David Fincher Gets the Bug to Direct Black Hole
The Game, Fight Club, and Zodiac director David Fincher is set to direct a feature adaptation of Charles Burns' graphic novel Black Hole. Burns' 12-issue comic-book turned graphic novel opens up with a sexually transmitted "bug" passed from teenager to teenager. Those who get the bug develop strange mutations like a tiny mouth at the base of one boy's neck. Those with grosser mutations end up homeless.

With Brad Pitt's Plan B taking on some of the producing responsibilities can we expect a cameo?

Fincher to Animate Heavy Metal
It's a match made in bad-boy heaven: Fight Club's David Fincher has signed on to oversee an omnibus film drawn from stories from Heavy Metal, the blood-and-boobs sci-fi/fantasy magazine that has already spawned two films, according to Variety.

Fincher will direct one of eight or nine segments, with Heavy Metal publisher/editor Kevin Eastman and Tim Miller of CG master Blur Studio each doing another. Word on other directors to come.

Expect some fanboy grumbling: The original 1981 Heavy Metal film -- with voiceover work by John Candy, Eugene Levy and Harold Ramis, plus music by Devo, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath -- remains a quintessential cult film. (I remember the fifth- and seventh-generation VHS tapes being passed around during years of rights wrangling.)

But, if Fincher's films are any indication, this trip into the Heavy Metal world is more likely to match the often gruesome and erotic intensity of the magazine.

Fincher Brings Goon Comic to Big Screen
David Fincher is taking Dark Horse comic The Goon to the movies.

Famously adept at crafting tightly wound creep-outs in Se7en, Zodiac and Fight Club, Fincher will team with Blur Studios to make the CG animated feature.

Who exactly is the Goon? Hatched by Eric Powell nine years ago in his graphic novel series, the thug with an ugly mug serves as muscle for a mobster. The Goon's job: Dispatch zombies, skunk apes and other paranormal mutants.

Goon is the first feature from Blur, the Venice, California-based outfit best known for its wacky TV commercials and Oscar-nominated Gopher Broke short.

Dark Horse Entertainment plans to develop the project in-house, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As reported earlier, Universal Studios has a first-look deal with Dark Horse: The studio, which also handles the Hellboy movies based on the Dark Horse comic, will get first dibs on The Goon.

Heavy Metal publisher Kevin Eastman says that Zack Snyder, Guillermo del Toro and Gore Verbinski have expressed interest in joining executive producer David Fincher to direct segments of the upcoming Heavy Metal animated film. The feature is scheduled to include eight or nine segments, and is being envisioned as an adult-themed R-rated film. Animator Tim Miller and Eastman himself are also expected to direct segments.

Last we heard, Kevin Eastman’s new big screen Heavy Metal movie had a list of impressive directors a mile long: Zack Snyder, David Fincher, Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda), and Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). Eastman has said that three more directors would also direct segments on the animated anthology film. Since that time we’ve learned that Rob Zombie (Halloween) is in talks to join the mix.

But now our good friends at Film School Rejects have learned directly from Eastman that James Cameron has now come on board as Co-Executive producer, and will direct a segment. Cameron’s involvement is also notable because it pretty much guarantees that the film will be 3D.