David Fincher is teaming up with Netflix once again. The director was one of the first major names to collaborate with the streaming platform, with his involvement in House Of Cards giving Netflix the cachet they so desperately needed in the early days of Netflix Originals.
Since then he’s collaborated with them on Mindhunter, Love Death & Robots, and his upcoming film, Mank. But he’s also got another project in the works.
Fincher will executive produce a Chinatown prequel series. Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne has been hired to pen the series, which would follow a young Jake Gittes, the character played by Jack Nicholson in the original film and its subsequent 1990 sequel, The Two Jakes. Netflix unsurprisingly want Fincher to direct the pilot, but that reportedly isn’t yet part of the deal.
The original 1974 film revolves around Gittes, a private detective hired on a routine adultery case that soon spins out into a tangled web of corruption across Los Angeles. It’s unclear right now exactly what the prequel series is designed to be. One long noir mystery across a season? Or do we follow Gittes on multiple private investigatory gigs?
What’s clear is that even though Fincher is currently only an executive producer, this is still very exciting. That was his title on both House Of Cards and Mindhunter, and he quickly shaped those shows into his exemplary vision, so expect the same here. Plus, getting Towne on board certainly helps considering his Oscar-winning history with the Chinatown…franchise? Is that what this is now?
There will be plenty more to come regarding this series. Will Fincher end up directing any episodes? And who will play young Gittes? We’ll wait and see.
#Peace.Love.Chinatown
