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Some of the greatest Hollywood collaborations have come about through chance encounters and random conversations. Such was the case with "Zodiac," David Fincher's critically acclaimed 2007 true crime thriller about the Zodiac Killer and the investigation surrounding him. The film features something of an ensemble cast, with the likes of Robert Downey Jr. playing journalist Paul Avery and Brian Cox playing celebrity lawyer Melvin Belli.

The two lead roles, though, are played by the duo of Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal, with the latter playing famed writer Robert Graysmith and the former playing detective Dave Toschi. While both actors are big-time stars today -- and already were in 2007, with Gyllenhaal a particularly hot item coming off "Brokeback Mountain" and "Jarhead" -- the pair might never have been put together for "Zodiac" if not for Jennifer Aniston.

"I was talking to Jennifer Aniston," David Fincher explains on the film's DVD commentary track.

For the last 50 decades, the identity of the Zodiac Killer has remained one of the most puzzling cold cases in American true-crime culture. With countless suspects emerging and fading into obscurity, the serial killer struck terror throughout Northern California’s Bay Area in the late 1960s, inspiring countless podcasts, books, and even the 2007 Zodiac film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr.

For those who are unaware of the cold killer, the Zodiac Killer is an unidentified serial murderer who terrorized Northern California. He is infamous for his cryptic letters, taunting authorities with symbols, ciphers, and claims of several unsolved murders. The Zodiac Killer also claimed to have killed 37 people, but only five murders and two attempted murders have been linked to him. Despite extensive investigations, the Zodiac Killer’s identity remains a mystery, except, for Arthur Leigh Allen, a former elementary school teacher and convicted sex offender,...

Netflix’s This Is the Zodiac Speaking spills some shocking facts about the case that continues to haunt America. The Zodiac killer was an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the ’60s. The killer mailed taunting messages to regional newspapers, with his last letter claiming that he had killed 37 victims. The new documentary focuses on the only suspect that authorities named publicly, Arthur Leigh Allen.

A still poster of This Is The Zodiac Speaking | Credits: Netflix

According to the documentary, people who knew Allen claimed that he had told them that he was the Zodiac killer. These people also revealed that Allen drugged them as children and may have even brought them along to his crimes. The documentary included interviews with David and Connie Seawater and several other former pupils who knew Allen.

Robert Graysmith, the journalist who wrote the book about the serial killer and was...

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Woman of the Hour is a crime thriller drama film directed by Anna Kendrick from a screenplay by Ian McDonald. Based on the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala, the Netflix film is set in the late 1970s and it follows the story of The Dating Game show contestant Cheryl Bradshaw who aspires to become an actress until she crosses paths with a serial killer on the dating show. Woman of the Hour stars Kendrick in the lead role with Daniel Zovatto, Autumn Best, Kathryn Gallagher, Pete Holmes, Kelley Jakle, and Tony Hale starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the thrilling story, a terrifying serial killer, and compelling characters in Woman of the Hour here are some similar movies you should check out next.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Netflix) Credit – Netflix

Extremely Wicked,...

The 3-part Netflix documentary, This is the Zodiac Speaking, makes us privy to one of the most talked about, sensationalized, and mysterious serial murders that happened in the United States in the late 1960s. The real killer is still unidentified as of today, and due to the emergence of new evidence, after every couple of years the law enforcement authorities have no option but to keep the investigation going. The documentary also introduces us to one of the prime suspects in the case, named Arthur Leigh Allen, who many believed was the real Zodiac Killer. So, let’s find out what happened in the documentary and whether it revealed any significant detail that we were unaware of.

What was the Zodiac killer’s motive?

Around 1968, the city of Vallejo was shaken by a series of murders committed by a man who referred to himself as the Zodiac Killer. The weirdest...

Arthur Leigh Allen is a familiar name among amateur investigators who delve into the darker side of humanity. In this case, his name is frequently associated with one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. History — the Zodiac.

In the grand scheme of things, the Zodiac Killer is small potatoes, outdone by the likes of Gary Ridgeway, Gerald Stano, Ted Bundy, and Dennis Rader, at least in terms of victims.

The only difference is, the Zodiac was never apprehended. All that remains of the Zodiac’s rampage between December 1968 and October 1969 is theory, circumstantial evidence, and innuendo.

(Courtesy of Netflix Trailer/Screenshot)

Americans are fascinated by serial killers and even more fascinated by the unknowns associated with them. Whether that’s a healthy obsession or not is a topic for another day.

With Netflix’s “This is the Zodiac Speaking” documentary release on the horizon, the trailers have...

