Ooooooh. This is interesting. Last week (I think?) the studio released the first production still from Gone Girl, and now David Fincher has released this promotional photo for the cover of Entertainment Weekly. As you know, I liked Gone Girl. It freaked me out, and I liked how it played with perspective and how quickly the tables were turned. I was also excited when David Fincher signed on to direct, and when Rosamund Pike was cast as “Amazing Amy”. Pike has the perfect kind of icy beauty needed to pull this off, and this role could really put her on the map as a lead actress. However, I was disappointed with Ben Affleck’s casting as Nick. He’s not the right physical type and I felt that it was really important that we see that Nick is everybody’s “kid brother” and that he’s younger than his wife. Ben Affleck isn’t that guy.
But! I do like this EW image. It’s striking, and I like how Rosamund/Amy looks frozen rather than dead. She’s creepy, and Ben is doing a good “cloying” look. Maybe this will work. We’ll see. I can’t wait to see Emily Ratajkowski as the mistress though. I want to see some production stills of THAT.
When Entertainment Weekly approached Twentieth Century Fox about getting an exclusive inside look at the making of Gone Girl, an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s 2012 smash best-selling novel due in theaters Oct. 3, the studio came back with a surprising reply: Director David Fincher was offering to shoot the cover himself. Not being crazy enough to turn down the Oscar-nominated provocateur who directed The Social Network, we said yes.
Fincher dreamed up the image, which features Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne curled around his wife, Amy, played by Rosamund Pike. The result is an unsettling portrait of love gone demented.
Gone Girl autopsies the marriage of Nick and Amy, two out-of-work magazine writers whose marital bliss turns toxic after they leave New York City for the Midwest. When Amy vanishes on their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick becomes the prime suspect in her murder — though, technically, it’s unclear if she actually has been murdered. Maybe she’s just been kidnapped? And maybe Nick had nothing to do with it?
For his part, Fincher remains unapologetic about his preference for unconventional characters. “I don’t know what ‘likable’ is. I know people who are doting parents, who give to charity, drive Priuses, all those things, who are insufferable a- -holes,” he says. “I like people who get s - - - done.”
Even if you’ve already read the novel, you may still be surprised by the movie’s curve balls. Fincher says that the lesson he learned from bringing Stieg Larsson’s hit novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo to the screen in 2011 was that “we may have been too beholden to the source material.”
And Flynn, a former EW writer who wrote the screenplay, wasn’t afraid to take a buzzsaw to her own novel. “There was something thrilling about taking this piece of work that I’d spent about two years painstakingly putting together with all its eight million LEGO pieces and take a hammer to it and bash it apart and reassemble it into a movie,” she says.
Obviously, some parts of the book will be totally lost for the film. I can’t imagine that they’ll be able to do much with Amy’s diary for the film, but I could see how a voiceover might be cleverly employed in a unique way. Oh, and I keep forgetting: Neil Patrick Harris plays Amy’s creepy ex-boyfriend. THAT will be amazing too. Basically, I love all of the casting except for Affleck. Will the lead actor be the weak link? Or should we give Batfleck a chance?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Entertainment Weekly.
I still am not sure about Affleck, he’s not at all who I would have pictured, but I’m looking forward to the film. It was a really interesting book.
Plus it was such a great opportunity to cast a younger man with a slightly older woman. Sure Amy is only 4 years older but that’s a world apart from 10 years younger.
Totally! His being a bit younger is part of the marriage and the story, isn’t it? But of course never let that detail get in the way of the much younger woman/older guy couple (male) directors love so much. The audience for the book and this movie is women. Such a missed opportunity. Could not agree more.
YES!! (This gives nothing away about the book for those who haven’t read it) The slight age difference is totally part of the whole dynamic. She’s beautiful, rich, and more worldly than he is, which totally impacts his perspective on their marriage and explains some of his behaviors. I would have loved to see a stunning, sophisticated 40 year old actress with a good looking but insecure/awkward 35 year old actor. That would have been sooo perfect.
It’s really sad that it’s so rare to see a woman be even 5-6 years older than a man on film yet, no one blinks at the repeated images of older guys with 25 year olds we are assaulted with daily. The only way you change the ageism and cultural conversation is by doing something about it. It just stinks. I hate that we literally have to beg for movies where the woman gets to be the older, more experienced one for once.
This is why men in real life think they can have younger women (22 vs the 40 year + man) they see it and think yeah this could be my life. It is old and sort of pathetic. I also envisioned a more all American type as the lead granted she is blonde but is very English to me even though she can do the accent.
Yeah that’s creepy. The whole vibe remindes me of a Tom Petty video.
