Robert Towne provides important update on David Fincher’s Chinatown prequel series

It has been almost five years since we learned that David Fincher and Robert Towne were working on a Chinatown series about the early days of Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes. (One of them was shot for Netflix, of course.) The period afterward (Mank, The Killer) suggested a director had returned to the feature film business, not to mention how expensive and expensive such a project would be for a company that is clearly less willing to take risks with major auteurs. But speaking to Variety to mark the film’s 50th anniversary, Towne made the crucial remark that “all the episodes have been written.” An advanced stage of development, but one that doesn’t signal where things stand at Netflix – the company didn’t offer an update of its own.

Towne was quite candid, however, saying the project’s villain will be reminiscent of John Huston’s Noah Cross – one of the most evil characters in mainstream American cinema – who is shaped by the notion “that the crimes that history deems monstrous are those that do not remain in the past but persist in haunting the future.” A statement as powerful and cryptic as almost everything in Roman Polanski’s film. And while few people think deeply about the relationship between Gittes and police officer Lou Escobar, their creation – as cops on patrol in Chinatown and “Escobar’s presence during the tragedy that shakes Gittes” – shapes Towne and Fincher’s series, which reworks decades-old material to a degree that surprised the author himself.

Fincher has no other known projects in development, which – given the high attention Towne has received – could indicate that there will be changes in this series sooner or later. (Whether he is leaving one, all or – as in Thought Hunter(––a few details remain uncertain.) However, given the company’s recent relationship with David Lynch, I wouldn’t put all my money on its success. For now, it’s a case of waiting and hoping.

In the meantime, listen to Towne and Fincher’s commentary on Polanski’s film: