Panic Room, at 20,000 Leagues? Fincher to Adapt Verne. Really.

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Um, holy crap. Talk about a left-field revelation.

Months after Disney – in an apparent act of mercy on the moviegoing public – shut down a big-screen adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that was to be helmed by (shudder) McG, the news trickled out that David Fincher (yes, Se7enFight Club-Benjamin Button Fincher) had approached Disney about wrapping his arms around the Jules Verne story.

And it gets better still: By Fincher’s side very well may be Scott Z. Burns – the writer behind The Bourne Ultimatum. (More at Techland: Best Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade)

Now how the hell did all this come together? Not only am I not wary of this classical adaptation; I’m actually a little intrigued.

This has to be the equivalent of Jon Favreau being given piles of money and the autonomy to make Iron Man from a fan’s POV, or indie all-star Christopher Nolan being tossed the Batman franchise. Fincher is one of my favorite filmmakers. He screwed with our fears in Se7en, toyed with the notions of masculinity in Fight Club, gave us a thriller without a climax in Zodiac and then undid moviemaking conventions with the reverse-aging drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. (Yes, yes, I know you probably hated Button, but it actually did some pretty remarkable things with the notion of fate and self-actualization)

Fincher takes big, big risks, often as a means of delivering a moviegoing experience that has no precedent. And the thought of him diving into genre territory, plunging into the depths where monsters lurk in the darkness…well, this is not going to be your standard Disney McG eye fodder. This is will be a journey for the mind, with eyes fixed on envisioning something brand new in all the blockbuster silliness.

All I can say is: Giddyup.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq76RRUD74Y]

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