David Fincher Reveals Why His Disney Remake Fell Apart, “Pulling Teeth”

David Fincher’s career is filled with groundbreaking movies that pushed creative boundaries, from Fight Club to The Social Network. However, one project that slipped through his fingers was Disney’s ambitious remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In a recent interview with Letterboxd, the acclaimed director opened up about why his vision for Jules Verne’s 1870 novel never materialized, revealing creative differences with Disney that made the project impossible to realize.

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Disney’s first adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, released in 1954, was a groundbreaking achievement that won two Academy Awards for its art direction and special effects. The film, which starred Kirk Douglas and James Mason, followed the mysterious Captain Nemo and his advanced submarine Nautilus, becoming one of Disney’s first live-action blockbusters. Fincher’s remake was announced during the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, with the director planning to work from a script by Scott Z. Burns. However, by July 2013, after several casting setbacks and creative disputes, Fincher departed the project to direct Gone Girl instead.

According to Fincher, he had a specific and ambitious vision for the project. “I really wanted to do Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea because what we had in mind was really kind of gross and cool and wet and steampunk and all that,” the director explained. However, the tension between artistic vision and commercial expectations became apparent early in development. “Disney was in a place where they were saying, ‘We need to know that there’s a thing that we know how to exploit snout to tail, and you’re going to have to check these boxes for us,’” the director revealed. 

When Fincher pushed back about the source material’s themes, the disagreements deepened. “You’ve read Jules Verne, right?” the director remarked. “This is a story about an Indian prince who has real issues with white imperialism, and that’s what we want to do.” Disney’s response was telling: “Yeah, yeah, fine. As long as there’s a lot less of that in it.”

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Once it became clear Disney was not willing to bet its money on Fincher’s vision, the filmmaker abandoned the ship. As he succinctly puts it,  “You can’t make people be excited about the risks that you’re excited about.” There is a silver lining, though, as Fincher would later find satisfaction in another nautical project, the “Bad Travelling” episode of Love, Death & Robots. “I got to do ‘Bad Travelling’ on Netflix, and that scratched that itch,” Fincher said. “I was fine just doing that.”

The Long Journey of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Remake

The path to remaking Disney’s 1954 classic has been particularly tumultuous. Before Fincher’s involvement, director McG was attached to the project in 2009, with Will Smith and Sam Worthington considered for the role of Captain Nemo. After that version fell apart, Fincher took the helm in 2010, working from a script by Scott Z. Burns. Eventually, Fincher reached a breaking point with the project. “Look, I can’t fudge this, and I don’t want you to discover at the premiere what it is that you’ve financed,” he explained. “It doesn’t make any sense because it’s just going to be pulling teeth for the next two years. And I don’t want to do that. I mean, life’s too short.” 

The remake continued its troubled development even after his departure, with James Mangold briefly attached to direct a film titled Captain Nemo in 2016 before leaving to helm Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Most recently, the property was reimagined as Nautilus, a television series focusing on Nemo’s origin story. While Disney+ initially greenlit the project, it was later dropped as part of the company’s cost-reduction strategy, with AMC eventually acquiring the series, which premiered in October 2024.

The original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is currently available for streaming on Disney+, while fans can experience Fincher’s “Bad Travelling” episode of Love, Death & Robots on Netflix.