See an Exclusive First Look at the 'Amazing Amy' Art from 'Gone Girl'
When artist Kirk Van Wormer first spoke with director David Fincher about Gone Girl, the conversation didn’t go quite as he expected. “I have to tell you, the coolest and weirdest thing is to get a phone call from David Fincher saying ‘I’d like you to do some illustrations for my next movie,’ and then to find out that there’s no dead bodies or gore,” says Van Wormer. “I have a background in horror, so I was like, ‘Alright, I’m ready to go, David Fincher!’ And then he wanted cute, adorable children’s illustrations that remind us of the seventies.” Van Wormer’s assignment was to create the art for Amazing Amy, the fictional children’s book series written by the parents of Gone Girl’s title character, Amy Dunne (played by Rosamund Pike). Check out Yahoo’s exclusive look at three of the Amazing Amy illustrations above and below.
The Amazing Amy books, about a spunky little girl who always does the right thing, are referenced throughout Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel about a woman’s troubled marriage and mysterious disappearance. Her parents’ book series becomes both the boon and bane of Amy Dunne’s existence — the proceeds from it feed her trust fund, but the fictional character becomes like an annoyingly perfect sibling who the real Amy can never quite live up to. In the movie, audiences get to see Amy’s literary doppelgänger brought to life in a series of posters, book covers, and sketches, particularly during one key flashback scene at the release party for Amazing Amy and the Big Day in New York. Later, when Amy goes missing, her parents use her literary fame to their advantage, launching the site findamazingamy.com.
[Related: The Yahoo Movies Interview: Gillian Flynn on ‘Gone Girl,’ 'Game of Thrones,’ and Great Cheesy Movies]
Though Van Wormer got his start in horror comics, he’s an Emmy winner for his storyboard work in children’s animation, which made him well-suited to Fincher’s request. Coincidentally, the New York-based artist also drew the illustration of Gone Girl star Ben Affleck that appears in the opening credits of 1995’s Mallrats. (“It was really bad…but I was young,” he qualifies.)
Both Fincher and Flynn were deeply involved in the creation of the character, whose look was largely inspired by Hilary Knight’s Eloise illustrations, with hints of Shel Silverstein and vintage Ramona Quimby. “And of course, she had to remind us of Rosamund, so I was doing a lot of look at Rosamund’s childhood pictures and studying her face,” Van Wormer notes.
Rosamund Pike in ‘Gone Girl’
Originally, Van Wormer set out to create covers for twenty Amazing Amy books (with titles provided by Flynn), and there was talk of incorporating them all into an opening-credits sequence. Ultimately, ten covers were produced, including Amazing Amy Meets Her Match, which introduces Amy’s sidekick Able Andy; Amazing Amy and the Tattletale, which is referenced in the novel; and the final book, in which a grown-up Amy and Andy are married. (Fans of the book may be amused to learn that one of the titles left on the cutting-room floor was Amazing Amy and the Best Friend War.) An illustrated sample of the three books mentioned above is available for download on iBooks now. But here, you can enjoy a quick look at Gone Girl’s perfect-in-every-way, not at all suspicious, truly amazing Amy.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Credit: Kirk Van Wormer, 20th Century Fox
