David Fincher shot to fame in the late nineties for his gritty, dark and stylish movies, and it really was Seven that made people sit up and take note of him as a filmmaker.
He returns this week with his new movie The Social Network, which follows the creation and rise of Facebook, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield.
The Social Network is the first movie for the filmmaker since the critically acclaimed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last year.
So to celebrate the release of the movie we take a look at some of the David Fincher movies that really should be in your DVD collection.
Alien 3
After beginning his career shooting advertisements and music videos Fincher made his feature film debut in 1992 with the third movie in the Alien franchise picking up where the previous movie left off.
Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is discovered frozen in suspended animation as her ship crashes on Fiorina 161, a prison planet. When awakened by the prison's staff, she discovers that she is the sole survivor of her crew.
Trapped on a barren planet with convicts and no weapons of any kind, Ripley soon realizes that an alien was also on the ship and has survived. As the savage creature begins to massacre inmates, Ripley bands together with the remaining prisoners and attempts to destroy it by wits alone.
Despite Oscar nominations for Visual Effects the film was not met well by critics and audiences and it was the most expensive movie made by a first time director with a $50 million budget.
Se7en
Despite the problems with Alien 3 it was 1995's Se7en that was to be the breakthrough movie for Fincher as he teamed u with actors Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.
Set in a perpetually gloomy unnamed city, the film follows Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a retiring police detective, as he experiences his final week on the job, reluctantly working with assertive newcomer Mills (Brad Pitt).
When an obese man is found brutally murdered in his home, the seasoned Somerset realizes this is no ordinary killing, someone tortured him because of his appetite.
Slayings that reflect the sins of greed and sloth soon follow, leading Somerset and Mills on a desperate search to find the mysterious John Doe, who is responsible for these methodical murders.
As the case builds to a startling conclusion, both Somerset and Mills become more involved than they ever could have imagined. The film remains one of the best loved criminal thrillers and Fincher had critical and commercial success.
The Game
Fincher stuck with the psychological movie for his next project as he brought together Michael Douglas and Sean Penn in The Game, released in 1997.
Douglas stars as Nicholas Van Orton, a joyless San Francisco investment banker who receives an unusual birthday present from his estranged younger brother, Conrad (Sean Penn). The gift enrolls Nicholas in CRS (Consumer Recreation Services), a company that designs elaborate real-life games for each specific participant.
As the game begins, the reluctant Nicholas becomes the victim of a series of pranks that quickly turn malicious and dangerous.
Stripped of his finances and convinced that he can trust no one, Nicholas realizes that this game may be an attempt to steal his fortune and leave him for dead.
In a desperate bid to regain his life, Nicholas infiltrates CRS in order to uncover the secrets of the mysterious organization. While not as well received as Seven Fincher was establishing himself as a great director of the dark, gritty movie, a reputation he cemented with his next film.
Fight Club
An adaptation of Chuck Palahniuck's novel the film brought together Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in an explosive partnership the film follows as automobile company employee who finds his only comfort in feigning terminal illnesses and attending disease support groups.
However, while returning from a business trip, he meets a more intriguing character--the subversive Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). They become fast friends, bonding over a mutual disgust for corporate consumer-culture hypocrisy.
Eventually, the two start Fight Club, which convenes in a bar basement where angry men get to vent their frustrations in brutal, bare-knuckle bouts. Fight Club soon becomes the men's only real priority; when the club starts a cross-country expansion, things start getting really crazy.
When the film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival it received mixed reviews and was fiercely debated by the critics. Despite grossing just over $100 million and opening at number one at the US box office it was not considered a hit.
But it was one of the most controversial and most talked about movies of 1999 and was considered a milestone for visual style in cinema establishing a cult following when it was released on DVD.
Panic Room
The Thriller was back on the agenda in 2002 when Fincher worked with Jodie Foster on Panic Room.
Foster stars as the recently divorced Meg Altman who halfheartedly tours an old New York City townhouse with her restless young daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart). Using money from her divorce settlement, the unhappy mother decides to buy the spacious home.
The former abode of a wealthy eccentric, this townhouse contains an unusual extra feature, a supposedly impenetrable "panic room" equipped with surveillance monitors, a separate phone line, and other survival aids, where residents can hide in case of emergency.
When three men, Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Junior (Jared Leto), and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), break into their new home, Meg and Sarah end up using the panic room much sooner than they could have possibly imagined.
And, unfortunately for them, these intruders are not simple burglars; they possess knowledge that makes the situation much more perilous.
Fincher had another hit on his hands as it was met well by the critics and easily made back it's $48 million budget by grossing over $196 million at the global box office.
Zodiac
After a hiatus of five years Fincher returned with Zodiac, an adaptation of Robert Graysmith's novel, with an impressive cast of Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Edwards, and Brian Cox.
