David Fincher wants to drag Brad Pitt to the depths of the oceans with him in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Although he is plenty busy with his upcoming House Of Cards series, more Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films, and Internet panhandling, David Fincher is still intent on his adaptation of the Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea—a film Disney has been hoping to produce since 2010, so that it can finally take its Kirk Douglas-starring original and burn it in front of his face before he dies. The film still hasn't received an official greenlight yet, and at last report Fincher had commissioned a script rewrite from Se7en's Andrew Kevin Walker, but Disney did recently place a three-month "hold" on Fincher, while it decides whether it wants to get into another expensive spectacle in the wake of John Carter and The Lone Ranger.

And now Fincher has another bit of bait to dangle, which is funny because fish: Brad Pitt, who's been approached about teaming with Fincher yet again, this time following him to the bottom of the oceans to star in the film as master harpooner Ned Land (the role Douglas played in the 1954 version) opposite an as-yet-undecided "older A-list star" as Captain Nemo—an older star who may as well be Morgan Freeman, seeing as this is very nearly a Se7en reunion under the sea already. "What's in the squid? What's in the squiiiiid?" Pitt can bellow, before masterfully harpooning it. Gwyneth Paltrow will play the squid.