'Gone Girl' Movie Ending Maybe Not So Different From The Book After All

Over the past several months we've heard conflicting information about the differences between David Fincher's Gone Girl movie and its source material, Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl novel. First we heard that the ending had changed, and then we heard that it hadn't exactly. Today, someone who's actually seen the movie has finally weighed in.

Buried in a recent profile of star Ben Affleck was a casual comment about the faithfulness of Fincher's film — namely, that it sticks pretty closely to Flynn's novel after all. Hit the jump for the latest on the Gone Girl movie ending. (No spoilers.)

Granted, the NYT doesn't come out and say "the film's ending is exactly like the book's ending." And naturally, any movie adaptation is going to include a few tweaks from the source material. Still, it sounds like the basic idea is the same. It'd count as a pretty major deviation if Flynn had completely rewritten the ending as previously rumored.

Fincher and Flynn have gone back and forth with regard to the Gone Girl movie ending. In January, Flynn recalled how "shocked" Affleck was when he read her adapted screenplay. "He would say, 'This is a whole new third act! She literally threw that third act out and started from scratch,'" she said.

The outrage from fans was severe enough that Flynn felt compelled to backtrack a few months later, insisting rumors of book-to-screen changes were "greatly exaggerated!" Fincher has remained vague, saying last month that "everything and nothing" had changed in translation but insisting that the film was "exactly what I think Gillian always intended."

As a strategy for keeping fans guessing, their wishy-washiness has worked beautifully. Normally, book readers get to be all smug about their non-reader friends' reactions, but in the case of Gone Girl everyone seems equally confused. Well, until right now, anyway.

Gone Girl opens October 3.Discuss: Me, I just want to make sure they found a way to work Flynn's incredible "Cool Girl" passage into the film.