Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.The first official footage from the upcoming David Fincher-directed thriller, Gone Girl, premiered at the CinemaCon convention, and easily prevailed as the event's milestone moment. That's to be expected: the film is among the most anticipated in recent years, based on Gillian Flynn's book of the same name — one of the decade's most highly-discussed best sellers.
The dark storyline seems perfectly destined for Fincher's shadowy cinema tactics: a man uses his wife's money to start a new business, and lo and behold, she disappears on the day of their fifth wedding anniversary. Is blood on his hands? It's complicated, as readers know. And no one handles a grisly, multi-tiered storyline like Fincher, whose movies The Game, Se7en, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are the embodiment of future noir.
Lucky CinemaCon attendees saw that indeed, it's as dark, brooding, and expertly soundtracked as Fincher and Flynn fans hoped. Ben Affleck (Nick, the main character, husband, and possible murder suspect) and Rosamund Pike (Amy, the wife missing-in-action) convincingly bring their under-pressure marriage to life, says The Hollywood Reporter. In the footage, the temperamental Nick even shakes Amy after a fight about money, baiting the viewer into at least trusting him a little less. (No one does foreshadowing like Fincher!)
Likewise, Nick's quirks take a turn for the menacing, as the footage highlights his odd behavior in the wake of his wife's disappearance. He brandishes a missing person's photo — and then smiles. Creepy. Music from The Psychedelic Furs' frontman Richard Butler plays. (Trent Reznor's reported involvement still apparently remains an exciting mystery.) He may be odd, but Nick maintains his innocence — for now. "I did not kill my wife. I am not a murderer," he says near the end. But what's this? A corpse floating poetically in spooky, acid-green water. It's a real Laura Palmer moment, but is it Amy? Like all things Fincher, it's best to experience the surreal conclusion firsthand when Gone Girl hits theaters October 3rd. (The Hollywood Reporter)