The Game: What Happened to David Fincher’s Most Underrated Movie?

over the past three decades few filmmakers have mastered their craft better than David Fincher with a fastidious eye for framing and a deep focus on directorial details Fincher has fashioned some of the most precisely orchestrated cinematic outing since his big screen debut in 1992 yet for most Avid ciles and Casual movie fans alike Fincher will almost always be associated with seven and Fight Club in the 9s and perhaps The Social Network and Gone Girl in the 2010s if that's an accurate assessment then it begs the question what is David Fincher's all-time most underrated movie with the recent release of the killer being a worthy candidate and a serious case can be made for zodiac the game continues to be a criminally unheralded psychological Thriller that upon repeat viewings toys and torments the audience with devious plotting and duplicitous tricks as only Fincher can forge often considered as the first postmodern mainstream movie on record the game has deservingly garnered a lot more love in the past 25 years than when it was released in 1997 with that in mind there are a ton of fascinating factoids and interesting tidbits behind the scenes of the game that even hardcore fans of the film may not be privy to including the movie's origin the inspiration for the project major casting and character changes filming locations onset injuries and mishaps alternate endings Fincher's ultimate displeasure with the result and much more happy Birthday Mother Let's leap off the roof and find out what theed David Fincher the game written by John bonato and Michael Ferris the game originated as a spec script purchased by MGM in 1991 when the studio put the project in turnaround that same year propaganda of film scooped up the rights and director Jonathan mustow was assigned to direct the movie at the time that mustow was on board Kyle mclaughin and Bridget Fonda were cast in the lead roles of Nicholas van Orton and Christine respectively the film got so far as a planned shooting schedule slated for February 1993 however in early 1992 the game was transferred from MGM to polyram filmed entertainment during the transition mustow bowed out as the Director and remained on board as an executive producer once producer Steve goolan purchased the rights to the film from MGM he handed the script to David Fincher although Fincher enjoyed the plot twist featured in the story he recruited his writing partner Andrew Kevin Walker who wrote seven to punch up the screenplay in particular Walker was tasked with making van Orton more cynical and mean-spirited Fincher and Walker slaved over the script for the next 6 weeks doing everything in their power to tighten up the narrative oddly enough Fincher cited three movies as inspiration touchstones for the game telling the Washington Times that van Orton's character was envisioned as quote a fashionable goodlooking Scrooge lured into a mission impossible situation with a steroid shot in the thigh from The Sting end quote somehow neither of those movies readily translates to the final result we'll dive into how Fincher's cinematic Inspirations did not have the intended effect on the game later but for now it's worth noting that by 1996 Ryder Larry gross was recruited to revise the the screenplay with Walker one of the first changes made included an originally scripted scene in which van Orton kills Christine before committing suicide in the Final Act in Fincher's view the scene did not make sense and simply needed to be removed one of the most interesting facts about the game has to do with the casting of the film first of all Fincher initially intended to make the game before seven however when Brad Pit became available Fincher made Seven his top priority and put the game on the back burner the critical and Commercial commercial success of seven allowed the producers of the game to increase their budget which ultimately ballooned to 70 million bucks as such Fincher and the producers approached Michael Douglas to Star as Nicholas van Orton in the movie at first Douglas bed claiming that polygram wasn't a big enough distributor to release a financially viable film once Douglas finally boarded the project his star status helped launch the movies production but here's where things get truly bizarre at the 1996 can Film Festival polygram announced that two-time Oscar winner jod Foster would star opposite Douglas in the game at first foster was set to play Christine however Fincher was not comfortable casting such a Bonafide movie star like Foster in a supporting role so as a result Fincher wanted to change Foster's character to be van Orton's daughter this did not sit well with Douglas and his Infamous ego and he insisted that Foster's character be changed from Van Orton's daughter to his sister Foster found this incredibly odd since she happened to be 19 years younger than Douglas moreover Foster felt she couldn't possibly play Douglas's sister after the two actors appeared together in the 1972 movie Napoleon and Samantha in that film Douglas played Foster's legal guardian and served as a father figure at the time this movie was made Douglas was 28 years old while Foster was only nine what most fans of the game don't know is that Foster sued polygram in court for 50 4.5 million for the casting