Despite some polarized reviews for Mank, Netflix-Fincher relations remain stable and amicable. Though the accomplished filmmaker still has an awards season in front of him to get through, he’s started work on a new feature, another collaboration with the streaming mega-studio and a return to his home-turf genre.
Deadline reports that David Fincher’s next film will be an adaptation of the French graphic novel ‘The Killer’, which will steer him back toward the serial-murder demimonde in which he’s spent most of his career. His multi-year contract with Netflix means he’ll produce the film there, though this particular project has been in the works since as far back as 2007 over at Paramount.
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The original comic series focused on an assassin “who begins to have a psychological crisis in a world with no moral compass,” a tale of noir-inflected suspense steeped in darkness. As he carries out his assignments, he sinks deeper into madness, and his surroundings soon follow – very much in the same ruptured vein as Seven.
All too appropriately, the script will be drawn up by Kevin Walker, Fincher’s co-writer on that early triumph of his career. In equally intriguing personnel news, Michael Fassbender is currently being floated as the odds-on name for the eponymous role, though his involvement has yet to be confirmed. (Reportedly, his commitment has been firmed up over a series of meetings, though anyone following Hollywood news has heard that one before.)
By this point, we’ve got a pretty good idea about what to expect from a Fincher killer-thriller, but this concept’s origins as a graphic novel may demand fresh stylistic innovation from the well-known technical perfectionist. Each variation on the themes of obsession and alienation has a look of its own, and this one could be the most bracingly untethered from reality yet.
