Speaking to Total Film, director David Fincher explains why his latest black and white passion project, “Mank,” would have been impossible to greenlight without the backing of streaming giant Netflix:
“Unless you’re making a tentpole movie that has a Happy Meal component to it, no one’s interested,” Fincher explained. The filmmaker also admits that “it’s not particularly a smart business plan to make a love letter to another movie that’s on [rival streaming service] HBO Max… But, listen, if we only did the stuff that was smart, there’d probably only be Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ movies.”
“There’s really only two seasons for movies,” Fincher said. “There’s ‘spandex summer’ and there’s ‘affliction winter.’ You’re making your movie for one of two seasons. And if you miss, you’ll fall into one of those other two seasons, which are nominally dumping grounds. Does that make sense?”