Having not read the book, does that picture not answer all of the suspenseful questions that the press release on the book poses?
This is next on my read list – wanna join me?
I kind of do, but I’m still in the Dunnett books and I need to finish my own. When are you thinking? I imagine it’s a fairly quick read.
Not sure. I am still trying to put Mr. Amory Blaine out of his misery. I have plenty to read in the interim too. I do want to read before the movie though. You read twice as fast as me – I will start at the end of the month and you should catch up in no time.
I feel like that if I answer your question, I’ll give away the ending. So I say, read the book! Lol. It is definitely an enjoyable/suspenseful read.
I thought it was a fast read, and I think you might like it!
Agreed! I read it in a moment of wanting some light pop-fiction fare (I tend to go for the heavier stuff), but I enjoyed it so much and read it so quickly that I went out and Kindled another of her novels shortly after.
David Fincher took an amazing photo, makes me anxious for the movie.
YES! I’m excited to see NPH getting some interesting roles in film.
Also, I kinda love this comment: “I don’t know what ‘likable’ is. I know people who are doting parents, who give to charity, drive Priuses, all those things, who are insufferable a- -holes,” he says. “I like people who get s - - - done.”
Fincher is almost always good IMO and I’m really excited for this film.
RE: the cover. I don’t like it.
I am so excited about NPH too!
I really liked the book, and I think having Fincher as director is going to make this a REALLY entertaining film.
Ben Affleck is a horrible actor.
Ben was very good in The Town. I think his acting is getting better with time. I’m going to see the movie, especially after seeing this photo.
He’s watchable when he directs himself
Totally agree. I think Ben has done a tremendous job resurrecting his career after Gigli. His forays into directing (OMG has anyone seen Gone Baby Gone??!) have been excellent and his time in front of the camera has been graet, too (Argo, The Town). I will admit I was dubious about his casting, primarily because I had a very different mental picture of Nick when I read the book, but seeing this cover photo makes me think Ben is going to surprise us all.
As an aside, does anyone remember the very first season of The Apprentice, the season that Bill Rancic won? There were two people on that season named Nick and Amy, who hooked up, and they are TOTALLY who I was picturing the whole time I read the book.
I loved Gone Baby Gone. The ending was heartbreaking, but I still loved that it ended that way.
The role requires a sense of being perpetually confused and kind of helpless while also a little shady. I think he can pull that off. He does better when he isn’t playing the take charge guy because it gives him a chance to use the nuance he is capable of. That said, he doesn’t fit the physical description of the character and I think he is a bit old for the film. He was cast because of box office appeal I’m sure.
Exactly! At first when I heard Ben Affleck, I thought, huh? And then I remembered the sleaze factor and thought, of course!
Sort of OT:
But I LOVE Rosamund–always have since I saw ‘Pride and Prejudice’. I now hate Joe Wright. They were engaged, and he dumped her before the wedding because she sent out wedding invitations with a pic of them in a hot tub. Really? And to top it off, he spent the next weekend getting filmed driving around a load of strippers, booze, and friends. Such a douche.
But now she’s with some really old looking guy–he’s like in his fifties, at least. I hope he treats her right (which is probably what she was going for)–they’ve got a baby together.
So I’ll probably watch this because of her.
I believed he dumped her because she sent the wedding invitations before his proposition
Her current bf is in his early fifties, two decades older than her. I have always liked her as an actress and I am excited to see this because of her.
I did not like this book! I can appreciate Gillian Flynn’s prowess I think she has an amazing writing style. I just found the majority of the characters so GD unlikable. I really didn’t read the entire thing. I do however think it has the potential to make a GREAT movie. I didn’t picture BAff as the lead guy either, wasn’t he blond?
Yeah, I also didn’t like the book even though I found a lot admire in Flynn’s writing style. I don’t mind unlikable characters and usually find them really interesting, but it was just too much (I did finish it, though). When practically EVERYONE in a story is a horrible person, I just can’t care about what happens to any of them. I agree that the movie could be good, though–it’s a story that will work better as a film, I think.
I didn’t loathe the book but I found it a bit predictable and yes, most of the characters are very unlikeable. That’s why I’m still on the fence about the movie….do I want to watch a film with a bunch of people who will get on my nerves?
To me, it was the unlikeable characters who made the book. If they had been likeable/relatable, it wouldn’t serve the purpose of the storyline.
Good explanation. I hated ALL the characters by the end of the book – and I definitely sensed an undertone of “angry feminist” in all the rants about the bullshit behaviors of the “cool girl” who just wants to land a popular guy, but for entertainment value I absolutely loved the book.
I actually liked it, UNTIL the infamous ending . Total waste of a weekend. The first half is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while.