Netflix Lifers, we're closer than ever to spooky season, and we can hardly contain our excitement! This October, Netflix will be releasing many new horror titles on its platform, such as The Platform 2, It's What's Inside, Time Cut and many others. Now, we've just learned that a new true crime docuseries called This is the Zodiac Speaking will be released just in time for Halloween as well. The exact release date is Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024.

Based on the title of the docuseries, you probably already know what it'll be about. Yes, it's about the infamous yet still unidentified serial killer, the Zodiac Killer. From 1968 to 1969, the Zodiac Killer went on a killing spree throughout Northern California. While he has claimed to have killed 37 people, he's only been directly linked to five murders, with two victims surviving.

In Netflix's upcoming three-part docuseries, coming from Ample Entertainment and helmed and executive produced...

Fictional horror movies scare us until we leave the theater. True crime dramas follow us home because they happened once to someone—or so they say.

Heists, abuses of power, murders, and multiple murders. Hollywood loves crime and all the ill-gotten bootie it brings. From 1907’s The Unwritten Law: A Thrilling Drama Based on the Thaw-White Case to the upcoming Roofman, films inspired by true crime capture a special kind of imagination. They are cautionary tales with real-life consequences, and dramas too sordid for mixed company. In the Golden Age, stories of gangland thugs came with promises of being “ripped from today’s papers.” Every robbery is a drama. Each public scandal is a potential movie trailer. Every human tragedy is a closeup. Here are some of the best films that took their plots from schemes attempted in real life.

Zodiac (2007)

Directed by David Fincher, Zodiac is as exhilarating as it is frustrating.

This August, Paramount+ is bringing you a lot of entertainment with the highly anticipated streaming release of the biographical film Bob Marley: One Love and a very weird but humorous and heartfelt film Sasquatch Sunset, which follows the daily lives of a Sasquatch family. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Paramount+ this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 10 best films that are coming to Paramount+ in August 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Airplane! (August 1)

Airplane! is a disaster absurdist comedy film written and directed by Jim Abrahams, David, and Jerry Zucker. Based on the 1957 drama film Zero Hour! by Arthur Hailey, Hall Bartlett, and John Champion, the 1980 film follows Ted Striker, a former pilot with a fear of flying as he finds himself in the impossible situation of landing a...

Longlegs is a crime horror film written and directed by Oz Perkins. The 2024 film follows the story of FBI Agent Lee Harker as she takes on the case of unsolved serial killings but the mystery takes an interesting turn when the evidence suggests a connection to the occult. Soon, Harker discovers that she has a personal connection to the killer and she must find him before he kills someone else. Longlegs stars Maika Monroe in the lead role with Nicolas Cage, Alicia Witt, Kiernan Shipka, Blair Underwood, Erin Boyes, Dakota Daulby, Lisa Chandler, and Jason Day starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the horror, crime, psychological, and mystery elements in Longlegs, here are some similar movies you could watch next.

The Silence of the Lambs (Prime Video) Credit – Orion Pictures

The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological horror thriller film directed by Jonathan Demme from a screenplay by Ted Tally.

David Fincher is an obsessive filmmaker. He's become somewhat infamous for his perfectionism, shooting multiple — some would say exhausting — takes to get what he needs. There's a method to this madness: Fincher is looking for something raw and honest. "I hate earnestness in performance," the filmmaker once half-jokingly said. "Usually by Take 17 the earnestness is gone." It's fitting, then, that Fincher's best film is about obsession. "Zodiac," which hit theaters in 2007 and promptly failed at the box office, is the best work of art the filmmaker has created so far; a brilliant, captivating film that grabs you by the throat from the first frame and doesn't let up. Like the characters who inhabit the movie, we grow obsessed with the story; with the mystery; with the truth that can never really be learned.

Fincher knows a thing or two about serial killers. His thriller "Seven" (or "Se7en" if you want...

When reading actor Brian Cox's memoir "Putting the Rabbit in the Hat," I was disappointed that he didn't mention his work on David Fincher's superlative "Zodiac." Throughout the book, Cox shows no reluctance to burn bridges, and given his ribbing of "Succession" co-star Jeremy Strong's method acting, I was eager to see if he'd have similar words about Fincher's infamous perfectionism. Alas, no such stories exist.

True to its title, the 2007 "Zodiac" film is about the Zodiac killer, the still unidentified murderer who left Northern California quaking with fear as the 1960s closed. The film spans the 1960s to 1980s (with an epilogue in 1991), focusing on the killings and then Robert Graysmith's (Jake Gyllenhaal) investigation years later.

