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Talking about his Netflix mini-series House of Cards, naturally Fincher had more to say than mentioning it as just another example of a Hollywood makeover. The original was a 1990 BBC produced series about political power, ambition and corruption. "It was a brilliant TV show," Fincher says. "But today is a completely different universe. House of Cards was made during Thatcherism. It was a stiff-upper-lip look at parlamentary politics. Our thing is: Twitter, Newscorp, hacking – and the notion of politics when you stand for nothing. Politics above all. And that was the thing that was transposable, nothing about the actual plot. But the notion of a guy, who can be in the middle of a conversation, turn to the audience and go, 'This is what pisses me off about people like this guy.' – 'Watch. This is how politics works.' That's what it's designed to do. It's the notion of, let me show you why politics is necessary: because that's how you validate people within a bureaucracy. The collective confusion is so much more important than singular clarity."
David Fincher taking on an up-to-date, sharp-witted political drama? Sounds like an exciting prospect. It also sounds like a new artistic stance for Fincher, whose movies so far seem to have made a point of avoiding being overtly (or in any way, really) political. And certainly Fincher tackling politics will be anything but shiny propaganda. "There is nothing optimistic about it, not in the least," Fincher confirms. "But it's fun. It's very fun. It's interesting in a good way. It's the kind of shit we should be talking about, which is: Why are we pretending that there are these choices?"
Shooting for the series will kick off in March/April 2012, with an anticipated release some time next fall. "It's going to be on Netflix, so once we have five hours it's going to be on. So far the pilot is the only script we have, and it's great. It's by Beau Willimon, who wrote The Ides of March," Fincher says. (And this, listen, Fanatics:) "I don't know what my other responsibilities will be but I am going to do as many of them as I can."
In his recent Vanity Fair portrait of David Fincher, The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin had this to say: "The rumor about David is that he’s gruff, harsh, and difficult to work with. The truth about David is that he’s warm, honest, and an exceptionally generous collaborator. He’s fine with the rumor." Going by every minute I was granted, I can only confirm Sorkin's positive observations. David Fincher is intriguingly easy to be around – for all I can truthfully say, this is true when you don't work with him –, and aside from him being a personal idol and favorite director of mine, he's a bundle of trenchant anecdotes and sharp-wit; dedicated to best-possible results and keenly enthusiastic about what he does. As much as Fincher hates branding and any kind of three-words-or-less approach, if I had to pick a label to describe my impression, I'd say 'Fincher loves movies'. Which can lead to curious conflicts.
"For the most part, people who are in the movie business don't go to movies," Fincher is ready to admit. "It's a pain in the ass. I have to be honest, I saw Moneyball for the first time last weekend. And I was like, 'How did this get to this point, where I am sitting in a theater, watching many friends of mine's movie, weeks after it opened?' – I just don't have time! I didn't get into the movie-business not to appreciate movies, and yet I find myself in the position, where I literally don't have the extra time to go see a movie. I saw the trailer for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and I loved that trailer. I love David Dencik, love these actors, love the way it's photographed. But it's cut too fast. It's not appreciative enough of the hard work that's been put into it." It takes Fincher a second to realize that he got sidetracked. He wraps the thought up with a sigh: "So you find yourself in a situation where you haven't seen a movie in a year. It's weird."
But Fincher's love for cinema goes much deeper than consumption and enjoyment. In his own work, it's about making the most of every single frame. "I never fall in love with anything. I really don't, I am not joking. 'Do the best you can, try to live it down,' that's my motto. Just literally give it everything you got, and then know that it's never going to turn out the way you want it to, and let it go, and hope that it doesn't return. Because you want it to be better than it can ever turn out. Absolutely, 1000 percent, I believe this: Whenever a director friend of mine says, 'Man, the dailies look amazing!' ... I actually believe that anybody, who thinks that their dailies look amazing doesn't understand the power of cinema; doesn't understand what cinema is capable of."
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