'Reptile' Director Reveals How He Got Justin Timberlake to Star in the Netflix Thriller

The pipeline from music video to feature film director isn’t discussed enough. Many beloved filmmakers started with music videos and commercials from Spike Jones to Gus Van Sant to David Fincher.  Joining the ranks now is Aristotle Torres, who is known for beginning his career as the creative director for his college classmate J.

Everyone wants to be David Fincher when you’re making a capital S serious, severe procedural, and grim murder mystery like Netflix’s uneven but still fascinating “Reptile.” And to be sure, gray and sinister —like all good serial killer or intricate murder thrillers are these days— director Grant Singer might reference a Fincher shot here and there or try inventively add a little Steven Soderbergh paranoia ala “KIMI.

Fight Club author Chuck Palahnuik has revealed what he didn’t like about David Fincher’s 1999 film adaptation, starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.In an interview with Variety about his new novel Not Forever, But For Now, Palahnuik explained how the inclusion of the ticking bomb in Fight Club‘s closing scenes was not to his liking.“I wasn’t a big fan of the ticking bomb, that counting down clock near the end. And [screenwriter] Jim Uhls stuck it in because there’s obviously such a trope, and I’ve grown to accept that it is a trope.”In the closing moments of Fight Club, The Narrator (Norton) attempts to disarm the explosives planted below a series of credit company buildings by his imaginary alter ego Tyler Durden (Pitt).

Justin Timberlake just can’t help ruffling feathers with female music icons, can he?!

It surprised no one earlier this year when Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross officially came on board to score David Fincher‘s “The Killer.” After all, the pair have scored all of Fincher’s films since 2010’s “The Social Network.” But it surprised audiences at the movie’s world premiere in Venice last weekend when Reznor & Ross’ work didn’t feature prominently in “The Killer” at all.

David Fincher has explained why he chose to include tracks by The Smiths on the soundtrack for his upcoming film The Killer.Michael Fassbender stars as a troubled assassin in the upcoming thriller, which is based on the French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent. It was adapted by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who previously worked with Fincher on Seven.While the film’s score is composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Fincher explained at the Venice Film Festival how The Smiths also came to feature heavily on the soundtrack.“The Smiths were a post-production addition because I knew I wanted to use ‘How Soon Is Now?’ and I love the idea of that song specifically as a tool for assuaging his anxiety,” Fincher said (via IndieWire).

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Is it something in the air? At this year’s Venice Film Festival, the unofficial theme appears to be hit men. David Fincher’s “The Killer” is all about an icy methodical professional executioner. Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” turns on an act of murder-for-hire.

David Fincher and Boots Riley are both very good filmmakers. In terms of Fincher, some put him up there as one of the best working today.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Busan International Film Festival put aside many of its recent internal and local political problems to Tuesday unveil a large selection ranging from bleeding edge art titles to international festival favorites. “The difficult times are not behind us, but hard work has made this year’s festival better than ever,” said programmer and interim festival chief Nam Dong-chul, speaking at an online press conference. International guests expected to attend the festival include Luc Besson, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing, Japanese directors Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Korean Americans Justin Chon (“Gook”) and Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”). Hong Kong-based superstar Chow Yun-fat has been named as Busan’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year and will be in person to receive the award.

David Fincher’s latest feature, The Killer, earned 6 minutes and 45 seconds of applause Sunday evening after the lights went up on the film’s world premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival.

David Fincher spooked Venice with the world premiere of his latest movie “The Killer,” which stars Michael Fassbender as an assassin. The Netflix drama earned a respectable 5-minute standing ovation at its screening on the Lido on Sunday night. Fassbender and co-star Tilda Swinton couldn’t attend the premiere because of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The question of whether or not technology has killed the classic crime thriller has popped in and out of the discourse as the years saw pocket watches morph into sci-fi-looking gadgets capable of getting one both dinner and a first-class ticket to Dubai in the space of a couple of minutes.

In principle, using the rainy-day, kitchen-sink post-rock of Manchester band The Smiths so prominently in a film like The Killer seems incredibly perverse, given that it’s an exotic, globe-trotting thriller about an American assassin. But in reality, it’s actually very sound choice indeed: legend has it that the band’s singer, Morrissey, had two reasons for naming his band so, the first being that “Smith” is one of the most common and thus unremarkable surnames in the world. The second, and much more subversive theory, suggests that it’s also a reference to David and Maureen Smith, brother-in-law and sister of ’60s serial killer Myra Hindley, the snappily dressed couple whose testimony blew open the Moors Murderers case and whose beatnik likenesses adorn the cover of Sonic Youth’s 1990 album “Goo”.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic In the bravura opening sequence of David Fincher’s “The Killer,” we watch the title character, a cold-as-dry-ice professional hitman who is never named, as he prepares to assassinate his latest victim. The hit is taking place in Paris, and the target is some sort of powerful corporate tycoon who we, like the killer, know nothing about. His home occupies the entire penthouse floor of one of those ornate block-long Parisian apartment buildings.

David Fincher is in town today for the world premiere of The Killer starring Michael Fassbender as an assassin who battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt while insisting none of it is personal.

Jeymes Samuel’s sophomore feature The Book of Clarence, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki are among the titles that have been announced within the full lineup of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) 67th London Film Festival. Scroll down for the full list.

Naman Ramachandran The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films by contemporary masters. As previously announced, Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” will open the festival and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” will close it.

Sophia Scorziello editor Jamie Christopher, assistant director on Marvel films including “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the entire Harry Potter franchise, died Tuesday in Los Angeles from heart complications. He was 52.

Michaela Zee Netflix has unveiled its complete film slate for this fall, including Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Wes Anderson’s short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” and much more. The fall film slate features 28 movies that will be released on the streamer beginning in September.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off tomorrow with a robust roster of awards season hopefuls making their bows, such as Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla” and David Fincher’s “The Killer,” accompanied by a smattering of stars. As previously reported by Variety, the festival has confirmed that Adam Driver will be in Venice to promote “Ferrari” while Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in “Priscilla,” as well as Priscilla Presley herself, are also expected to be on the Lido.