One of the movie's earlier sequences recreates an episode from October 22, 1969. Someone claiming to be the Zodiac said he would dial into Jim Dunbar's Kgo-tv (local to...

The San Francisco-based Dave Toschi was a vital figure in one of the most high-profile criminal cases in U.S. history: the hunt for the Zodiac Killer. His methods and demeanor also served as inspiration for Steve McQueen’s titular Bullitt and Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. But when it came to bringing the man himself to the big screen, who better than Mark Ruffalo? As it turned out, the studio didn’t care if Ruffalo signed on for Zodiac or not.

Speaking with highsnobiety, Mark Ruffalo said that his offer for Zodiac was a take it or leave it one, which is no surprise given the actor had more indie cred than studio push. “Studios, they weren’t coming to me in that way. I’ll never forget when they were negotiating my deal [for Zodiac], the studio negotiator literally said to my manager, “Look, we don’t give a shit about Mark Ruffalo,...

If David Fincher’s meticulously stylized film about a cold-blooded killer is something you appreciate, then the auteur’s other works are probably already on your favorite list. On the other hand, if it’s something you just happened upon and you’re now desperate for some crime thrillers that are gripping and process-driven, then this list is for you. An immersive experience with dark and hollow characters, this list contains the perfect follow-up to Fincher’s latest, with just as gritty characters and more thrill and excitement.

Spoilers Ahead

American Psycho

A film based on a book about a psychopath whose morning routine would be of interest to any Gen Z influencer, American Psycho is a journey, to say the least. Starring Christian Bale as said psychopath, Patrick Bateman, this film will keep you thinking for hours after it’s finished. From the pristine white rooms to his taste in music,...

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the most versatile and talented actors working today. He has starred in a wide range of genres, from drama to thriller to sci-fi, and has delivered some of the most memorable performances of the past two decades. He is not afraid to take risks and challenge himself with complex and unconventional roles. He has also worked with some of the most visionary directors in the industry, such as David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Ang Lee, and Bong Joon-ho. In this article, we will rank his top 10 best movies from worst to best, based on both his acting skills and the quality of the films. We will also mention some of his other notable films that deserve a watch.

10. Source Code (2011) Source Code Trailer

Source Code is a sci-fi thriller that follows a soldier who has to find a train bomber in eight minutes, using a device...

David Fincher’s 2007 film Zodiac has been acclaimed by critics, with it boasting a 90 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a top five ranking on The Hollywood Reporter‘s list of the best 50 movies of the 21st century so far. But there were still some people who were disappointed by the movie’s lack of resolution.

With the many theories about the identity of the Zodiac killer, some viewers might have wanted a more definitive ending or take on the still unsolved mystery that gripped people for decades.

Speaking at a recent Tribeca Festival panel with Steven Soderbergh, Fincher recalled, “There was so much flak after Zodiac came out about people saying, ‘Why didn’t you go down this rabbit hole? Why did you only go down the Graysmith rabbit hole?'”

“That’s the book that we bought,” he said, cutting off his own line of questioning. “We...

(Welcome to Scariest Scene Ever, a column dedicated to the most pulse-pounding moments in horror with your tour guides, horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato. In this edition, Chris takes a trip to Lake Berryessa with "Zodiac.")

David Fincher's "Zodiac" was a box office disappointment when it arrived in 2007. Despite this, those who bothered to see the dang film came away impressed, and in the years since its release, "Zodiac" has risen to become considered by many (myself included) David Fincher's best film. Meticulously crafted and just as obsessive as both Fincher and the characters in the film, "Zodiac" isn't your normal serial killer movie. In fact, the killings stop rather early in the movie, and from there, "Zodiac" becomes less about the killer and more about the characters on his trail. Tense, funny, shocking, and often overwhelming, "Zodiac" is one of the best movies of the early 2000s.

Writer Alex Tse discusses a few of his favorite films with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rrr (2022)

Watchmen (2009)

Superfly (2018)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)

Independence Day (1996)

Clueless (1995)

Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet (1996)

The Goonies (1985)

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984)

Infested (2002)

Straw Dogs (1971) – Rod Lurie’s trailer commentary, Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review, Joe Dante’s review

Altered States (1980) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary

Return Of The Ape Man (1944)

Major League (1989)

The Sting (1973)

Angels In The Outfield (1951)

Rocky (1976)

Slap Shot (1977) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Eight Men Out (1988)

Heavy Metal (1981)

Fritz The Cat (1972) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Killer Snakes (1974)

Zodiac (2007)

Se7en (1995)

Dirty Harry (1971) – Alan Spencer’s trailer commentary,...

Producer Brad Fischer is no stranger to big movies and big personalities.

