Before 2020’s “Mank,” David Fincher hadn’t directed a movie in six years, his last being 2014’s “Gone Girl.” He seemed rather lost, more than anything else.
Let us remember, Fincher has taken on numerous different projects over the years that ended up never getting made. He’s known to bail on things at the flick of a switch, mostly due to his high budget demands. Whatever happened to “Strangers on A Train”? “World War Z II”? “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”? “Jobs”? “The Girl Who Played With Fire”?
With the studio system closing down its doors on many "auteur" filmmakers, Fincher, with his ambitious needs, didn’t have much of a choice but to accept that there was a lack of opportunities for his own vision of things.
Then came his exclusive multi-year deal with Netflix. Fincher has been all about Netflix since then, delving into the streaming game full-on, creating shows such as “House of Cards,” “Mindhunter“ “Love, Death + Robots” and films like “Mank” and the upcoming “The Killer.”
Is he still making cinema? I think so, kind of, but don’t tell that to Cannes director Thierry Fremaux. In a recently unearthed video from 2020, Fremaux is of the belief that Fincher and cinema no longer co-exist:
Fincher has left cinema. Fincher now works for streamers where he’s directing incredible stuff. I tried to explain this to him, modestly, obviously, that he doesn’t exist anymore. At least for us. For reasons left up to his own liking, he wants his creative freedom, he doesn’t want to fight with studio heads, his films tend to be very expensive, but I’d love for him to come back to cinema. He’s one of the greats.
David Fincher is a world-class filmmaker. He had a hot streak of films going between 1995 and 2014 (“Seven,” “The Game,” “Fight Club,” “Panic Room,” “Zodiac,” “The Social Network,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” “Gone Girl.”)
During that time span, the only times I felt disappointed by a film of his was with 2008’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and 2020’s “Mank.”
His latest film is titled “The Killer,” and anticipation is very high for this one. It stars Michael Fassbender as an assassin going through an existential crisis. Its Netflix launch date is cued in for November.
Based on what I’ve heard, “The Killer” will be skipping Venice and Toronto. I’m not sure about New York, but chances are that most people will be watching the film at home instead of in theaters. Netflix has no intention of releasing it for more than just a few days in theaters, for the sole purpose of qualifying it for next year’s Oscars.
However, we all know that “The Killer” should be seen on a giant screen, coming to us from one of the great filmmakers of the last 25 years.