‘The Killer’ Review: David Fincher’s Homage To The Classic Crime Thriller With Michael Fassbender Is Entertaining But Orthodox [Venice]

Like many filmmakers, the lost and unmade movie list of David Fincher list is long, so long we did an entire feature out of it back in 2014, and it’s more than 30 films long. The list includes “Black Dahlia” (which Brian DePalma eventually made), “Mission Impossible 3,” “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” and more (interestingly enough, both “Mank” and “The Killer” were on it, then-unrealized projects that seemed like they would never get made).

Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy claim in new court docs that they referred to the NFL alum as a ‘son’ in the ‘colloquial sense.’

From every perspective, John le Carré lived a highly enviable life, a sense confirmed over and over again in The Pigeon Tunnel, Errol Morris’ elaborate, super-smart sizing up of one of the most successful writers of the past century. The author gained fame as a novelist fine-tuned to examine the many layers of intrigue, rivalry, deception, ruthlessness and intelligence employed in the epic battle between East and West in the second half of the 20th century, one that, rather remarkably, never exploded into World War III.

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.

TIFF 2023 gets underway tomorrow, and that means plenty of world premieres over its ten-day schedule. And there several movies debuting in Toronto to get excited about, like Brian Helgeland‘s “Finestkind,” the GameStop short comedy “Dumb Money,” and the star-studded New England noir “Reptile,” which makes the feature debut for Grant Singer.

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).

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s your first trailer for Liam Neeson crime-thriller In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, which debuts tomorrow at the Venice Film Festival.

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.

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.

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.

Ellise Shafer David Fincher wants “The Killer” to make you nervous — specifically, the next time you’re shopping at Home Depot. Fincher spoke at length about the action thriller at its Venice Film Festival press conference on Sunday, going into detail about how he developed its lead character, a calm and calculated assassin played by Michael Fassbender. “Sympathy was the last thing on my mind as it relates to this character,” Fincher said.

Early in his new film “The Pigeon Tunnel,” Errol Morris creates one of the most vivid images of a career packed with them: a man in a suit walking through a meadow filled with mirrors. He’s always had a gift for finding specific and memorable visual metaphors for the stories he tells and the themes he’s drawn to; here, what’s noteworthy isn’t just the mirrors but the way the man keeps moving away from them.

Earlier this week, Amazon and Netflix started a bidding war over the rights to “Crime 101,” an adaptation of a Don Winslow novella with Chris Hemsworth and Pedro Pascal attached to star. No surprise there, as Pascal is one of the buzziest actors in the industry right now, and Hemsworth’s projects continue to succeed.

As the Venice Film Festival kicks off this week, so too does it begin the Fall film festival circuit.  Telluride also starts this weekend, then onto TIFF, NYFF, and the BFI London Film Festival. And Variety has the scoop on the full line-up for London this October, which features several major films that premiered at Cannes and other fests earlier this year.

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.

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled its full fall slate of films, touting the release dates of awards contenders like Pain Hustlers and The Killer, among other titles. 

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.