Gary Oldman is looking Gary Old-timey in our first glimpse of David Fincher's Mank
It’s been six years since David Fincher last directed a movie, having spent the majority of his post-Gone Girl energy over on TV’s Mindhunter. (Plus a couple of other projects that never got off the ground, like the World War Z sequel for his ol’ buddy Brad Pitt.) Now, though, we have actual photographic proof that Fincher’s back in the movie-making business, with Netflix releasing its first images today of his new Gary Oldman vehicle Mank.
A long-gestating passion project for Fincher—his late father, Jack Fincher, wrote the script more than 20 years ago—Mank focuses on Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to complete his screenplay for Citizen Kane. Mankiewicz’s fights with Welles about credit for that script, and how much of it was actually incorporated into the film, have long since become the stuff of Hollywood legend. The pictures Netflix released today don’t seem to contain any shots of Tom Burke as Welles, unfortunately, but we do get a look at Amanda Seyfried’s take on Marion Davies—mistress to William Randolph Hearst, upon whom Mankiewicz based much of his co-creation of Charles Foster Kane. (No sign of Hearst himself either, although Charles Dance is reportedly playing him in the film.)
Among other things, the images reveal that Fincher’s working monochrome this time, including some lush black-and-white shots of Oldman’s Mankiewicz striding away from what we can only hope is a film set. (The alternative is a literal Hollywood witch burning, which seems a little melodramatic.) There’s no word yet on when Netflix intends to release the film, although Fincher reportedly wrapped filming on it back in February.