I don’t mind characters that I loathe as long as the characters stay consist and make decisions and act in a way that makes sense for them. Not some random deux ex machina because the editor was telling the writer to wrap it up (which is what I feel like happened.)
The ending is why I like the book because it dared to be different then expected. Plus, IMO scary, scary, scary.
I completely agree with your summary of the book. The first half was intriguing, then there was a plot twist, and I thought the book really rent downhill after that. Maybe the movie will wrap it up better. Who knows.
Yeah I know that unlikable characters can make a book interesting, but something about these two just rubbed me the wrong way, in a big way. I mean you’re in a crappy marriage, just leave. I know that ‘s the whole point of the book but their cowardice in staying in a failing relationship ( on his part) I just couldn’t take it (maybe that was the point tho the cowardice, being so wrapped up in the person that you become when you’re with someone else). Maybe I was just in a weird mind space when I read it. I am more than willing to give it another go sometime because I maintain that Flynn is an amazing writer.
This was my least favorite of her three novels even though it was the most popular. I also didn’t like the combination of the unlikable characters with the completely depressing, wtf ending. I’m glad that Dark Places was made into a movie, but I doubt it will get as much attention as Gone Girl.
Hmmm, reading these comments I’m still debating whether or not to read the book. I guess it depends, for me, on the way in which characters are unlikeable, if that makes any sense. I really enjoy reading A Song of Ice and Fire books including the unlikeable characters such as Cersei for example, but I have never enjoyed an F Scott Fitzgerald novel because I find all of his characters utterly insufferable and impossible to empathise with, let alone sympathise with.
Oh well, the kindle edition is only 99 pence so I guess I don’t have much to lose if I hate it!
I felt betrayed by the book. When you’re reading first person narrative (which we basically were since we were reading her diary), you have to trust your narrator as giving you her truth. Through the first half of the book I thought it was one of the best books I’d read in a long time. By the end, I was disgusted. Many of her fans said the same, and apparently she really struggled over the ending and perhaps wasn’t happy with it herself.
I question the ability to present Amy the way the book did. Also, the roller coaster emotions the reader feels about Nick are also affected by Amy’s false narrative. I wonder how they will portray that.
Spoilerish!
But I feel that trust and betrayal that you descibe feeling as a reader was similar to the feelings of the characters…Amy trusting in Nick and being betrayed, Nick not really knowing who Amy was under it all.
He is 15 years too old for this part. And it will ruin the story. Can’t these old actors just date a side piece without casting themselves as an aging love interest in a movie? The husband is supposed to be a young handsome gigoli not an aging soccer dad.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I loved this book so much and I was so disappointed with Ben Affleck being cast as Nick. I like Ben, but he is way too old, and not the physical type described in the book. And I am excited to see Emily as the Mistress, but that part was miniscule in the book. They will probably expand her part in the movie.
I don’t hate the choice of Affleck as Nick, maybe because no actor jumps to mind who would be the perfect Nick. I’m curious, who would your ideal choice(s) be?
An younger actor than Rosamind ( the fact thatthe husband is younger was very important in the story)
Ryan Gosling or an younger Bradley Cooper ?
@don’t kill me i’m french, Gosling is a great choice although for some reason I don’t see him as much younger than Affleck. I don’t know either of their ages, everyone to me these days looks between 35 and 55. I don’t know how we could get a younger Bradley Cooper, though. 🙂 Just kidding, I know what you mean.
I was really picturing someone like James Marsden – maybe a little younger. He’s supposed to have that too good looking/punch me face.
It is SO SAD. But the perfect choice would have been Paul Walker.
I think if Affleck plays the part as a generally useless, incompetent guy, then the actual age doesn’t matter as much. I read Nick as immature & a waste of space vs. having a strong impression of his actual age.
I could see it potentially being more effective with a physically older actor, because it really highlights that Nick’s flaws are actually personality issues vs. just being a dumb young kid who might grow up & wise up.
I liked the book. I liked the ending. And I love this casting.
I can’t wait. Ben Affleck may not be everyone’s choice, but if anyone is going to pull a good performance out of him, it’s David Fincher.
I generally don’t care for Ben Affleck. I always think of smarmy, frat boy when I see him — which is exactly why I think he will be perfect for Nick.
I agree with Blowers Daughter – we’re not supposed to like Nick, he’s a slimeball prettyboy. I think Affleck might be pretty good at playing him.
Nick is a cold/unemotional frat boy and a little douchy. Affleck has the potential of pulling off the no-personality frat boy.
The cover is a take off on the famous Yoko Ono/John Lennon portrait shot by Annie Leibowitz for Rolling Stone
jinx! buy me a coke!
