For a period of about seven years between the late aughts and early 2010s, David Fincher looked like one of Hollywood’s great auteurs, a forward-looking talent who embraced digital cinema early, a perennial Oscar contender, and someone who could make dark, pulpy, substantive films with real commercial appeal. Between classics like “Zodiac,” “The Social Network,” and “Gone Girl,” he could do no wrong.
Then Fincher braved another new frontier: Netflix and the world of streaming. “House of Cards,” which he produced and directed two episodes of, was Netflix’s — and streaming’s — first major hit and proof that the bingeing model Netflix pioneered was the future. By giving Fincher creative control over the series, a massive budget, and a two-season order before a pilot had been shot, the show’s success put Netflix on the map as a prestige TV player alongside HBO, something to which Fincher himself was the linchpin. He compared working with Netflix way back then to the way auteurs at Warner Bros. worked in the ’70s, with the freedom to go out and make the thing that was discussed, no questions asked or studio notes offered.
For the last decade, Fincher has maintained that devotion and loyalty to Netflix as part of an overall deal that has seen him direct two features and a third in the upcoming “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth,” as well as produce “Mindhunter,” the anime series “Love, Death & Robots,” and various other projects (we’ll see if the “Squid Game” spinoff that was teased ever materializes). He joined up with Netflix after a “World War Z” sequel collapsed that was originally slated for release in 2017, and it’s meant that he hasn’t made a theatrical movie since 2014’s “Gone Girl.”
As first reported in Bloomberg, Fincher will not be renewing his deal with Netflix when it expires in 2027 after the release of “Cliff Booth.” But it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the end of the Fincher Era at Netflix; he could still make his next movie at the streamer, and he doesn’t have a deal elsewhere as is the case with two other big-name directors who just exited their Netflix pacts, including Noah Baumbach, who is going over to Warner Bros.’ Clockwork, and Shawn Levy, who is moving his TV deal to Disney.
Fincher’s theatrical streak will end when Netflix does in fact give “Cliff Booth” a proper rollout in theaters this Thanksgiving before it hits Netflix around Christmas. And we can’t deny that knowing Fincher was directing a Tarantino script that was a sequel to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” was genuinely one of those pinch-me, can’t believe this isn’t an April Fools Day prank piece of news. If the movie rules, it could easily change the narrative around Fincher’s Netflix legacy.
The rest though is worth reassessing. “Mank” won two crafts Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. It’s one of those films that you’d be hard-pressed to think could exist elsewhere: a black-and-white biopic about the boozing cowriter of “Citizen Kane” doesn’t scream commercial smash. Few legacy studios would embrace it, but Netflix and then-film chief Scott Stuber did. “The Killer” too was a smaller-scale experiment of sorts, a slick caper but a moody, character-driven one that a major studio might not have taken a chance on either. We can’t say we’ve heard anyone talking about that one in the last two years since it released, but it spent four weeks on Netflix’s Global Top 10, and Netflix’s What We Watched engagement report from the first half of this year says that still over 12 million people watched it in that six-month span. It’s not just about the quality of these films. Over the course of Fincher’s deal, Hollywood has come to appreciate the cultural currency that a major theatrical rollout can offer. There’s a reason that even Netflix is embracing cinemas in a bigger way.
Giving Fincher a chance to dabble in TV and animation are other areas that a place like Apple or Amazon may have been willing to throw a lot of money at, but Netflix got there first. “Mindhunter” has some devoted fans, to the point that it landed highly on the New York Times poll of the best shows of the 21st Century. But the high cost of creating a period setting meant a third season never materialized, and despite a lot of people frequently asking Fincher in interviews for an update, he doesn’t seem determined to get it back off the ground.
Fincher letting his deal expire — or Netflix allowing it to expire — potentially speaks more to what film chief Dan Lin wants to prioritize. He’s had to face a perception, fairly or unfairly, that he’s more populist and less willing to throw money at big-name auteurs than Stuber was with Fincher and Baumbach. That said, he’s rolled out the red carpet for Greta Gerwig and bought ambitious Cannes titles like “La Bola Negra” and “Emilia Perez.”
But it also puts an unofficial cap on an era of Fincher’s career that for better or worse won’t have the same iconic films as the eras that came before it.