As a murderer with seemingly random targets starts sending terrifying threats and cryptic codes to police and publishers all around San Francisco, fear and paranoia descend on the city.
When the Zodiac's ciphers arrive at the San Francisco Chronicle, they spark the interest of Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young cartoonist with a penchant for puzzles. As the former Boy Scout earnestly tries to decode the messages, eccentric reporter Paul Avery approaches the case from a career-boosting angle.
Meanwhile, a string of investigators from four jurisdictions carry on a complex and unsatisfying search for the elusive killer.
Zodiac was one of the most popular movies of 2007 with the critics making may top ten lists however it struggled at the box office.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of BenjaminButton is a third collaboration with Brad Pitt and looks like it might the most successful movie for Fincher.
Loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story, this romantic drama tells the tale of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), born in 1918 in New Orleans as a baby with wrinkles, cataracts, and arthritis.
Benjamin will age backwards, getting younger as he watches those around him growing older.
Included in that group are his adoptive mother, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), and Daisy (Cate Blanchett), the love of his life whom he meets when she is just a little girl and he is an old man. They age in reverse, but despite Benjamin's globe-trotting adventures, their lives repeatedly intersect.
The film is a critical and box office hit as it scooped thirteen Oscar nominations including one for Best Picture, Best Director for Fincher and Best Actor for Pitt.
The director is currently working on the U.S. remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which sees Rooney Mara in the lead role alongside Daniel Craig.
The Social Network is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
David Fincher shot to fame in the late nineties for his gritty, dark and stylish movies, and it really was Seven that made people sit up and take note of him as a filmmaker.
He returns this week with his new movie The Social Network, which follows the creation and rise of Facebook, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield.
The Social Network is the first movie for the filmmaker since the critically acclaimed The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last year.
So to celebrate the release of the movie we take a look at some of the David Fincher movies that really should be in your DVD collection.
Alien 3
After beginning his career shooting advertisements and music videos Fincher made his feature film debut in 1992 with the third movie in the Alien franchise picking up where the previous movie left off.
Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is discovered frozen in suspended animation as her ship crashes on Fiorina 161, a prison planet. When awakened by the prison's staff, she discovers that she is the sole survivor of her crew.
Trapped on a barren planet with convicts and no weapons of any kind, Ripley soon realizes that an alien was also on the ship and has survived. As the savage creature begins to massacre inmates, Ripley bands together with the remaining prisoners and attempts to destroy it by wits alone.
Despite Oscar nominations for Visual Effects the film was not met well by critics and audiences and it was the most expensive movie made by a first time director with a $50 million budget.
Se7en
Despite the problems with Alien 3 it was 1995's Se7en that was to be the breakthrough movie for Fincher as he teamed u with actors Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.
Set in a perpetually gloomy unnamed city, the film follows Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a retiring police detective, as he experiences his final week on the job, reluctantly working with assertive newcomer Mills (Brad Pitt).
When an obese man is found brutally murdered in his home, the seasoned Somerset realizes this is no ordinary killing, someone tortured him because of his appetite.
Slayings that reflect the sins of greed and sloth soon follow, leading Somerset and Mills on a desperate search to find the mysterious John Doe, who is responsible for these methodical murders.
As the case builds to a startling conclusion, both Somerset and Mills become more involved than they ever could have imagined. The film remains one of the best loved criminal thrillers and Fincher had critical and commercial success.
The Game
Fincher stuck with the psychological movie for his next project as he brought together Michael Douglas and Sean Penn in The Game, released in 1997.
Douglas stars as Nicholas Van Orton, a joyless San Francisco investment banker who receives an unusual birthday present from his estranged younger brother, Conrad (Sean Penn). The gift enrolls Nicholas in CRS (Consumer Recreation Services), a company that designs elaborate real-life games for each specific participant.
As the game begins, the reluctant Nicholas becomes the victim of a series of pranks that quickly turn malicious and dangerous.
Stripped of his finances and convinced that he can trust no one, Nicholas realizes that this game may be an attempt to steal his fortune and leave him for dead.
In a desperate bid to regain his life, Nicholas infiltrates CRS in order to uncover the secrets of the mysterious organization. While not as well received as Seven Fincher was establishing himself as a great director of the dark, gritty movie, a reputation he cemented with his next film.
Fight Club
An adaptation of Chuck Palahniuck's novel the film brought together Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in an explosive partnership the film follows as automobile company employee who finds his only comfort in feigning terminal illnesses and attending disease support groups.
However, while returning from a business trip, he meets a more intriguing character--the subversive Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). They become fast friends, bonding over a mutual disgust for corporate consumer-culture hypocrisy.
Eventually, the two start Fight Club, which convenes in a bar basement where angry men get to vent their frustrations in brutal, bare-knuckle bouts. Fight Club soon becomes the men's only real priority; when the club starts a cross-country expansion, things start getting really crazy.
Tagged in David Fincher The Social Network