We all know that David Fincher is an uncompromising director (and why shouldn't he be? The guy is one of the best working today). But, even if you don't like the man, you have to admire someone who is truly willing to put his money where his mouth is. In an interview unearthed by The Playlist, Heavy Metal publisher (and Fincher's collaborator on the Metal reboot), Kevin Eastman, confirmed that the reason for the project's move from Paramount to Sony was not because of problems with the sex and violence (as earlier reported), but because of another film altogether. When Metal first jumped studios, there was speculation that Fincher was having trouble getting the green light because of Metal's risqué subject matter. But, it wasn't Metal they were fighting about, it was Fincher's upcoming fantasy tale, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

According to Eastman, "We developed it [Heavy Metal] for Paramount in January... And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time... and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to green light any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, f**k you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there." You can't help but wonder what Paramount was thinking? Maybe the likely answer is that they were not prepared for Fincher to call their bluff.

After the jump ... guess who's directing Heavy Metal???

Regardless of how Paramount may feel about Button's running time, the positive buzz for the film has been building (you can read Kim's Telluride preview here), so I truly doubt that Paramount would start making any changes now.

As for Fincher and Eastman, they are going full steam ahead with Metal now that they found a new home at Sony. And in a brand new interview with rgbfilter, Eastman says that Guillermo Del Toro, Zack Snyder and Gore Verbinski will all direct segments of the new Metal flick, with Fincher most likely helming a segment as well. A total of 8 or 9 segments are planned for this adult-themed animated flick, and so it will be interesting to see who else hops onboard. [via Slashfilm]

Whaddya think?