Film director David Fincher began his career in Hollywood as a special effects man working for director George Lucas. Eighteen and fresh out of high school when he joined the Lucas team for 1983's Return of the Jedi, Fincher has since forged a path through the film industry maze to become one of the most influential directors at the turn of the twenty-first century. With films such as Seven, Fight Club, and The Game to his credit, Fincher is known for an unorthodox style that eschews advance planning in favor of just winging it. Taking place in gritty urban settings awash in rain-soaked pavements dimly lit by sputtering neon lights, his films are known for their frenetic violence, desolation, decay, and bloodshed, sometimes even death.

Fincher, whose films are far more popular with the movie-going public than with the film critic establishment, has been described by Entertainment Weekly...