‘I want it to be kind of creepy:’ David Fincher reveals his pitch to direct the ‘Harry Potter’ movies in the early aughts

Back in the early aughts when the Harry Potter books were all the rage and Warner Bros. was desperately seeking a director that could bring the J.K. Rowling stories to life, several names were considered including Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park) and M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense).

In a recent interview with Variety, renowned filmmaker David Fincher (Se7en, The Social Network) talked about his experience pitching his idea to WB. Fincher, who isn’t exactly known for handling warm and fuzzy stories, revealed that his approach to the Harry Potter film series was a lot darker and creepier, but he quickly realized that it wasn’t the direction that Warner Bros. wanted to go. He also mentioned which movie served as inspiration for the kind of story that he wanted to tell at Hogwarts. He stated:

“I was asked to come in and talk to them about how I would do Harry Potter. I remember saying, ‘I just don’t want to do the clean Hollywood version of it. I want to do something that looks a lot more like Withnail and I, and I want it to be kind of creepy. They were like, ‘We want Thom Browne schooldays by way of Oliver.'”

The filmmaker also commented that when it comes novel adaptations, studios usually have an idea of what they want to see on the screen when they approach a director, meaning that it boils down to similar visions matching together. That’s how he ended up involved in the adaptation of international best-seller Gone Girl, by author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn.

“Those books get sold to movie studios when it’s shown that there’s a built-in audience, so I’m usually coming into the food chain after it’s been decided that this is something tasty. I was interested in Gone Girl in spite of the fact that it was a bestseller… I liked the idea of punishment for our narcissistic leanings as it relates to finding a mate.”

Even though Fincher didn’t get to exercise his vision in the Harry Potter franchise, he’s proven time and again that he has a talent for adaptations. Fight Club — which is arguably one of his most famous movies — was adapted from a book by Chuck Palahniuk, while The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo hailed from the novel series by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. For one of his next projects, Fincher also has an adaptation in sight, but this time hailing from South Korea.

Back in October, rumors started swirling that Fincher was attached to make an American version of Netflix’s hit show Squid Game. While Fincher himself is yet to comment on the development, it’s not a wild assumption that the streaming giant would want to continue capitalizing on the succcess of the series, since season two became the most-watched season on the platform in less than a week. Having someone like Fincher at the helm would mean that Netflix will at least try to match the quality of the original show with the remake, as opposed to just being a cash-grab.

We probably won’t hear much about Squid Game USA for a while, though, since the original show is still running and with a third and final season is in line for a 2026 premiere. Fincher has previously worked with Netflix on the short-lived thriller series Mindhunter, long-running political drama House of Cards and animated anthology series Love, Death + Robots.