While there was some good news for David Fincher fans last week, with Gone Girl getting moving, there were two bits of bad news out today. His long-gestating remake of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea for Disney is dead and the window for him to make The Girl Who Played With Fire continues to grow smaller.

Indiewire’s The Playlist is reporting today that 20,000 Leagues is dead, at least for Fincher, according to the site’s sources. The project seemed unlikely to happen as Fincher began working on Gone Girl. Then after The Lone Ranger bombed, it looks like Disney wouldn’t want to waste another $200 million or more on a film that may not pull in audiences.

The Playlist’s source suggests that Fincher moved on from the project months ago, after Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Daniel Craig all passed. Channing Tatum’s name was passed around, but Disney didn’t think he was a big enough star and suggested Chris Hemsworth. Fincher didn’t want Hemsworth, so he just decided to pack it in and move on.

As for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sequel, as we get further away from Sony’s 2011 film, it continues to look like an English version of The Girl Who Played With fire might not happen. It will probably not happen at all with Fincher behind the camera, even if his Seven writer Andrew Kevin Walker is working on a new draft. The window on that project is closing and Fincher won’t have time if he’s doing Gone Girl.

Sony probably isn’t going to give up on Played with Fire that easily though, since they spent big bucks getting Oscar winner Steven Zaillian to write the original script.

According to Collider, a new THR report that also suggests that Sony isn’t going to have Fincher do Played with Fire.

Gone Girl is definitely happening though, with Fox producing and Ben Affleck starring.

image: Wikimedia Commons