US director David Fincher has said he “can understand both sides” of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that have Hollywood on hold.
Speaking in Venice at a press conference for his new film The Killer, Fincher said, “I don’t know what it says about the state of the industry. I’m very sad, I sit in the middle of both parties.
Fincher noted the harm of the strikes following shortly after the pandemic affected production schedules and proceses.
“This movie was made during the middle of the pandemic; I never want to make a movie through a visor again, or goggles,” said the filmmaker. “We’re just got done with three years of having to set our rushes down and walk away; the idea of that continuing on, especially now, is very sad to me. I can understand both sides, and all we can do is encourage them to talk.”
Adapted by Andrew Kevin Walker [who also wrote Fincher’s Se7en] from Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel series, The Killer is produced by Plan B Entertainment, Boom! Studios and Panic Pictures for Netflix; it will launch theatrically in the US on October 27, before a Netflix debut on November 10.
Michael Fassbender stars as an emotionless assassin who gets involved in a manhunt when a job goes wrong.
In Venice, Fincher discussed the idea that the film exists in a world of late-stage capitalism. “If we’re to posit the idea that an assassin exists in a tangential, adjacent world to our own -we talked about James Bond, and you can see it in [Gavin O’Connor’s 2016 film] The Accountant - everybody seems to have a basement filled with stainless steel shelves that pull out, and they have rocket launchers and an assortment of handguns.
“We like that idea; but we wanted to talk about the dissociative nature of today and technology. It never occurred to me that there would be an apartment in Paris that would be a window; and you would on your app order a Big Mac. And the facelessness, the impersonality of that.
Early in the film, Michael Fassbender’s titular character orders a device called a fob copier, to further his plans – a scene that seems absurd, but is entirely feasible, said Fincher. “Originally it was two or three pages of how Fassbender is going to relieve Arliss [Howard, a fellow cast member] of his keys to get into his apartment. I remember calling Andy [Kevin Walker] and saying ‘couldn’t he just have a fob copier?’. He said ‘Dave, if that existed…’. I said ‘just Google it, let me know’. 11 seconds later he sent me this Amazon page that had 15 fob copiers all under $20.
“And they will send them to the Marriott you’re staying in!” exclaimed Fincher. “That idea, although irreverent, is also personally terrifying. I love the melange of that. If you’re talking about really heinous violence, it’s always good to have a little bit of humour in there.”
The director also confirmed he only considered Fassbender for the leading role. “When the project came back around in 2019, I locked on to Michael,” said Fincher. “The kind of control that he has - he was an excellent choice. As we were shooting, one of the things I became aware of is this strange hybrid: his face is this perfect amalgam of Charlton Heston and Laurence Oliver. And that’s the gamut – he can be a pulp star, he can be very elegant.”
Venice continues today (September 4) with the world premiere of Woody Allen’s Coup De Chance.
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