David Fincher can’t "apologise enough" to Adam Driver after saying it was a "terrible idea" to cast him in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.
Back in 2014 emails from Sony Pictures were hacked and leaked, and in one particular message the 55-year-old filmmaker wrote "Adam Driver is a terrible idea, I’m with you" after the then Sony chief Amy Pascal wrote "WTF" on a newsletter about Driver being cast as villain Kylo Ren in the resurrected sci-fi franchise.
Fincher is adamant his message was just intended to be "flippant" and he asked for Steven Soderbergh – who directed Driver in ‘Logan Lucky’ – to apologise on his behalf, even though he’s unsure if Soderbergh felt it was necessary to do so.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, Fincher said: "Oh no, I like Adam Driver a lot. I was just being flippant. I’ve since asked Steven Soderbergh to apologise on my behalf, but I don’t think he thought it rose to the level of actually being addressed. I think he understood it was a joke. But if Adam Driver takes umbrage with it, I can’t apologise enough."
Fincher has helmed a number of acclaimed Hollywood movies, including ‘Fight Club’, ‘Zodiac’ and ‘Seven’, but his latest project is Netflix TV series ‘Mindhunter’ and he admits he enjoys the freedom that Netflix gives to creatives due to the fact the bosses are not obsessed with box office numbers.
He said: "I feel like stories are stories and the fact none of the executives at Netflix are under the Sword of Damocles to provide ‘x’-million eyeballs from Friday till Sunday, is good. They’re ultimately a destination of content. They’re building the Library of Congress. They intend to cater to a lot of different tastes. And that’s way more interesting than Marvel to me."
Fincher’s comments come after ‘Dunkirk’ helmer Christopher Nolan and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar both slammed the streaming site as it doesn’t send its own exclusive movies to cinemas.
Nolan said in July: "Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films. They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation. So they’re not even getting in the game, and I think they’re missing a huge opportunity. think the investment that Netflix is putting into interesting filmmakers and interesting projects would be more admirable if it weren’t being used as some kind of bizarre leverage against shutting down theatres. It’s so pointless. I don’t really get it."
David Fincher apologises to Adam Driver for Star Wars criticism
