon		Yes
	The Social Network	Yes			BAFTA Award for Best Direction Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Chicago Film Critics Association for Best Director Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for Best Foreign-Language Film - Audience Award César Award for Best Foreign Film Film Critics Circle of Australia for Best Foreign Film Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director Golden Globe Award for Best Director Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Director London Film Critics Circle Award for Director of the Year Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Director National Board of Review Award for Best Director National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director Sant Jordi Awards for Best Foreign Film Satellite Award for Best Director Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director Nominated - Academy Award for Best Director Nominated - Bodil Award for Best American Film Nominated - Central Ohio Film Critics Association for Best Director Nominated - Cinema Brazil Grand Prize for Best Foreign-Language Film Nominated - Cinema Writers Circle Awards for Best Foreign Film Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Nominated - David di Donatello for Best Foreign Film Nominated - Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Nominated - Empire Award for Best Director Nominated - Nastro d'Argento for Best Non-European Director Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Director Nominated - Robert Festival for Best American Film Nominated - Russian Guild of Film Critics for Best Foreign Film Nominated - San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Director Nominated -Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association
2011	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Yes			Nominated - Central Ohio Film Critics Association Nominated - Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
2013	House of Cards	Yes		Yes	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (2013) Nominated - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series (2013)
TBA	Gone Girl	Yes		Yes

Video games

• Halo 4 "Scanned" launch trailer (2012)

Music videos

• "Dance This World Away", Rick Springfield (1984)
• "Celebrate Youth", Rick Springfield (1984)
• "Bop Til You Drop", Rick Springfield (1984)
• "Shame", The Motels (1985)
• "Shock", The Motels (1985)
• "Celebrate Youth", Rick Springfield (1985)
• "All The Love In The World", The Outfield (1986)
• "Everytime You Cry", The Outfield (1986)
• "One Simple Thing", Stabilizers (1986)
• "She Comes On", Wire Train (1987)
• "Should She Cry", Wire Train (1987)
• "Endless Nights", Eddie Money (1987)
• "Downtown Train", Patty Smyth (1987)
• "I Don't Mind At All", Bourgeois Tagg (1987)
• "Notorious", Loverboy (1987)
• "Love Will Rise Again", Loverboy (1987)
• "Johnny B", The Hooters (1987)
• "Storybook Story", Mark Knopfler (1987)
• "Can I Hold You", Colin Hay (1987)
• "No Surrender", The Outfield (1987)
• "Say You Will", Foreigner (1987)
• "Don't Tell Me The Time", The Motels (1987)
• "Tell It To the Moon", The Motels (1988)
• "Heart of Gold", Johnny Hates Jazz (1988)
• "Englishman in New York", Sting (1988)
• "Shattered Dreams" (second version),
  Johnny Hates Jazz (1988)
• "Get Rhythm", Ry Cooder (1988)
• "Most of All", Jody Watley (1988)
• "Roll With It", Steve Winwood (1988)
• "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" (version 1988), Paula Abdul (1988)
• "Holding On", Steve Winwood (1988)
• "Heart", Neneh Cherry (1989)
• "Bamboleo" (second version), Gipsy Kings (1989)
• "Straight Up", Paula Abdul (1989)
• "Most of All", Jody Watley (1989)
• "Real Love", Jody Watley (1989)
• "Bamboleo" (third version), Gipsy Kings (1989)
• "She's a Mystery to Me", Roy Orbison (1989)
• "Forever Your Girl", Paula Abdul (1989)
• "Express Yourself", Madonna (1989)
• "The End of the Innocence", Don Henley (1989)
• "Cold Hearted", Paula Abdul (1989)
• "(It's Just) The Way That You Love Me" (version 1989), Paula Abdul (1988)
• "Oh Father", Madonna (1989)
• "Janie's Got a Gun", Aerosmith (1989)
• "Vogue", Madonna (1990)
• "Cradle of Love", Billy Idol (1990)
• "L.A. Woman", Billy Idol (1990)
• "Freedom '90", George Michael (1990)
• "Who Is It?", Michael Jackson (1992)
• "Bad Girl", Madonna (1993)
• "Love Is Strong", The Rolling Stones (1994)
• "6th Avenue Heartache", The Wallflowers (1996)
• "Judith", A Perfect Circle (2000)
• "Only", Nine Inch Nails (2005)
• "Suit & Tie", Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z (2013)

Reception

Critical reception

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic
Alien 3	42%	N/A
Seven	85%	65
The Game	71%	61
Fight Club	81%	66
Panic Room	77%	65
Zodiac	90%	78
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	72%	70
The Social Network	96%	95
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	87%	71
Average	77.9%	71.4

Box office

Film	Release date	Revenue			Budget	Reference
		United States	Outside United States	Worldwide
Alien 3		$55,473,545	$104,340,953	$159,814,498	$50 million
Seven		$100,125,643	$227,186,216	$327,311,859	$33 million
The Game		$48,323,648	$61,100,000	$109,423,648	$50 million
Fight Club		$37,030,102	$63,823,651	$100,853,753	$63 million
Panic Room		$96,397,334	$100,000,081	$196,397,415	$48 million
Zodiac		$33,080,084	$51,705,830	$84,785,914	$65 million
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button		$127,509,326	$206,422,757	$333,932,083	$150 million
The Social Network		$96,962,694	$127,957,621	$224,920,315	$40 million
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo		$102,068,888	$124,300,000	$232,617,430	$90 million
Total		$592,281,774	$920,129,139	$1,512,410,913	$509 million

Further reading

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