At the rate the film and TV industry are going, it was only a matter of time before someone made a prequel to 'Chinatown'.

Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall, 'Chinatown' hit cinemas in 1974.

Part noir, part mystery, part psychological drama, it follows detective Jake "J.J." Gittes on a job to expose an adulterer.

A prequel series to the classic film is in the pipeline at Netflix. It reportedly focus on the exploits of a young Gittes during his early days as a private investigator in the wealthy, corrupt town of LA.

David Fincher and Robert Towne, the original film’s writer, will pen the script as well as produce.

Towne won an Oscar for his 'Chinatown' screenplay and also wrote a sequel, 'The Two Jakes', which Nicholson returned to star in. Towne went on to write 'The Firm' and the first two 'Mission: Impossible' films.

Fincher has had great success with Netflix. He worked with the streaming service on the critically-acclaimed 'House of Cards' in its early days. He is also an executive producer and director on 'Mindhunter'. Additionally he serves as an exec producer on anthology series 'Love, Death & Robots.' He'll direct 'Mank', a biopic based on Herman Mankiewicz, the writer of 'Citizen Kane', for Netflix next. Gary Oldman plays the titular role in it.

Outside of Netflix, Fincher's big hits include 'Fight Club', 'Seven', 'The Social Network', 'Gone Girl' and 'Zodiac'.

According to Deadline, the hope is that Fincher will direct the new series' pilot.