David Fincher Gives An Update On 'Goon' And, Possibly, 'Heavy Metal'

You've probably noticed that there's been a lot of David Fincher coverage in the past few days. But what can we do? He's one of the most interesting mainstream directors working today, he's got a good number of potential new projects, and he's doing a lot of interviews. Sadly we're not getting all the updates on new films in the same place, so piecemeal it is.

This time two different interviews yield a firm but not particularly encouraging update on the adaptation of Eric Powell's comic book Goon (not, I suppose I should clarify, the hockey comedy) and something that might be an update on the proposed new version of Heavy Metal.

Speaking to AICN, Mr. Fincher gave the most recent update on Goon, which has Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown attached to star. We've seen it twice at Comic Con, but the film still doesn't have a backer. Here's the current word:

Animation that isn't singing furry animals is hard. Especially something as outré as Eric Powell. And it's his script! (laughs) It's main-lined Eric Powell. We kind of went out with it at the end of the year and I don't know that a lot of people were paying attention, but hopefully someone will step in and want to (pick it up)... I gotta hope there are more avenues for animation than... I certainly wouldn't call The Goon "adult animation." I think that ends up starting to sound like Fritz The Cat and that's not what it is. It's more like "teen animation." And it's funny! Hopefully this will be the year that people go, "Wait a minute! We don't all have to be trying to imitate Pixar!

Sadly, there was no question from AICN about Heavy Metal, which the director has talked about reviving as a 3D animated anthology film with the involvement of a possible cadre of directors including James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro and David Fincher himself. But in the interview with W Magazine that gave us news on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, there's this comment:

I do have an idea for an R-rated 3-D animated film... A heavy-metal comic book brought to life, like Avatar. In Avatar there are topless blue women. That's heavy metal.

When I read that comment earlier I thought there was a chance he could have been talking about Goon, but it could also be Heavy Metal. The reference to the title is kind of a dead giveaway, and I wonder if W just didn't follow up to clarify exactly what the film would be. Good news if that's the case, because it means the film isn't dead.