Well, that was fast. David Fincher’s Gone Girl, which has been earning full-on raves from seemingly everyone who has seen the mystery-thriller thus far, isn’t even out yet, and we already know what the talented director will be tackling next. As it turns out, HBO is in luck – Fincher has agreed to helm every episode of its upcoming thriller series Utopia.
The chance to reteam with Gone Girl author/screenwriter Gillian Flynn, who is penning the adaptation, undoubtedly influenced Fincher’s decision to commit to all episodes of Utopia, not just the pilot, as was reported in February. It’s the director’s most extensive foray into television to date, but not his first; Fincher previously directed two episodes of Netflix’s House of Cards, on which he serves as a producer.
In a recent Guardian interview, he stated of Utopia:
“I like the world of it… I like the characters – I love Dennis’s [Kelly, creator of the UK show] honesty and affinity for the nerds. I mean, I’ve always been a bit of a junior conspiracy theorist cos I don’t have time to connect them all! But it’s nice to see that somebody has.”
Utopia, adapted from a British show by the same name, is a conspiracy thriller about five comic-book fans who are targeted by a murderous organization called The Network after they come into contact with an unpublished manuscript for The Utopia Experiments, the sequel to a cult comic book that inexplicably predicts upcoming global disasters. While fleeing for their lives, the characters realize that they may be able to prevent some of the depicted catastrophes from unfolding. The British series has aired for two six-episode seasons thus far, with more being considered by network Channel 4.
If you’re interested in getting a grip on Utopia before Fincher and Flynn’s version arrives, here’s an (admittedly spoiler-filled) video summarizing the first season of the original:
