As much as critics would have you believe The Social Network is David Fincher’s seminal work as a director, his fans would tell you otherwise. The man is an auteur when it comes to crafting dark thrillers. From Seven to Zodiac, and the upcoming Girl with the Dragon Tattoo thrown in for good measure, Fincher has the sort of kinship with thrillers as Martin Scorsese has with crime pics. And it doesn’t look like he’s stopping with the Americanized take on Steig Larrson’s Millennium Trilogy.
According to Vulture, Fincher has optioned Jason Starr’s 2009 crime novel Panic Attack, about a New York shrink who shoots and kills a home intruder, then faces a media frenzy and the victim’s vengeful accomplice. Ted Griffin, one of the scribes on Ocean’s Eleven, will write the adaptation.
Having had the pleasure of meeting Jason Starr, I can tell you that his novels aren’t the type to get best-seller attention like Harlan Coben or James Patterson, but are well received by other prominent crime and thriller novelists. Like I tell others, if you think your life is bad, just read one of his novels and get back to me.
Panic Attack will be one of the first projects as part of Fincher’s recently formed company, Panic Pictures (apropos considering he also directed Panic Room). His company is set up at Media Rights Capital, the production and financing entity that allows filmmakers to retain ownership of their films while getting major Hollywood studios to bid on distributing the movies for a fee. Currently in development at MRC is Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to District 9, Elysium and Ted from Seth MacFarlane.
On the horizon for Starr is a new novel titled The Pack (about werewolf stay-at-home dads run amok on the Upper West Side), and his 2008 thriller, The Follower, in development at Starz, with American Psycho novelist Bret Easton Ellis adapting.
