Back when David Fincher was first attached to direct an adaptation of Scott Burns‘ graphic novel “Black Hole” he was about to release The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and there was question as to whether Black Hole, Torso, The Devil in the White City or The Killer would be his next film. None of them were, he went with his remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Since then those four projects seem to have drifted away. Fincher is directing Gone Girl and there has been talk of The Girl Who Played with Fire and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but now Black Hole has once again made an appearance.
In an article at THR, they detail the upcoming slate for Brad Pitt‘s production house Plan B and among the titles is Black Hole with Fincher still aboard to direct. When it was last talked about Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman (Beowulf) had penned the script, which follows a group of high school students whose lives are altered drastically when they come in contact with a sexually transmitted disease called the “teen plague” or “the bug.” Avary and Gaiman appear to have left the project behind, which means a new writer would probably be brought in to punch it up a bit or do a complete rewrite before it goes into production… if it goes into production.
Additionally, the THR article notes Plan B is still moving forward on Blonde, the adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates‘ Marilyn Monroe novel with Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly) still directing. No word on whether or not Naomi Watts is still attached to star, but why wouldn’t she be?
It’s interesting, with the star power of Brad Pitt and the directors he could attract and how hard he worked to promote World War Z, it makes me wonder why he doesn’t just set up Plan B as a distributor as well, market a few films himself each year and keep all the cash. It would be a lot of work, but it sure seems like it would be rewarding.
