David Fincher launches Kickstarter campaign to fund his next project, ‘The Goon’

Filmmaker David Fincher is a busy man. In addition to producing the TV series "House of Cards" for Netflix, developing a big-budget adaptation of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues under the Sea," and circling Sony's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" sequels, the renowned "Fight Club" and "Social Network" director just announced his involvement in a very unusual new project.

Fincher has teamed with visual effects wiz Tim Miller (of design and effects house Blur Studio) to produce a feature-length show reel for "The Goon," a computer-animated film based on the supernatural comic book by Eric Powell. The multi-award-winning comics followed the adventures of a supposed mob enforcer known only as "the Goon," whose dirty work brings him into conflict with zombies, hobos, flying octopuses and more.

What makes "The Goon" unique is that Fincher, Miller and company have turned to the crowdsourcing site Kickstarter to raise the funds for the project. It's the first time that a filmmaker of Fincher's profile and calibre has tried to use Kickstarter as a means of financing a film.

See also: Watch Rian Johnson's 'Looper' pitch video

The director and company are hoping to raise $400,000 to pay for the creation of a feature-length story reel, an assembly of storyboards, voice over, sound effects, and music representing an extremely rough version of the full movie. With the story reel, they believe they can better make their case to the studios to give the film the green light.

"Does Hollywood know better than you?" Fincher asks in the hilarious pitch video, essentially daring potential backers to fund the movie. Watch it below.

If the project seems familiar, you might be thinking of the unrelated Canadian hockey comedy "Goon." Still wondering where you've seen or heard about this movie before? You are probably remembering a proof-of-concept video for "The Goon" that surfaced a few years ago at Comic Con. Featuring the voice talents of actors Paul Giamatti ("Barney's Version") and Clancy Brown ("Cowboys & Aliens"), that video was how Fincher and Blur originally pitched the project to studios. Although it was quite well received by fans, it was apparently not enough to convince the powers that be — hence the Kickstarter effort.

Having already raised about $130,000, the "Goon" team is well on its way. With Fincher and Blur involved, as well as the voice talents of Giamatti and Brown, Powell's comic book couldn't be in better hands. If any group of people could reach a goal like this, it's these talented folks.

See also: Kevin Smith remembers George Carlin with weekly stories

"The Goon" is just the latest collaboration between the director and the Blur studio. They first collaborated on Sony's aborted "Heavy Metal" sci-fi anthology a few years ago, and then worked together on the very memorable title sequence for Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (full disclosure: this writer was involved in creating the story at the link). Blur's Miller was also recently tapped by Fox to helm their "Deadpool" comic book adaptation, an "X-Men" spinoff starring Ryan Reynolds as the tongue-in-cheek, fourth wall-breaking Marvel Comics mercenary.

If you're interested in helping Fincher and company make an animated movie that's "loud, violent and offensive to your grandma" be sure to check out "The Goon" Kickstater page here.