Netflix Chief Teases Fincher’s ‘The Killer’: ‘Really Fun, Big Movie’ with Career-Best Fassbender
David Fincher’s “The Killer” is one of next year’s most anticipated films for fans of the director — and the movie’s trifecta on offer: Fincher directs Michael Fassbender as a contract killer, with “Seven” screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker returning, and cinematography from Erik Messerschmidt, the Oscar-winning DP of Fincher’s “Mank.” News first broke in February that Fincher would follow “Mank” with this adaptation of Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel series of the same name, about a killer-for-hire who experiences a psychological crisis. Though production is still underway in Paris, Netflix film chief Scott Stuber recently teased the movie to Variety in a wide-ranging conversation about Netflix’s upcoming slate.
“I’m so excited about it,” Stuber said. “[Fassbender is] charming and great-looking and funny and all these things that you want him to have chances to show in film. He’s a giant star ready to explode in the world, and he’s just looking for those parts that can take advantage of who he is as a person. Opportunistically you see what David has done with talent throughout his career, and how he constantly elevates people to do their best work. The combination of those two we’re really excited about. It’s David working with Andrew Kevin Walker again for the first time in a long time [since ‘Seven’]. It’s a really provocative and interesting movie. He’s just in the midst of shooting it right now.”
Along with “Mank,” Fincher has maintained a relationship with Netflix with “Mindhunter,” the two-season series starring Jonathan Groff as an FBI criminal profiling on the advent of classifying serial killers.
Stuebr continued, “‘The Killer’ is based on a graphic novel and it is about someone who is a contract killer and the methodology of that world and what he does, which David does detail better than anyone. He’s so good in the detail of method, of watching something unfold. Seeing that early stages of what he does, and something goes awry which then affects him personal. It’s a really fun, big movie in the hands of one of the best filmmakers, and someone we’re really lucky to have a relationship with.”
Fincher’s last directorial feature was Netflix’s “Mank.”
