David Fincher, the director of Se7en, Fight Club, and the Social Network, recently produced the launch trailer for the upcoming Halo 4 video game.
This trailer is a short called Scanned, which debuted on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on October 18. As fans of Fincher know, his work is technically brilliant, brutal and uncompromising, and you wonder how on earth he ever got his movies through the mainstream Hollywood system.
This is apparently why he’s trying to set up a project through Kickstarter, where many indie filmmakers and gamers go to try and raise money for their projects. It’s a funny idea, especially considering Fincher’s on the Hollywood A-list, but as the Hollywood Reporter tells us, this project is indeed considered “quirky,” and “very risky,” hence Fincher going for outside funding.
The movie is The Goon, based on a comic book by Eric Powell, and an animated “proof of concept” trailer for The Goon was directed by Tim Miller, who also directed Scanned. (Jeff Fowler is co-directing). This project has apparently been in the works for several years with Fincher, Blur Studios and Dark Horse Studios.
The Goon is what’s being described by the Reporter as “a paranormal-themed quirky comic,” that has cannibals and zombies, and it’s reportedly in the “PG-13 mold.” So why would that be considered risky? Okay, there is violence in it, but PG-13 means it’s okay for kids, right?
Well, apparently the problem is when you’re doing an animated film it has to be very family friendly, or the studios will balk. The Reporter pointed to Frankenweenie as a perfect example, which is PG and isn’t doing that great at the box office. Also long gone are the days when you could make an R rated animated film that could compete with live action dramas in the marketplace like Ralph Bakshi used to shoot.
So Fincher and Miller are asking for $400,000 to pay for a story reel, and considering there’s plenty of time, they should be able to raise that no problem. As this story was being finalized, The Goon had already raised $160,849 from 2,413 backers.
