“Nothing is sacred anymore,” is a popular sentiment these days, but if I’m being honest it’s sort of true. We’ve got sequels and prequels, sidequels and threequels, cinematic universes, multiverses, reboots, spin-offs and who knows how many other ways there are of saying “this thing is related to something that already exists”, but at the end of the day these phrases usually mean you’re about to see more of something you’ve already seen.
Most of these ideas make me say “eh, whatever”, but every so often a truly interesting concept for extending or reintroducing an already-existing property comes along, and today might just be one of those moments. Maybe, it’s tough to say, but buried deep among the news of exclusive Comic-Con trailers and footage for films like Suicide Squad, Deadpool, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Warcraft was the following tweet from journalist Jeff Goldsmith:
So @chuckpalahniuk told me he's working with David Fincher & @trent_reznor to do a #FightClub rock opera – an enhanced version of the film!
— Jeff Goldsmith (@yogoldsmith) July 11, 2015
Unfortunately that is pretty much all the news we have to go on, but it seems a potentially interesting idea, if indeed Goldsmith has it right that David Fincher and Trent Reznor are working with “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk on the project. Additionally, Palahniuk, who is currently publishing a comic book sequel to his acclaimed 1996 novel, tweeted the following while making the rounds at Comic-Con…
“Julie Taymor working with David Fincher on a FIGHT CLUB rock opera? You didn’t hear it from me. 🙂 #SDCC”
…though it appears that tweet has since been deleted. Perhaps he realized in tweeting the news he was breaking the first rule of Fight Club? Sure, let’s go with that.
Anyways, for those of you who don’t know, Taymor is not only a director of films but also of theater and operas. She is best known for her work on the Broadway production of The Lion King, and she also directed the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Whether or not this all comes to fruition, time will tell, but if it does it could certainly make for an interesting spin on Fincher’s cult classic film (and Palahniuk’s novel).
Fincher has teamed up with Nine Inch Nails frontman Reznor for several recent film compositions, including the Oscar-winning score for The Social Network, so I’m actually pretty curious to see what will come of this. Fight Club certainly wouldn’t be the first film adaptation to be spun off into a major stage musical, only the most recent, as Goldsmith’s tweet comes on the heels of last week’s news that a musical version of James Bond will be heading to Broadway (or Vegas) in the near future.
So, I guess it’s about time to step back and gauge exactly what the audience makes of all this. Are you guys interested? Not interested? I’m curious to hear what you guys think, because if the talent reportedly involved remains involved, it sounds pretty intriguing, though at the same time I’ve grown to like Fight Club quite a bit less than a lot of Fincher’s other films, so I’m half-in, half-out. What say you guys?