Before he was 30, he worked on “Zodiac” with David Fincher (an adventure chronicled in a recent book by Robert Graysmith called “Shooting Zodiac”) and has overseen big commercial movies like Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down” and smaller, more personal fare like Luca Guadagnino’s deeply brilliant “Suspiria” remake from 2018. His newest movie, “Ambulance,” falls somewhere in the middle.

Yes, it’s a Michael Bay movie with giant stars (Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II play bank robbers who hijack an ambulance as an escape), giant explosions and equally oversized emotions, but it’s also something of a contained thriller, with a budget of only 40 million.

TheWrap spoke to Fischer about what it was like pulling “Ambulance” together, Gyllenhaal’s recent interest in action movies, and whether or not there’s a Michael Bay cinematic universe.

After I...

This week marks 15 years since “Zodiac” was released in theaters, and save for the actors looking 15 years younger than they do now, the film still feels like it could be released today. If anything, “Zodiac” feels more like a product of 2022 than 2007. The country is more obsessed with serial killers than ever before, with true crime podcasts and documentaries continuing to draw massive ratings, Zodiac killer memes being used in presidential primaries, and the latest Batman movie taking the form of a serial killer drama.

That makes it a great time to revisit “Zodiac,” as well as a good opportunity to take a deep dive into the making of the film. “Zodiac” attracted as much attention for its painstaking production process as it did for the finished product, as the always detail-oriented David Fincher went above and beyond to make sure everything in his film was historically accurate. Sometimes his...

Every film inspired by a real unsolved crime leaves behind the same lingering question: Would any of then retain their full power if their respective real-world crimes were eventually solved? Would “Zodiac” still be such a haunting police sketch of pathological obsession in a world where viewers could Google the killer’s identity in less time than it takes Robert Graysmith to crack even the easiest cypher? Probably. Would an uncannily effective studio thriller like “The Mothman Prophecies” still be eerie enough to punch above its weight class if the Mothman turned out to be a bored accountant named Gary whose prank calls got a little out of hand? Probably not.

This question only applies to so many films, but none have asked it more directly — or answered it with more force — than Bong Joon Ho’s “Memories of Murder.” A loose but historically redolent evocation of the serial killings...

This article contains The Little Things spoilers. You can read our spoiler-free review here.

Despite what those looking for clear answers after that ending might hope, The Little Things is not based on any specific true story or serial killer investigation. It was a 1993 screenplay penned by writer-director John Lee Hancock. However, there are similarities to several well known cases. The film even mentions the Night Stalker, aka Richard Ramirez, all while stopping short of naming names or committing to a specific lethal predator in its own yarn.

This is by design. In a recent interview with The Wrap, Hancock said “the whole reason I wrote the script” was to lean into the ambiguity and frustration of criminal investigations. Yet several ongoing serial killer investigations during the time of his writing raises questions about whether this intent was partially influenced by two open-ended searches for serial killers.

In the near...

When David Fincher sat down with Netflix executives in the spring of 2019, he did not expect to be handed the equivalent of a blank check. Sure, the 58-year-old filmmaker — a former music-video wunderkind best known for pushing the envelope with baroque serial-killer thrillers (Seven), toxic-masculinity satires (Fight Club) and social-media origin stories (The Social Network) — was a name-brand director, and had helped kick off the golden age of streaming with the outlet’s first original series, House of Cards. But Fincher was used to resistance. You can’t have this budget.

This article avoids spoilers for everything but episode one of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

It’s clear from the very first episode of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark that this isn’t going to be like other true crime documentaries. Described as based on the book of the same name by Michelle McNamara, it’s more like a ‘making-of’ the book, a behind the scenes look at how the book got written with a strong focus on its author, the cops that wouldn’t let the case go, the amateur sleuths who helped, as well as the survivors of the East Area Rapist.

McNamara is a crime writer you might not necessarily be familiar with already if you’re not a true crime nut or indeed a ‘Murderino’. Directed by Liz Garbus who also made Netflix movie Lost Girls about The Long Island Serial Killer, episode one...

Ask anyone to name their favorite movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and you’ll likely be inundated by McU titles – from Iron Man to The Avengers, Civil War to the truly epic Avengers: Endgame, Rdj has no shortage of great performances peppered throughout Marvel’s cinematic universe.

And yet, Downey Jr. has also crafted some excellent feature films beyond the parameters of the McU, be it Sherlock Holmes or Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – a movie from which Rdj and Black would draw some degree of inspiration for Iron Man 3. But there’s another pic that’s yet to be mentioned, and we’ll give you a clue: it features not one, not two, but three key cast members of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

We are, of course, referring to Zodiac, David Fincher’s gripping account of the titular serial killer and his subsequent cold case. And yes,...

