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    David Fincher just signed on to bring a seedy 1950s drama to HBO

    David Fincher just signed on to bring a seedy 1950s drama to HBO

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    And a series about making music videos in the '80s

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    David Fincher
    David Fincher
    Koki Nagahama/Getty Images

    It's not like we needed a reminder that television has become the go-to creative outlet for some of our most talented filmmakers, but just in case anyone forgot, David Fincher is driving the point home with two new projects for HBO. Deadline is reporting that the filmmaker has teamed up with author James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential) for a series set in the seedy world of 1950s Los Angeles. Currently just in development, Shakedown is inspired by Fred Otash, a real-world police officer who became a private eye. Ellroy had been developing the project at FX before bringing it to HBO, and despite Fincher's noir-friendly sensibilities, it would actually mark the first collaboration between the two (at one point Fincher had been part of an adaptation of The Black Dahlia, but that became a Brian De Palma film instead).

    According to The Wrap, the filmmaker has also signed on to direct the pilot episode of HBO's half-hour project Living on Noise. Set in the 1980s, Noise is described as a show that centers around a crew working on music videos in the heyday of the art form. Fincher has plenty of first-hand experience in that world, having cut his teeth in music videos in the late '80s and early '90s. (Yes, that's right — the man responsible for Seven and Fight Club also made George Michael and Madonna look their very best back in the day.)

    Living on Noise is said still to be casting, so it's too soon to know if either project will make it to series — but Fincher has a full plate in the meantime, anyway. He'll be directing the entire first season of the upcoming HBO series Utopia, which is expected to take up his entire 2015 schedule.