David Fincher in Talks to Direct 'Gone Girl'

David Fincher is in early talks to direct the adaptation of the hit literary property Gone Girl for 20th Century Fox, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea and Leslie Dixon will produce the film, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn that has been a fixture on the New York Times best-seller list. Adaptation rights sold to Fox in a summer auction for a reported $1.5 million. Flynn is writing the screenplay.

Gone Girl kicks off when a woman goes missing on the morning of her fifth anniversary. Her husband quickly becomes the lead suspect in her disappearance. His suspicious behavior and lies make him appear guilty, but her diary reveals her own complicated secret life. The story is told in alternating passages by the husband, Nick, and wife, Amy, leaving the reader unsure who is telling the truth. As the police move closer to arresting Nick for Amy's disappearance, a massive plot twist flips the story on its head and sets off to a surprising conclusion.

Released in May, Gone Girl is the third novel from former Entertainment Weekly writer Flynn and was the second-best-selling new novel of 2012 after the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

Witherspoon had been reported as also starring in the film but will serve only as a producer.