9) David Fincher: From Alien 3 To Seven
The Failure
Alien 3, by all accounts, was a trial by fire for David Fincher. Coming into his first feature film after years spent making music videos, Fincher was saddled with a half-finished script, an unrealistic release date, a then-hefty $50 million budget, and a cast and crew with no idea what they were doing. Predictably, the film turned out to be a mess; critics hated it, Fincher disowned it, and the latest reports suggest Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 will forget the film happened altogether.
The Comeback
Fincher can’t take all the blame for Alien 3 – according to those involved in its making, the director hardly had any control over how the film turned out anyway. When he was finally given some autonomy for his next project, Fincher produced Seven, an intense gothic mystery, and the ultimate in detective dramas. The film was unexpectedly huge at the box office, and confirmed the arrival of a major new talent. Some even argue Fincher has yet to top it.