10 Books That Would Be Perfect David Fincher Movies

The book-to-screen adaptation pipeline is nothing new to Hollywood or literature. For as long as artists have been making motion pictures, beloved books have constantly been turned into films. Some novels are perfectly cinematic and lend themselves to the big-screen adaptation, while others require a bit more heft from their adapting teams. David Fincher, who has embraced this method of storytelling, has adapted many novels for the big screen, ranging from true crime and nonfiction novels to pulpy airport and beach reads.

Out of David Fincher’s twelve feature films, seven are based on pre-existing literary material. Fincher’s ability to hone in on the essence of these novels and create entertaining and layered adaptations has made their film adaptations beloved masterpieces, which makes him the perfect director to take on an adaptation of these literary works. These ten novels would be ripe for a Fincher adaptation, thanks to their themes, genres, and approaches to subjects that resonate with the director and his audience.

10

‘Fight Club 2’ (2015–2016)

Written by Chuck Palahniuk

In 2015, Chuck Palahniuk began releasing Fight Club 2, a limited comic book series and a sequel to his 1996 novel Fight Club. Fight Club 2 finds The Narrator (now Sebastian) living a mundane and dysfunctional life with Marla until Tyler Durden re-emerges from his subconscious. In embracing the eccentricities that the comic book format provides, Chuck Palahniuk attempts to engage the fans of the original novel (and the film), who see Tyler Durden as the hero.

For most fans of Fight Club, a film sequel 25 years later will be frowned upon. It’s understandable, as the 1999 film is a perfectly self-contained story that continues to provoke and interrogate societal trends many years later. However, the idea of Fincher making a sequel that directly addresses the wrong and harmful messages fans of Fight Club have taken from the film is a very intriguing prospect. In a world where the film’s messaging is even more prevalent, albeit misunderstood, it may be the perfect time for Fincher to return to that film and underline his point.

Before his sudden death, Stieg Larsson completed three novels in his Millennium Trilogy. All three books were adapted into films in Sweden in 2009, with Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist. However, only the first book in the trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, was adapted into a Hollywood film by David Fincher with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig as Salander and Blomkvist, respectively.

Considering the success of Fincher’s take on the first novel, the quality of Larsson’s subsequent efforts, and Mara and Craig’s excellence in their roles, it is a shame that more films in the trilogy were never made. Fans of both Fincher and the novels will be excited to see what Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillian can do with the rest of the trilogy on the heels of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo‘s dark groundwork.

8

‘The Black Dahlia: A Crime Graphic Novel’

Written by Alexis Nolent and David Fincher

A few things. Yes, James Ellroy is the author of the novel The Black Dahlia. No, this is not the same book but a graphic novel adaptation. Yes, David Fincher wrote a graphic novel, or at least he was given co-writing credit by the graphic novel’s author, Alexis Nolent (also known as Matz and the author of future Fincher film, The Killer). Yes, there’s already a film based on James Ellroy’s original novel, Brian De Palma‘s The Black Dahlia. Nevertheless, this list proposes an adaptation of the graphic novel and not the original novel.

Interestingly, Fincher was originally attached to the adaptation of The Black Dahlia, and at the time, he wanted to make it a television miniseries. The graphic novel’s abridged version and Fincher’s intimate understanding of the story now present him with the opportunity to make a fulfilling film adaptation.

7

‘The Grownup’ (2014)

Written by Gillian Flynn

Gillian Flynn‘s short story The Grownup is a con-woman story about a retired sex worker (now posing as a fortune-teller and psychic), a wealthy housewife, and a murder conspiracy. It keeps the audience’s allegiances constantly shifting, and it’s never explicitly clear who can be entirely trusted. These are all the makings of a perfect Fincher thriller.

Following the success of their first collaboration, 2014’s Gone Girl, Fincher and Flynn adapting The Grownup for the screen would be a welcome endeavor. Some of the domestic relationships that Gillian Flynn explored in her Gone Girl novel are also here and will prove excellent fodder for Fincher’s darkly comic sensibilities. While several of David Fincher’s films are horror-adjacent, he has never made one that incorporated supernatural elements as much as an adaptation of The Grownup would require. It will be a fun opportunity to see Fincher do a lot of what he’s already proven to be excellent at while attempting some new avenues.

6

‘Painkiller’ (2016)

Written by N.J. Fountain

N.J. Fountain’s Painkiller is a crime thriller in which the audience isn’t sure there’s a crime. The novel’s protagonist, Monica, suffers from chronic neuropathic pain and is thus restricted to her home, losing memories of years of her life. When she finds a suicide note in her handwriting, she begins to wonder about who might want her dead and what’s stopping them from trying again.

