david-fincher

David Fincher working on series for HBO about the world of '80s music videos

by Bill Pearis

David Fincher
fincher

We recently posted about the new HBO series that’s going to be about ’70s-era music biz in NYC that being made by Terrence Winter (The Sopranos), Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger. Turns out it’s not the only music-related show on the network’s upcoming slate. Deadline reports that David Fincher, who will likely be up for an Oscar this year for Gone Girl, is behind a new series currently titled Livng On Video, set in the world of MTV:

Set in 1983 Los Angeles, Living On Video centers on Bobby, a wide-eyed guy who drops out of college and drives to Hollywood with dreams of directing a sci-fi epic. He lands a job as a PA for a company making music videos. In the vein of HBO’s Entourage, the series revolves around the players of the then-exploding music video industry — directors, record executives and crew members, many of them dabbling in drugs — through the eyes of the newcomer.

Fincher has a lot of firsthand knowlege on this subject, having come up through this world, and directed such MTV classics as Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up,” Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun” and Billy Idol’s “Rock the Cradle of Love.” He made his first music video in eight years in 2013 for buddy Justin Timberlake‘s “Suit and Tie” with Jay Z.

The plot also sounds a little like the underrated 1988 John Cusack / Tim Robbins comedy, Tapeheads, which you can watch the trailer for (along with some of those Fincher-directed videos) below…