FIRST LOOK: David Fincher's 'Mank' Hits Theaters This Fall
The chaotic picture is a dark look at 1930s Hollywood.
Netflix has revealed the first preview of David Fincher's upcoming black-and-white picture Mank. The film stars Oscar winner Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, JFK) as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the alcoholic screenwriter of the most iconic piece of American cinema - Citizen Kane.
The film is slated for a limited theatrical release in November. It begins streaming on Netflix on December 4. Check out the official clip below.
In Mank, Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Gone Girl) examines the often explosive relationship between Mankiewicz and director Orson Welles as Mankiewicz rushes to finish the screenplay for Citizen Kane. The 1941 masterpiece was a mess behind the camera, as Mankiewicz and Welles clashed over the script and writing credit. The controversy boiled over when Citizen Kane garnered the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars in 1942.
Tom Burke (BBC's War and Peace) co-stars alongside Oldman as Orson Welles. A stellar supporting cast surrounds them, including Lily Collins, Amanda Seyfried, Tom Pelphrey, Tuppence Middleton, Joseph Cross, and Leven Rambin.
In addition to Mankiewicz and Welles, other notable figures set to appear are Craig Robert Young as Charlie Chaplin, Sebastian Faure as Clark Gable, Michelle Twarowska as Joan Crawford, Scarlet Cummings as Bette Davis Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer, Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst, Natalie Denise Sperl as Greta Garbo, Trevor Wooldridge as Darryl F. Zanuck, Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg, and Toby Leonard Moore as David O. Selznick.
This project is a bit of an interesting one for the great David Fincher. His father, Jack Fincher, wrote the original script for Mank back in the 90s. David originally intended to make Mank after his 1997 outing The Game. Plans changed, however, and Jack passed away in 2003. Finally, David filmed Mank in Los Angeles and wrapped up production back in February just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
- Matt Bishop