David Fincher

Lived for several years in Ashland, Oregon and graduated from Ashland High School.

His video for Madonna s "Express Yourself" voted #1 in Slant Magazines Top 100 Videos. 2 of his other Madonna videos also made the list. "Vogue" at #4 & "Oh, Father" at #11. (19th January 2003)

Has been close friends with Brad Pitt ever since working together on Se7en .

Was originally set to direct The Black Dahlia , but dropped out.

Was originally set to direct Madonna: Truth or Dare , but dropped out.

Was originally set to direct Mission: Impossible III , but dropped out.

Was originally considered to direct Spider-Man .

Was originally considered to direct Confessions of a Dangerous Mind .

Turned down the offer to direct Catch Me If You Can , opting to do Panic Room instead.

Turned down the offer to direct Batman Begins .

Turned down the offer to direct 8MM , opting to do Fight Club instead.

A founder member of Propaganda Films in 1986.

Daughter, Phelix Imogen Fincher (b. 25 April 1994), with Donya Fiorentino.

While growing up in Marin County, one of his neighbors was George Lucas. He later worked on the special effects crew of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi , produced and written by Lucas.

He works frequently with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker.

It was the 1969 feature film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that inspired him to pursue a career in cinema.

In 2005, he directed the video for Nine Inch Nails "Only". Ten years earlier, he used Coils version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Closer" during the opening credits montage of his film Se7en .

Met his partner, Cen Chaffin , in the early 90s when she produced a Japanese Coca-Cola ad he was directing.

Was originally considered to direct Hannibal .

Good friends with Madonna.

At the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards, three out of four nominees for Best Direction in a Video - "The End of the Innocence" by Don Henley , "Janies Got a Gun" by Aerosmith , and "Vogue" by Madonna - were directed by him ("Vogue" won.).

His favorite films include: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , Dracula , Rear Window , Being There , Jaws , Lawrence of Arabia , Valley of the Dolls , Beyond the Valley of the Dolls , Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb , 8 , Alien , American Graffiti , Citizen Kane , Cabaret and The Year of Living Dangerously .

Directed 5 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Brad Pitt , Taraji P. Henson , Jesse Eisenberg , Rooney Mara , and Rosamund Pike.

(September 2005) Currently filming Zodiac in San Francisco.

He is a big fan of Bram Stokers classic novel Dracula.

Developed two TV projects for HBO, supposed to air on 2016, which both werent finalized: Utopia featuring a plot heavily steeped in underground, cyber-punk themes, adapted by Gillian Flynn and starring Rooney Mara , Colm Feore , Eric McCormack , Dallas Roberts , Jason Ritter , Brandon Scott , and Agyness Deyn was canceled by HBO over budget constraints. Fincher reportedly asked for $100 million to make the first season. "Videosyncrasy" , about an aspiring filmmaker, who arrives in Hollywood during the early 1980s and lands a job working on music videos, was put on a hold mid-way during the shooting of the first season, because HBO wasnt satisfied with the direction of the show. At first, the show was supposed to be retooled with additional script work, but production was eventually shut down for good.

Was considered to direct The Amazing Spider-Man .

He won his first Grammy Award on March 1, 1995 (for The Rolling Stones "Love is Strong." He won the same award nearly 20 years later on January 26, 2014 (for Justin Timberlakes "Suit & Tie"). His 2014 win marks the longest time period between two wins.

Jake Gyllenhaal publicly expressed the difficulty of David Finchers working style, mentioning the challenge of doing numerous takes only to have Fincher order the deletion of many of the previous takes.

David Finchers involvement with cinematographers Harris Savides (Zodiac) and Jeff Cronenweth (Fight Club, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl) predates Finchers work as a feature-film director. Both cinematographers had worked for Fincher early in his music video directing career.

He is the second director (following Steve Barron) to receive a MTV Video Music Award nomination for three different music videos within a single year. He first achieved this in 1989 (for Jody Watleys "Real Love," Steve Winwoods Roll with It" & Madonnas "Express Yourself"). After tying this record, he repeated the feat in 1990 with nominations for Madonnas "Vogue," Don Henleys "The End of the Innocence," and Aerosmiths "Janies Got a Gun." He is the only director to achieve this twice, and along with Steve Barron, the only director to achieve it.

He is one of the first music video directors to have become a major Hollywood feature-filmmaker. In later years, several directors followed in his footsteps including Zack Snyder, Spike Jonze, Alex Proyas, Marc Webb, Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, F. Gary Gray, Francis Lawrence as well as several directors who worked with Finchers music video production company Propaganda Films.

Since directing Zodiac, he has become a major proponent of digital cinematography. He has used digital cameras to shoot all of his films since 2007. In the documentary Side by Side, he expressed his affinity for the greater control and fluidity of the film-making process it grants him.

Like one of his main influences Stanley Kubrick, he demands a high number of takes for each scene in attempt to familiarize the cast with the film sets and dialogue as well as deconstructing their carefully constructed performances in favor of a more genuine performance.

Fincher has stated that the shock twist ending in the script for Se7en was not intended for him to read, and was sent by accident. He insisted on the twist ending, but the studio preferred a happier ending. The support of Brad Pitt led the studio to relent. Fincher also stated Pitt was instrumental in securing Kevin Spaceys involvement in the film.

With eight nominations, he has received more nominations for the MTV Video Music Award than any other director in history. 7 of the 8 nominations occurred in a 3 year span (1989 to 1991). He also sets the record of nominations in three consecutive years.

He has worked with father and son cinematographers Jordan Cronenweth and Jeff Cronenweth. Jordan was the initial cinematographer on Alien before being replaced by Alex Thomson after two weeks due to Parkinsons Disease. Jeff has been a frequent collaborator since Fight Club .

[on losing his father, Jack Fincher] I remember the experience of being,there when he breathed his last breath. It was incredibly profound.

[on Gone Girl (2014) ] Most interesting to me was the idea of our,collective narcissism as it relates to coupling, or who we show to our,would-be mates and who they show to us.

Filmmaking isn’t if you can just strap on a camera onto an actor, and steadicam, and point it at their face, and follow them through the movie, that is not what moviemaking is, that is not what it’s about. It’s not just about getting a performance. It’s also about the psychology of the cinematic moment, and the psychology of the presentation of that, of that window.

You can make movies for a select audience, but you have to market it to them.

When you make the kind of movies I make, you get weird letters from people.