😉
(see my post just below)
I’m so glad I bother to read these comments first, that’s the first thing I thought too, but I never realised how creepy the John/Yoko photo is before now…
+1
a riff on the John/Yoko album cover?…that’s the first thing I thought of.
in which case, Fincher didn’t “dream up the image”, he REMEMBERED the image and spun it appropriately.
How gross was Lennon’s butt in that pic? Ewww
Feel nauseated even thinking about it
I don’t really like how Ben chooses some of his actresses for the roles like Blake Lively or Emily Ratajjowki. It means to be based on his lust for them more than acting. If I was Jennifer Garner I would be pissed but that’s just me. Also I still can’t get over that movie execs picked him for Batman. He is a huge downgrade. Gah I don’t even think I can watch that movie now.
Ben didn’t chose Emily, he isn’t directing this film. David Fincher is directing and more in control of casting. Ben is just an actor.
Blake Lively had a very small part and she fought for the part as it was someone older than her, and I thought she did a phenomenal job. Ben wasn’t going to put her in that small but pivotal part out of lust. It was only his second directing gig and his career was still iffy. He is way smarter about his career and rebuilding it than that and his marriage as his wife and kids were in Boston with him. He has talked about how writing, directing and acting in that movie was beyond stressful and how worried he was that he would fvck it up. His career was riding on it.
And I honestly didn’t even know it was Blake Lively at first. She became that character.
Oh man, I just started reading this book. Now stupid Ben Affleck is going to be in my book.
I like Ben Affleck but…..no. He is totally not the right fit for Nick. Maybe 15 years ago.
So if not Ben than who,because he is perfect in my mind. He has the cheating husband thing down pat!
I don’t think either of the leads are good for their roles. I loved the book but this casting is not good. Also the picture is weird and SPOILER has nothing to do with the story. She has a toe tag so I’m inferring dead in the picture.
I know!! I am afraid they are going to rip the book to shreds in the movie, and it will have little resemblance to original story.
Agree on the photo. It’s provocative for sure but my first thought was this has nothing to do with the book. Then again, both Fincher and Flynn say they are not adhering to the original story. I wonder what kind of changes they are making? Hard to imagine.
Maybe its to throw off no-readers of the book and give the same shock as the book readers? If all the posters/media indicate a toe tag situation, its could be purposeful misleading?
Good point.
Am I the only one who doesn’t mind the casting? I think he’ll be great. So what if he’s not as young as the character in the book? For me, his age didn’t impact the story’s plot at all.
I love the casting. I dont’ mind the age…I think he gets the vibe of Nick down. Kind of like a frat boy that hasn’t fully matured yet.
No, you’re not the only one, CaTX. I have no particular feelings about Affleck, but don’t understand the backlash about him. He seems pretty decent in most things. I loved the book and think he will do well as Nick.
I don’t know; I think it lacks atmosphere.. Know what they were aiming at, just not feeling it.
I have yet to read the book but I am a Ben fan so it is just peachy by me!
Wow, I have no opinion on him as a director (still haven’t seen Argo. I enjoyed The Town, but that’s still not enough for me to judge), but I really, really don’t like Ben Affleck as an actor. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I find him so dull, mono-expressive and depressing. The only emotion he’s able to deliver is the “sad, discomforted puppy”. And that’s the same expression I recognise in these stills from Gone Girl. I was really disappointed when I learnt he was cast as the new Batman.. Christian Bale must have been rolling in his hypothetical grave…
I am SO excited for this movie! I really enjoyed the book when I read it. I personally think Ben Affleck is a great choice for Nick (I saw Nick as an all-American-Irish boy, just how I see Affleck – is he even Irish? Lol). Neil Patrick Harris – wow! That is definitely a surprising choice for Amy’s creepy ex-boyfriend. I can’t wait to see how he’ll play the part. As for the age, I am okay with not strictly following the characters ages in the book, however, part of Amy’s control over Nick was the fact that she was the “older woman”, so it’ll be interesting to see how this will all translate onto the big screen.
I agree! He’s totally Nick. I think everyone is forgetting how unlikeable Nick is in the first act, and then even more so, when you realize (slight spoiler) how much Amy had to put on airs to be with him. Ben Affleck can be totally unlikeable. The point of Gone Girl is that everyone’s kid brother is actually (again slight spoiler) an arse.
Major Spoiler Ahead:
Actually, I despised Nick through the first half of the book. Once it was revealed he was married to a psychopath, I felt for him.
littlestar, have you ever read a book and thought a movie did it justice? With the exception of the LOTR movies, (mostly the dialogue part) the books I’ve read have been a big disappointment on the silver screen.
