Rights to Fincher’s Torso Expire, While ‘Button’ Struggles

Published by Jeff Leins on January 25, 2009

Last month, Paramount let the rights expire on Torso, the Eliot Ness crime thriller set up as a future project for director David Fincher.

The production has been in development since January 2006, but the studio passed on the option to purchase the rights to the comic series’ entirely in December.  The Hollywood Reporter speculates that during such hard economic times, Paramount may not have been willing to fork over the cash required to keep Torso around.  Paramount could potentially sign a new deal with the comic’s writers, Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Andreyko, or the duo could shop it around to other interested parties.

Torso is a true story about a serial killer in the 1930s who only leaves the torsos of his victims.  The investigating officer is Eliot Ness, formerly of the Untouchables, after his days hunting Al Capone.  It once drew interest from top actor Matt Damon for the lead.

Fincher directed Paramount’s award hopeful The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which picked up a baker’s dozen Oscar nominations last Thursday.  It’s also a movie that is struggling financially to break even.  The LA Times wrote a detailed article explaining how the three-hour Button will need plenty of help from Oscar to make a profit for Paramount.

The special effects epic cost the studio $150 million to make and another $135 million to market and distribute worldwide.  They also dropped another $10 million on the aggressive Oscar campaign.  So far the movie has made just $111 domestically and $14 million overseas.  The article estimates the movie will need to make an unbelievable $300 million worldwide to break even.

There have also been rumors of Fincher butting heads with Paramount over the length of Button and Zodiac, which may have turned them off towards future collaborations.  The brilliant director is notoriously difficult to work with.

The rights could end up back in the hands of Paramount and this could all be much ado about nothing, but it’s still interesting to see how big movie studios are responding to the economy like everyone else.  I personally hope everything works out because intense crime thrillers and Fincher are perfect for each other (see: Se7en, Fight Club).