David Fincher Once Pitched This 'Creepy' Take On Harry Potter To Warner Bros. And We're Listening

David Fincher has revealed he was once in consideration to bring the Harry Potter franchise to the big screen.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind the likes of Se7en and Fight Club revealed he met with Warner Bros. long before Harry Potter became a box office sensation about the prospect of bringing JK Rowling’s novels to life.

However, producers didn’t seem too taken with his vision for the Wizarding World.

“I was asked to come in and talk to them about how I would do Harry Potter,” he told Variety. “I remember saying, ‘I just don’t want to do the clean Hollywood version of it. I want to do something that looks a lot more like Withnail And I, and I want it to be kind of creepy’.”

Unfortunately for Fincher, Warner Bros. apparently told him they were hoping for something more “Thom Browne schooldays by way of Oliver!” for the Harry Potter series.

In the end, it was Chris Columbus who landed the gig directing Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, having previously enjoyed success helming Mrs Doubtfire, Stepmom and the first two Home Alone movies.

Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter films, with Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell and David Yates taking over to complete the eight-part series.

While Fincher didn’t land the Harry Potter job, he is reportedly working on something very different, which will see him remaking the Netflix hit Squid Game for an English-language version, a production choice which has already been much-derided for several reasons.

Fincher is known for directing the likes of Fight Club, The Social Network, Gone Girl and Zodiac.

He has also directed celebrated music videos like Madonna’s Express Yourself and Vogue, George Michael’s Freedom! 90, Sting’s Englishman In New York and the Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z collaboration Suit & Tie, for which the American filmmaker won a Grammy.