After the critical and box office success of Gone Girl there was a lot of attention on the next collaboration between David Fincher and author Gillian Flynn. That was meant to Utopia, an American remake of the British conspiracy miniseries centering on a group of die-hard fans of an underground novel which has predicted numerous disasters. A few weeks ago reports surfaced that Fincher and HBO were at odds over the project's budget, reported to be around $100M for just one season. While there was some hope the two sides would be able to forge out a compromise, apparently that's not going to happen.
Deadline reports that Utopia is officially dead at HBO, with the cast having been released from their contracts. That cast included Rooney Mara, who has worked with Fincher on The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Colm Feore, Eric McCormack, Dallas Roberts, Jason Ritter, Brandon Scott and Agyness Deyn. They had been rehearsing for the past month and there's still the possibility that a new director could seek them out if the project is revived since HBO retains the series' rights. Doubtful that Mara will turn her back on Fincher, though, given their shared history. Fincher famously fought with Sony to cast her as Lisbeth Salander in 'Dragon Tattoo', and they remain close as a result.
It remains to be seen if this breakdown in talks also soured Fincher and HBO's plans for '80s music comedy, Videosynchrazy, which was also in development. Production had been delayed some weeks back to retool the script. Our friends at The Playlist say that project is dead, too, but nothing is confirmed at this stage. It could be that Fincher has decided to cut his losses and split from HBO completely. His focus had been on TV so he's got no film projects lined up, and it may be that he re-emerges at another network.