snafu despite her production company egg pictures co-producing the movie Foster was also forced to bow out of the movie due to her scheduling obligations on Robert zam's contact and even so foster sued polygram for an oral breach of contract in which she claimed the company agreed for her to appear in the game after the lawsuit was settled out of court the Conrad character was offered to Jeff Bridges once Bridges passed on the part Shawn Penn was ultimately cast as Nicholas van Orton's brother Conrad meanwhile the role of Christine was awarded to Deborah Cara anger according to Entertainment Weekly uner won the role over submitting an audition tape in which she recreated a two-minute sex scene from David cronenberg's crash after Douglas initially thought the audition was a practical joke he and Fincher met with uner in person and were immediately taken by her presence and she was given the role while filming the movie Hunger reportedly suffered a fractured foot and was forced to hop inside a filthy dumpster filled with live rats to film one exterior scene considering Fincher's Infamous number of takes it's unknown how many times uner went dumpster diving while filming that movie another casting tidbit that often goes unnoticed relates to Nicholas's father the character is hauntingly depicted in flashbacks plummeting from the roof of Nicholas's childhood home to his suicidal demise Believe It or Not Charles martinet the actor who famously voiced Nintendo's Mario for decades plays van Orton's father in the the game guess he didn't have enough star power to survive that fall get it Mario star power okay never mind principal phography on the game officially began on August 13th 1996 and lasted until January 7th 1997 although polygram insisted on filming in Los Angeles because it was more cost effective the 5-month 100 day film shoot took place primarily in San Francisco California and the surrounding Bay Area Fincher originally considered filming in Chicago Illinois and Seattle Washington but Chicago did not have the kind of Victorian Mansions Fitcher sought for the project and Seattle was devoid of a financial district to hint at that kind of old money Wall Street vibe which San Francisco definitely has the steep hills of San Francisco were also emphasized visually by Fincher to underscore the class differences among the characters in the film most of the game was shot at night and on weekends with several pickups completed in Los Angeles as well one of the most striking locations in the movie includes Nicholas's Gody Mansion which was filmed at fi mansion in Woodside California located roughly 25 Mi South of San Francisco to establish the noirish nocturnal visual Tableau of the movie Fincher hired the late great cinematographer Harris cides to light and lens the picture a collaborator he was familiar with from his music video days in the early 9s cides was nicknamed haggus and whether it's true or not Fincher once told Empire magazine that a can of haggus can be found in every single scene of the movie as an inside joke relating to his longtime DP regardless sevid sought to achieve a rich and supple texture with the aesthetic of the movie and use the Godfather as an inspirational blueprint to film in stunning locations while retaining a pretentious tone meanwhile Fincher used a chemical printing process known as bleach bypassing to give the Technicolor nighttime sequence a smoother appearance for Fincher the challenge was to keep keep audiences deceived while keeping them engaged through quote 45 minutes of red herrings to keep the audience's undivided attention amid Nicholas's Kafkaesque nightmare Fincher opted to film scenes as straightforward as possible with one camera rather than confusing viewers with multiple cameras which runs the risk of boring people with footage according to Fincher in the DVD audio commentary of the film my tact on it was I wanted to present an as wide a frame and as unloaded a situation point of view as possible as much as a kind of simple penium way this is what's going on this is what the guy sees and to experience the movie through Michael Douglas and you have to be cautious of doing too much cinematic engineering one of the most intense scenes in the film comes when Nicholas's taxi flies off a dock and plunges into the San Francisco Bay the exterior shot of the taxi submerging underwater was filmed near the famous embara Waterfront in San Francisco however the interior of the taxi cab was filed filmed with Michael Douglas in a water tank on a sound stage at Sony Pictures studios in Los Angeles Douglas was fitted into a Contraption dressed to resemble the interior of the taxi cab with three cameras rolling simultaneously to capture the underwater footage thanks to movie Magic and the power of editing the heroing sequence feels like one continuous take despite being filmed peac meal on location and in a studio Backlot as for the scene in which Nicholas suddenly awakes in a Mexican tomb the scene was gen genuinely shot in Mexicali Baja California in nor Mexico Sam penpa fans May notice how Nicholas adorns the same Dusty suit worn by Warren Oats in the badass 1974 movie bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia far from a coincidence the entire sequence was meant as an affectionate homage to the Twisted Peck andpa classic