Happy belated birthday to filmmaker David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “Seven,”), who turned 61 yesterday, and today unveils the trailer for his most anticipated new movie, “The Killer.” An assassin thriller about a job gone wrong, the movie has been mostly shrouded in mystery for months, but we know it stars Michael Fassbender, an actor Fincher had been keen on working with for years.
READ MORE: ‘The Killer’: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Score David Fincher’s Upcoming Netflix Thriller
The film is based on the French graphic novel series, “The Killer” by Alexis Nolent (a.k.a Matz) and illustrated by Luc Jacamon, originally published in the French language by Editions Casterman. The hitman thriller also co-stars Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Kerry O’Malley, Sophie Charlotte, Sala Baker, Emiliano Pernía, and Gabriel Polanco.
For “The Killer,” Fincher went back to one of his closest collaborators Andrew Kevin Walker who wrote “Seven,” and did lots of uncredited rewrite work on Fincher films over the years, including “Fight Club” (Kevin Walker also wrote the screenplay to the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ sequel that Fincher was unable to make and the unmade “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea”).
Here’s the official synopsis:
After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers and himself on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.
Here’s David Fincher’s director’s statement from Venice
The Killer is my attempt to reconcile notions I’ve had for years about cinematic stories and their telling. I have always held: “What were you doing in Chinatown?… As little as possible”—to be the single greatest evocation of backstory I’ve ever heard. I was also playfully curious about the revenge genre as a tension delivery system. So when Mr. Walker came aboard and fully embraced these notions/ questions about broad brushstrokes of understanding giving way to the blind stitch of “moment expansion” – I felt we needed to try something. Mr. Fassbender’s 3-hour response time for: “Yes, let’s!” sealed it for us both, and, of course, we all wanted Tilda (Mr. Walker wrote it with her in mind—but please don’t tell Ms. Swinton, she could become insufferable if she knows literally everyone feels this way about her.)
“The Killer” makes its world premiere at the upcoming 2023 Venice Film Festival. After that, Fincher’s latest will arrive in select theaters on October 27 and then premiere on Netflix on November 10. Watch the new trailer below.