Director David Fincher dismisses concerns 'the movies are dying' due to streaming services

With films including Se7en, Fight Club and The Social Network on his resume, David Fincher long ago established himself as one of Hollywood’s most important directors.

And the 58-year-old was one of the first major-name filmmakers to work with Netflix, as executive producer of the platform’s first original series House Of Cards, which premiered in 2013 and for which he directed the opening episode.

But Fincher has dismissed the idea that streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are the death knell for traditional cinema.

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He told Rolling Stone: “I believe that the tragedy of cinema today is that we’re only 100 years in and we think we know exactly what it is. We really don’t.

“But if I was to believe that we have reached the limits of what cinema can do, make us feel, talk about, I would be inordinately depressed. I’m not. I’m emboldened.”

Watch: Why Amanda Seyfried was hesitant to star in Mank

Fincher added that the “notion that the movies are dying” is incorrect, because there are “still minerals to mine, there are still jewels to be found, and there are still different ways to be shocked, entertained, uplifted, terrified. They’re just changing. You change with them.”

Rather than sitting back and blaming the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+, Fincher said that he and other like-minded creatives should be “curious about to impart their story” in a new fashion.

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“There’s going to be plenty more opportunities, at least in the short-term. And depending on how long this pandemic goes on, there may be need for a lot more.”

Fincher’s latest movie Mank was released on Netflix in December.