Finally!
David Fincher is one of those directors that seems to be constantly attached to projects that never actually materialise.
While he has given us some absolute classics over the course of his career – including but not limited to Se7en, Zodiac, The Social Network, Fight Club, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl – he has also had his name attached to some projects that ended up being made by someone else entirely (Mission: Impossible 3, Steve Jobs, Star Wars: Episode IX, Spider-Man) or just not made at all (20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Rendevouz With Rama, Cleopatra).
He had been recently lined-up to re-team with his regular collaborator Brad Pitt on World War Z 2, but Paramount dropped the project entirely earlier this year.
It isn’t as if he has been completely inactive during the six years since Gone Girl came out – he remained producer of House Of Cards until it ended in 2017, he is executive producer and director of some of episodes of Mindhunter, and he was executive producer of animation oddity series Love, Death & Robots – but Deadline have confirmed he is finally gearing up for his return to movies.
Although, it won’t be hitting the big screen.
Mank will be a black-and-white biopic telling the story of legendary screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was writer or co-writer of some of the biggest movies of all time, including Citizen Kane, The Wizard Of Oz, and The Pride Of St. Louis.
The script was written by Fincher’s own late-father, and was originally going to be his next project after 1997’s The Game, but it was put on hold when the production company were hesitant about making a black-and-white drama.
However, Netflix have now lined up the project for their streaming service, and Fincher has landed Gary Oldman to play the title role.
Production on the movie will begin this November in Hollywood, so expect Mank to be getting a lot of Oscar buzz around Christmas 2020.
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