Certainly one of the fall’s most feverishly anticipated movies is David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestselling mystery novel, Gone Girl. The film, which stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and Emily Ratajkowski, is due to open in October, but more news related to it seems to emerge weekly.
For fans, the most worrying update about Gone Girl came in January, when Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay, hinted that the film would take some liberties with its source material. She told Entertainment Weekly that, “Ben [Affleck] was so shocked by [the screenplay’s ending]. He would say, ‘This is a whole new third act! She literally threw that third act out and started from scratch.'”
However, the author recently cleared things up during a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), where she said the following:
“Those reports have been greatly exaggerated!” “Of course, the script has to be different from the book in some ways—you have to find a way to externalize all those internal thoughts and you have to do more with less room and you just don’t have room for everything,” she said. “But the mood, tone and spirit of the book are very much intact. I’ve been very involved in the film and loved it.”
Many of the changes in Flynn’s screenplay presumably came from her difficulties with translating words on page to a story that could play out with equal force on the big screen. However, she doesn’t regret signing on to adapt her novel.
“Working with David Fincher is pretty much the best place to start for a screenwriter,” she said. “Screenwriting definitely works different parts of your brain than writing a novel. I do love that with novels, you can really sprawl out—it feels quite decadent. With screenwriting, you have to justify every choice. It’s a nice discipline, but definitely not decadent.”
With those comments from Flynn, in addition to the haunting first trailer for the film, consider my interest officially piqued. I’ll be there in line with the rest of you when Gone Girl opens on October 3rd to see whether Fincher has managed to go two-for-two with creating an excellent adaptation of a twisty, complex thriller.
