We already know that David Fincher has decided to dive headfirst into small screen work, and is gearing up to direct every episode of Utopia, adapted from Dennis Kelly’s Channel 4 original. He’s locking in a regular collaborator for one of the lead roles, with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’s Rooney Mara in negotiations.
Utopia set things in motion with the discovery of a manuscript for a legendary graphic novel known as The Utopia Experiments, long shrouded in mystery. When a small group of previously unconnected people unites in their shared interest, things take a much darker turn.
It turns out that they are by no means the only ones interested in the manuscript. Targeted swiftly and relentlessly by a murderous organisation known as The Network, the terrified group are left with only one option if they want to survive: run.
Mara will play the Jessica Hyde character as portrayed in the original by Fiona O’Shaughnessy, though all involved are figuring out a way to fit the hefty shooting commitment for the show’s first season into her film-focused schedule.
HBO is pushing hard for Fincher to start work on the new Utopia, which has scripts by Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn. And the director has time in his diary, because Video Synchronicity, his planned series based on his early days in the music video production business, has been shut down after filming just a few episodes because it wasn’t gelling with what the cable channel’s bosses were hoping for. Utopia, which already has a series order, will kick off production later this year. Mara, meanwhile, will be seen in Pan (due October 16), Weightless, Lion, Kubo And The Two Strings and Todd Haynes’ Carol, which won rave reviews at Cannes and generated Oscar talk for Mara and Cate Blanchett.