Adapting Gone Girl: Gillian Flynn wrote a whole new third act!

Update: 1/9/2014
When I posted this yesterday I knew the adaptation of Gone Girl would not be by the book; both Fincher and Flynn noted they wouldn't stick to that script as it were. Evidence their quotes below. Today we learn from The Film Stage there was more to the story, with Gillian Flynn full quote - quoting Ben Affleck - doesn't just hint at changes, it basically comes out and states that the film's third act will NOT be the same as the book's. Scroll down to read Gillian Flynn's full statement!

David Fincher made the rather unusual move of shooting his own cover story for Entertainment Weekly, maybe not so unusual considering his control freaky ways. Fincher clearly had a bit of fun concocting the non-spoilery shot of Ben Affleck (Nick) and Rosamund Pike as Nick's missing wife, Amy in his upcoming adaptation of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl. Personally I'm partial to Pike's toe tag!

But who knows? Maybe what we see here is more of what we're going to get than we know, as it sounds like Fincher and Flynn - author and Fincher's co-screenwriter - did some strategic slicing up of the novel. Fincher told EW that the lesson he learned from adapting The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was that “we may have been too beholden to the source material.”  So changes are a coming.  And Flynn, who used to write for EW, told the magazine... 

“There was something thrilling about taking this piece of work that I’d spent about two years painstakingly putting together with all its eight million LEGO pieces and take a hammer to it and bash it apart and reassemble it into a movie.”

And then she went on to say ...

“Ben [Affleck] was so shocked by it. He would say, ‘This is a whole new third act! She literally threw that third act out and started from scratch.’”

Hmmm. Bashing it apart, eh? Of course we don't know what exactly Flynn is changing. What would you change about the Gone Girl plot if you were the one doing the re-assembling? I might do something about the so called Blue Book boys; while I love the visual possibilities of the abandoned mall, that part of the storyline always felt borderline unbelievable to me. And like many a fan - I LOVED reading Gone Girl, the turn-paging process of it was a thrill but the ending left me distinctly unsatisfied soooo I'm open to Flynn and Fincher correcting the record. 

The magazine cover timing seems awfully premature since the movie doesn't hit theaters until September 6th of this year. Or are the filmmakers giving us a chance to get used to the news!  Read the rest of the story at The Film Stage.

ALL THE GONE GIRL MOVIE POSTS IN ONE PLACE

If you're interested in movies based on books, find out what's playing this year on my Movies Based on Books 2014 page.