Ever since David Fincher claimed to have changed the ending of Gone Girl for his big-screen adaptation of the bestselling novel, there have been outraged fans demanding to know exactly what has been altered from the source material.

Now, Fincher has always been an idiosyncratic character, and when asked to clarify exactly what he meant by those comments, provided an excellently murky explanation of how the new ending measures up to the original.

“Everything and nothing,” says Fincher, when asked what has been changed. “You’re not changing the marrow of the creature. You’re just changing the bone structure and the muscles and the skin. And the hair”

“It’s all of its outer sheathing,” he continues, warming to his theme. “But at its core, it’s exactly what I think Gillian always intended.”

That’s that cleared up then. Joking aside, given that author Gillian Flynn has adapted her own novel into a screenplay, and Fincher has such a keen eye for narrative, we think we’re in safe hands.

Co-starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Scoot McNairy, Gone Girl will open in the UK on 3 October 2014.