Those who know  Gillian Flynn’s book, Gone Girl, will be wondering exactly what’s going on in this new EW cover image, featuring Ben Affleck cradling Rosamund Pike who’s on the slab. The image was taken by director David Fincher especially for the magazine.

The film is about Nick and Amy Dunne (Affleck and Pike), two former magazine writers who leave their New York City life behind and move to the Midwest on America. Things go badly wrong when Amy disappears on the couple’s fifth anniversary. As new details emerge, Nick is considered the prime suspect in her murder, even though no body has been found.

When asked about why he seems to go for unconventional characters, David Fincher commented, “I don’t know what ‘likable’ is. I know people who are doting parents, who give to charity, drive Priuses, all those things, who are insufferable a- -holes. I like people who get s - - - done.”

However as the cover image suggests, Fincher hints that those who know the novel may be surprised by the movie’s twists, saying that the biggest lesson he learned from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was, “We may have been too beholden to the source material.”

Novelist/screenwriter Gillian Flynn was happy to chance a few things, saying, “There was something thrilling about taking this piece of work that I’d spent about two years painstakingly putting together with all its eight million LEGO pieces and take a hammer to it and bash it apart and reassemble it into a movie.”

A new David Fincher movie is always something to keep an eye on, and now we get our first glimpse at his upcoming Gone Girl, as tweeted by 20th Century Fox, with Ben Affleck standing in front of a poster of Rosamund Pike. It’s not the most revealing image, unless you’ve read Gillian Flynn’s novel, which the movie is based on.

Affleck plays a husband whose wife (Pike) goes missing on their fifth wedding anniversary. Inevitably the hubby becomes the primary suspect in her mysterious disappearance, with the signs of a struggle making many assume he has killed her, especially when reasons emerge as to why he might have wanted her out of they. However, as we learn more about the couple’s relationship, things become much more complex than they first appear.

The film is due out autumn 2014.

A week or so ago we reported that Ben Affleck was circling the lead role in David Fincher’s Gone Girl. Now he may have some company, as THR reports that Rosamund Pike is the director’s top choice for the female lead.

The film is based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, following the husband (Affleck) of a woman who goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary. Inevitably the hubby becomes the primary suspect in her mysterious disappearance. Pike is up to play the wife, who initially seems like a pretty average person, but things change as we learn more about her and her husband’s relationship.

Emily Blunt, Natalie Portman and Charlize Theron were apparently also in the running for the role, but at the moment Jack Reacher star Pike is the frontrunner.

Things are still coming together for Gone Girl, with the major sticking point at the moment being the budget. Fincher’s very particular style doesn’t tend to be cheap to achieve, so 20th Century Fox and New Regency are trying to find a budget where they can get a Fincher movie, but not giving him completely free reign to spend the Earth on the film. Hopefully it’ll all work out though.