David Fincher Almost Directed The Deadwood Pilot

David Fincher almost got into the TV business much sooner.

While the director of Se7en, Fight Club, and The Social Network helped establish binge-watching culture with his Netflix series House of Cards, he recently told Esquire that he nearly helmed the pilot episode of HBO's Deadwood back in 2004.

When asked which show he would've like to have been in the writers' room for, he answered with this: "I'd probably go to The Sopranos season 5 or 6. I would like to watch David Chase work. It seems like a very complete world in somebody's head. And then maybe Deadwood season 1. At one point, I was two millimeters from saying yes to directing the pilot, and part of it was I was just so fascinated with (writer) David Milch. Milch and Chase are masterful. They both have a great ear as to how things can be presented or how you can get things out of characters. I think that's an odd gift, and it intrigues me."

Walter Hill directed the Deadwood pilot, and it's not clear why Fincher said no. At the time, he had just released Panic Room and was developing a few different projects, eventually landing on 2007's Zodiac.

Fincher went on to executive produce and direct the first two episode of House of Cards, which debuted in 2013. His new series Mindhunter recently premiered on Netflix, and he's set to direct the upcoming sequel to World War Z.