David Fincher Talks ‘The Killer’; Says Hollywood Strikes Make Him “Very Sad”, But “I Can Understand Both Sides” – Venice
deadline.comDavid 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.
Fassbender, who’s got a side career as a race car driver, was Fincher’s first choice for the titular role. The filmmaker told the Venice press corps today, “Had we had not been able to fit into his window between racing seasons, we probably wouldn’t have made the movie.” From Netflix, The Killer marks a return to genre for the director of SE7EN and Fight Club.
Why choose to feature an assassin this time around? Said Fincher, “The task at hand is relatable, it’s dramatic, it’s high stakes and in a lot of ways it’s extremely procedural, there are a lot of boxes that you need to tick before you exhale and pull.” Still, he added, “I didn’t really think of the movie as an assassin movie, I think of it more as a revenge movie.” The eponymous killer is heard in an internal monologue voiceover throughout the film, and today Fincher posited, “Why is it we feel that when we’ve intercepted the thoughts of a character that they’re telling the truth?
We all know a lot of people who lie to themselves. I like the idea of the assassin who has to, in order to differentiate what it is he does from serial killing, he has to in some way create a code for himself.
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