I think Affleck is perfectly cast for this actually (Batman, no!). I’m sure he knows all about cheating and how to portray the emotions of it and hide it from a spouse, you know, because of his acting skills.
I do wonder what will be cut and what will change though. Overall, if I remember correctly, I didn’t have much of an issue with the story and how it was told and can see it translating well to the screen. Diary entries would do well as flashbacks.
Just wanted to say I LOVE the cover. It’s almost sexy, in a weird and creepy way.
Affleck?! Bummer. He’s too old for the part, he IS NOT good-looking and he’s not a particularly good actor. The only thing I ever thought he was good in was “Good Will Hunting.” After that, all I see on the screen is ego. Plus, he has spit mouth, you know what I mean, he has the kind of mouth/lips/teeth that don’t work well together and he spits when he talks. Not sexy!
I just finished reading this book. Am looking forward to this movie now. I love the casting of Ben and Rosamund in the leads as I’m a big fan of them both. I loved Rosamund in P&P and An Education. I think she’s talented and extremely gorgeous. Ben, too.
When I read the book, I pictured James Marsden as Nick. But looking at these pictures of Ben, I forgot how much he looks like Scott Peterson, which may be one reason he was cast. You put a picture of Laci Peterson on the tripod behind Ben and it would be like seeing a still from the Today Show circa 2002.
I just bought the book because of that photo lol so creepy
I totally like Ben as Nick. He has the “face people want to punch” vibe so apparent in the book. And rosamund–loved her in P&P. This book was such a downer for my baby moon this past summer… but I’m excited about the movie. Will probably NOT watch with my husband. He doesn’t like dark movies and watching a dysfunctional marriage would suck for him.
I love Rosamund Pike. She was fabulous in Die Another Day and An Education.
You should check out her performance in “The Libertine”- she was heartbreaking.
One of my favourite Rosamund movies.
I haven’t read this book, but is Ben’s character going to disrobe in the movie? I’m all in if that’s the case. Ben has an amazing physique.
The book is one of my all-time favs. And I love Ben. Give him a break please.
I’ve been reading Gillian Flynn’s books simply because everyone’s been raving about them. I read Dark Places a few months ago and I’m about 70 pages into Gone Girl. I thought Dark Places had a nice tone and some interesting characters although I felt some of the plot twists came out of left field. I’m also not the biggest fan of first person narrative. That said, I did enjoy Flynn’s willingness to explore grit and deeply flawed characters. So far, Gone Girl has an improved writing style.
That said, I wonder why this film is receiving so much buzz and Dark Places is receiving next to none? GG has a more established director but DP has a very reliable and better known cast of Charlize Theron, Christina Hendricks, Chloë Moretz and Nicholas Hoult. The only established actor in GG is Affleck and he’s nothing to write home about as an actor (great director though).
I loved the book and has been under the impression that Nick was much younger than Affleck. He’s an OK actor but I would prefer to see someone younger in this role. As far as Pike, I feel the same way. Too old, but she exudes coldness and b9itchiness so she’s a good fit
Casey would have been a better choice than Ben. “Everyone’s younger brother”, but kinda creepy too.
People take casting too seriously when it comes to characters already existing in another format. Film is a completely different medium and industry, with different requirements.
Did anyone picture Michael Keaton as Batman? Did anyone read Presumed Innocent and jump straight to Harrison Ford for Rusty? People had a cow about Cruise playing Jack Reacher but nobody seemed to care that Anthony Hopkins (appx 5’8″) played Nixon (nearly 6′). Eliza Bennett has been played successfully by Jennifer Ehle and Keira Knightley, two very different actresses, physically. Sissy Spacek was in her late 20s and slender, while in the Stephen King novel Carrie was an overweight high-schooler. Bob Dylan’s been played by Cate Blanchett, ffs.
I could go on (oh wait, I have), but the point is that if characters were cast exactly as described, we’d have missed out on some great films. I’m in the “let’s wait and see” camp.
I am not a huge Ryan Reynolds fan but he is who I had in my head while reading this. As for the mistress role Emily is not who I imagined at all. To me she had more of a perky hottest girl at school who will be married with 5 kids and fat in 10 years feel. Maybe a Jessica Simpson who could act. Not an eastern european sort of beauty. Rosamund is so pretty, she works. Ben is ok – I think he will pull it off somehow.
I listened to it as a book on CD – highly recommend it due to the *superb* readers – it’s read by a man and woman. One of the best books on CD, thanks to those narrators. I don’t think I would have liked it nearly as well as a book. As a PS, I hated the ending and wonder if they’ll keep it for the movie.