While the novel might hearken to Fincher’s work on Gone Girl, Painkiller‘s paranoia, confusion, and constant unease make it a perfect vehicle for the man who directed The Game. Just like with that Michael Douglas-starring film, Painkiller‘s readers are constantly unsure as to what to believe. David Fincher is a master of mood and tone, and he’ll strike the right balance to keep audiences on their toes.

5

‘Ripley Under Water’ (1991)

Written by Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith‘s series of Tom Ripley novels are some of the most famous literary works of the last half a century. The first novel in the series, The Talented Mr. Ripley, has received several film, television and stage adaptations. Furthermore, three of the five novels in the Ripley-focused collection have been adapted into films. However, her last two books in the series, The Boy Who Followed Ripley and Ripley Under Water, have never been adapted.

In Ripley Under Water, parts of Tom Ripley’s criminal past come back to haunt him, leading to a cat-and-mouse game with a stalker he suspects may know his truth. While most of the public knows the Tom Ripley story thanks to The Talented Mr. Ripley, not many know about the events of Ripley Under Water. This lack of awareness of such a great novel gives Fincher a chance to make this story his own and make a film free from the shadow of previous adaptations.

4

‘Avenger’ (2003)

Written by Frederick Forsyth

David Fincher already ventured into Frederick Forsyth‘s territory with his Michael Fassbender-starring The Killer, which owes a lot to Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal. Forsyth’s 2003 novel, Avenger, follows a military veteran turned international vigilante. Following tragic events in his personal life, he now uses the skills he learned as part of an elite military task force to hunt down criminals and hand them over to the United States justice system. In Avenger, he comes into conflict with the CIA as the man he has been hired to hunt down is under their covert protection.

With The Killer, Fincher exhibited his proficiency with a highly skilled and precise assassin. With an adaptation of Avenger, he combines that with a cat-and-mouse story between the titular Avenger and the CIA. Fincher has yet to tackle explicitly political material, and a venture into the unique spy thriller genre may be the right and exciting vehicle for that exploration.

3

‘The Hunter’ (2024)

Written by Tana French

Tana French‘s 2024 novel The Hunter, the second in her Cal Hooper series, finds the American ex-detective intent on living a quiet life in the fictional rural Irish town of Ardnakelty. However, when the notoriously manipulative father of his mentee, Trey, returns, plots of corruption, vengeance and murder begin to spring up.

The novel presents several intricately plotted crime plots that would fit right into Fincher’s skillset. His meticulousness as a director has always enhanced his ability to maintain a balance between several equally important plots. Fincher’s point of view of a small town rocked by a mysterious new figure would be an interesting development on some of the community-focused commentary he began in Gone Girl. Additionally, Cal and Trey are a classic “Lone Wolf and Cub” relationship, a popular trope that Fincher has yet to explore. This adaptation allows him to build on some of his existing work while venturing into new territory.

2

‘The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder’ (2023)

Written by David Grann

David Grann‘s 2023 nonfiction novel, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, tells the story of the infamous “Wager Mutiny,” which took place among the crew of the HMS Wager after it was shipwrecked in 1741. The novel highlights the terrible conditions the crew was in before the shipwreck, the desperation they felt after the wreckage, and the actions that ensued. The novel also deals with the ideas of truth, perception and public opinion. Both sides of the mutiny provide their accounts of events as the truth and try to use public sympathy to validate their stances. During their court-martial on returning to England, Great Britain suppresses the events of the mutiny in order to maintain their perceived superiority and justify their continued colonialism.

It’s a dense and thrilling novel and explains why Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have been attached to make the film adaption following their success adapting David Grann’s 2017 nonfiction novel into Killers of the Flower Moon. However, considering the many delayed films Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have on their docket, it may fall by the side. In such a situation, Fincher would be the perfect director to examine the darkness of humanity and how far we are willing to go when faced with desperation. His work on The Social Network also proves his comfortability in the courtroom setting, making him perfect for the court-martial section of the novel.

1

‘Highway Thirteen’ (2024)

Written by Fiona McFarlane

Fiona McFarlane‘s Highway Thirteen is a collection of short stories linked by their connection to a recently arrested serial killer. The stories include personal histories of the killer’s victims before his arrest in 1998, and the podcast and true-crime media centered around the killer in the future.

David Fincher has made a name for himself as perhaps the preeminent filmmaking voice in the serial killer sandbox. While adapting Highway Thirteen may seem like a return to his comfort zone, the exercise gives him an opportunity that neither Se7en nor Zodiac ever did. With a film adaptation of Fiona McFarlane’s stories, Fincher gets to center the victims of a serial killer as opposed to the hunt for the killer. Furthermore, in engaging with the emergence and proliferation of true-crime podcasts and biopics, Fincher gets to analyze the current pop-culture landscape that his films played a significant role in creating.

NEXT: 10 David Fincher Movies That Are Pretty Much Perfect