Just a week or so ago we finally heard that David Fincher‘s highly anticipated Netflix film Mank would be officially arriving in early December, and now we’ve been treated to the first teaser trailer for the director’s first cinematic outing since 2014’s Gone Girl.
To say the film looks great would be an understatement. It’s set during the making of Citizen Kane, and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (who also shot Mindhunter) is doing some killer work here with the black-and-white palette. Fincher movies always look incredible because he’s a notorious perfectionist, but Mank may have the chance to be one of his most beautiful films.
And as a side note, this is really what every full movie trailer should be: just enough for the viewer to know exactly what sort of film this is, but only snippets of it out of context. We don’t need to know the whole narrative before we enter the theatre (or in this case, and perhaps the case for a long time, sit down on the couch).
The film stars Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the eccentric, alcoholic, and tempestuous screenwriter behind cinematic classic Citizen Kane, directed by the equally eccentric and tempestuous wunderkind Orson Welles. Amanda Seyfried, Tom Burke, and William Randolph Hearst also star in the film.
Fincher is directing from a screenplay penned by his late father Jack Fincher, and Citizen Kane is one of his favourite movies, so this should be a very personal project. With six years between this and Gone Girl, this is also his longest gap between films. Although he’s done some Netflix TV work in that time, perhaps it’s also a sign that this is a major work that needed plenty of time to be birthed.
If it feels somewhat wrong to see the new film by one of the greatest living directors simply on your home TV, then you’re not alone. But the film is being released in select cinemas in November, before premiering on Netflix Friday, December 4. There’s a good chance it’s been worth the wait.
#Peace.Love.Mank