speaking of classic twists the ending of the game has long corded controversy with many feeling that Conrad's Grand charade is a total copout at best and an insulting slap in the face at worst the notion that everything Nicholas endured was one big practical birthday joke orchestrated by his brother left many viewers upset and feeling cheated with an unsatisfying sense of closure that essentially rendered all of the events before completely meaningless it's also worth noting that an alternate ending was filmed for the game which takes place following Conrad's Revelation that Nicholas's entire misadventure has been one one giant calculated ruse in the alternate ending instead of having one awkward final encounter with Christine Nicholas exits the hotel alone at night and wanders toward the sidewalk when asked if he'd like a taxi Nicholas devilishly glints at the camera and says no I don't think so thank you and ambles down the sidewalk by himself while this feels like a more Germaine conclusion than the one that featured in the theatrical release Michael Douglas still feels strongly about the movie in retro Prospect when promoting Ant-Man in 2015 Douglas told collider quote I think what I'm most proud about is that it's one of the very few movies that you could not guess the ending that's why I'm such a big sports fan with sports you can never guess what's going to happen most movies you get halfway through and you can kind of guess the ending the game you could never figure out what the ending was going to be David Fincher is a very talented filmmaker it was an extremely tough shoot it was very long a lot of nights I thought it was a really well-made picture very unpredictable and I do hear that picture when I talk about movies that I've made that people liked a lot unfortunately Fincher isn't as proud of the picture as Douglas seems to be often lamenting his inability to construct a tighter third act and a more gratifying finale Fincher credits his wife and longtime producing partner Cen schaen for urging him not to make the game and blames himself for stubbornly ignoring her concerns at the time according to Fincher via Playboy shaen quote was extremely vifer for instance when she said don't make the game and in hindsight my wife was right we didn't figure out the third act and it was my fault because I thought if you could just keep your foot on the throttle it would be liberating and funny I know what I like and one thing I definitely like is not knowing where a movie is going these days though it's hard to get audiences to give themselves over they want to see the whole movie in a 90-second trailer what Fincher thought would be liberating and funny turned out to be a joke too dark and twisted for any viewers to appreciate at the time although the film Drew mostly positive reviews from critics and earned $109.4 million worldwide against its $70 million budget the game was viewed as a minor disappointment compared to the box office success of finer 7 however the movie has become a beloved cult classic over the past 25 years and is now regarded as one of Fincher's most underrated features ironically the very first aspects of the film may have alienated audiences in 1997 but have been reappraised as a progator of post-modern Cinema Fincher perfectly articulates the postmodern phenomenon and how it applies to the game telling independent quote movies usually make a Packa with the audience that says we're going to play it straight what we show you is going to add up but we don't do that in that respect it's about movies and how movies Dole out information indeed by putting viewers into Nicholas's shoes and viewing the action through his perspective the movie implicates the audience as the protagonist and the entire experience becomes less about the Final Destination than the winding Journey itself the plot is less about where Nicholas ends up and more about how the movie plots function manipulate trick tease and misguide movie goers with images and Exposition this distinction may not have been appreciated widely in 97 but with viewers becoming more sophisticated over the past 25 years the game remains more important than ever nowadays Fincher may not feel that way personally but in terms of how the film has been received retroactively the game has fittingly become much more lasting and durable than a puzzling cinematic toy and frankly that's pretty much what the happened to the game even so the game has become more appreciated over the past 25 years as one of the earliest examples of post-modern Cinema and remains along finer most underrated films to date take a closer look at it again and remember discovering the object of the game is the object of the [Music] game

Channel: JoBlo Originals

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Keywords: joblo videos, joblo, wtf happened to, wtf happened to this celebrity, wtf happened to this movie, wtf, the best movie you never saw, awfully good movies, joblo originals, movie review, review, the game, the game 1997, david fincher, david fincher the game, michael douglas, michael douglas the game, sean penn, sean penn the game, deborah kara unger, the game movie, david fincher movies, thrillers, jodie foster the game

Id: cvrn8WE4Lmw

Length: 16min 16sec (976 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 06 2024