David Fincher is a great guy to see an interview with, since he doesn't apologize for anything. He doesn't seem to particularly care if you thought Benjamin Button was cheesy, or that the initial film festival audience for Fight Club totally hated it, and will tell you something is bullshit if it's true.

He talked about all this and more in a recent interview in front of a live audience in England, which was reprinted in The Guardian. It's long but fascinating, as Fincher recounts his entire career, from living in George Lucas's neighborhood as a kid to the "smurfs" who made Benjamin Button possible (you'll understand it when you read it). He even admits that he was offered the Spider-Man franchise way back in the beginning-- but turned it down for his own idiosyncratic, Fincher-ian reasons.

Asked if he was interested in making a superhero film of some kind, Fincher had this to say: "I was asked if I might be interested in the first Spider-Man,, and I went in and told them what I might be interested in doing, and they hated it. No, I'm not interested in doing "A Superhero". The thing I liked about Spider-Man was I liked the idea of a teenager, the notion of this moment in time when you're so vulnerable yet completely invulnerable. But I wasn't interested in the genesis, I just couldn't shoot somebody being bitten by a radioactive spider – just couldn't sleep knowing I'd done that."

So Fincher's got enough imagination to create an old man baby, but not enough to accept superpowers? As much as I respect his cranky answer, it doesn't really seem fair of him to write off radioactive spiders as too far-fetched.

Anyway, the entire interview is still totally worth a read, even if you were put to sleep by Benjamin Button.