Kimberley Santos
Staff Writer
Gone Girl is the bestselling thriller by Gillian Flynn, a former Entertainment Weekly columnist that is still a hot topic ever since being released in June 2012. Selling within 2 million copies in its first year, and still climbing, there are few reviews that would say its anything but riveting.
Hot off the back of this success, Flynn is writing the screenplay for the feature film, which was almost immediately optioned by Reese Witherspoon. She initially was set to play Amy Dunne, the titular Gone Girl of the novel. Since then, to my relief, she has decided not to act in it, and just stay attached as an executive producer. I really enjoy Reese as an actress, but for the role of Amy, definitely not. However, to say more about why I don’t think Reese is good for Amy, would give away some of the secrets of the book.
When a director gets on board, it doesn’t generally get our attention really, save for a few exceptions but this could be the film studies nerd in me speaking. Gone Girl has one of those directors, David Fincher, OMG typing that made me grin. I’m SO excited that Fincher is on this, because it is a book that has such character depth to it, and this tension as you read it. I truly believe that only Fincher and a couple of others may have been able to capture it in the right way.
It’s been announced this past week though that Oscar winning writer and director Ben Affleck will most likely be Nick Dunne, be still my heart. In my opinion, Ben is just a fantastic fit for the role of Nick. Whilst he is a bit older than the character, Ben still has a younger looking face, and as described in the book as being so handsome guys must hate him. He describes himself as having a douche face – too hot to be taken seriously. See that is Ben all over, although I’d be very surprised if Ben Affleck is disliked by anyone.
Affleck’s involvement in the project all seems to hinge on when Ben has to start directing and acting in Warner Bros Live By Night, which I would think they’d want in a hurry following Argo’s sweeping success. Gone Girl starts shooting this fall, and ideally, the leads for Nick and Amy Dunne would have been confirmed by then.
Who do you think would be a good Nick (other than Ben)? Who do you think would make a great Amy?
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