Just last week, I coincidentally chose to rewatch Zodiac – David Fincher's thriller from 2007. The film about the unidentified serial killer, based on the book by Robert Graysmith, is about the search for the legendary murderer. Throughout the film, there is often a mention of The Most Dangerous Game – a 1924 short story written by Richard Connell. The infamous "Zodiac Killer" was supposedly inspired by it. The story's original plot is about a big-game hunter who is hunted [sic!] by a Russian aristocrat. It has been remade into many other film and TV projects over the years. Now The Most Dangerous Game gets another contemporary update – The Hunt, which addresses a modern society that thrives on dividing and misinforming people. Inspired by the classic short story, The Hunt is full of provocative language, violence, gore, and madness. Directed by Craig Zobel, the plot follows the group of "deplorables" who wake up in the middle of the field.

Even with the streaming company’s sophisticated algorithms, it’s not always easy to decide what to watch on Netflix. The right mood is difficult to find and whether you’re feeling a sober classic like “Schindler’s List” or a heart-warming Disney-Pixar flick like “Coco,” there are options to fit every movie palate. Here are 20 films worth watching to begin your transition into the holidays.

“The Irishman”

Martin Scorsese’s latest is a long-form epic about the real-life mafia action of the ’70s. Frank Sheeran, truck-driver-turned-hitman played by Robert De Niro, gets involved with the Bufalino family — led by Joe Pesci’s Russell — and Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino. With three and a half hours of runtime, we recommend settling in with a smooth scotch. — Lorraine Wheat

“Zodiac”

David Fincher’s iconic thriller follows three real-life characters as they attempt to solve the mystery of the Zodiac serial...

With the long-awaited arrival of October 1st, horror fans are looking forward to a month-long celebration of all things spooky and macabre. The Secret Movie Club in Los Angeles is looking to celebrate the Halloween season in style on the big screen, and we're excited to share their lineup for their Festival of Horror film series that will run throughout October and into early November.

From Bride of Frankenstein to a Twilight Zone marathon to Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse and John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy, Secret Movie Club's Festival of Horror screenings will take place at the Vista Theater in Los Feliz, beginning this Friday with a screening of Donnie Darko.

We have the official press release with full details below, as well as a look at new posters that will be on sale at Festival of Horror, including new Twilight Zone artwork to celebrate the release of Koren Shadmi...

KollywoodThe film feels like a mix of all the psycho killer films you’ve seen before, but this surprisingly works for it.Anjana ShekarThere’s nothing like a good thriller. And I believe, as audiences mature, delivering one that manages to keep them on the edge is quite the challenge. Most thrillers with psycho killers are at some point predictable – and for a thriller movie junkie like myself, the acquired knowledge can immediately join the dots, zeroing in on the killer, their motive, backstory, etc. dousing the thrill altogether. In that sense, director Ramkumar’s Ratsasan fares much better, retaining the suspense almost to the very end. The story is religiously in line with how psycho thrillers work. A disfigured body of a young girl is found on the banks of a river. Soon after, there’s another, leading the police to believe that there’s a killer on the loose.

Exclusive: The rights to The New York Times bestselling book The Most Dangerous Animal of All, written by Gary L. Stewart who claims his father was the Zodiac Killer, has just been secured by Ross Dinerstein and Campfire Entertainment. First up will be a documentary with plans for a feature. The title of the book comes from the 1932 movie The Most Dangerous Game which law enforcement for years have said could have inspired the Zodiac killer.

There have been many theories over the years on who the Zodiac killer could have been. There have also been multiple movies made about the subject, including one directed by David Fincher, released in 2007, entitled Zodiac. That one was based on true crime author Robert Graysmith’s story while working at the San Francisco Chronicle when he attempted to decode the letters sent to the newspaper.

So what is Stewart’s story? He was...

Chris Cummins Nov 2, 2017

In which Betty is befriended by the Black Hood, Archie loses his damn ginger mind, and Civil War breaks out in Riverdale...

This review contains spoilers.

See related  Ridley Scott interview: The Martian, Prometheus sequels Ridley Scott interview: Blade Runner 2049, Alien and more

2.4 The Town That Dreaded Sundown

At the end of tonight's exhilarating episode, Jughead grimly states that "Riverdale would no longer be the town with pep, from now on it would be the town that dreaded sundown." It's a completely melodramatic moment, one that beautifully illustrates how, early in its second season, the series is unafraid to double down on its inherent ridiculousness. It would be far easier for Riverdale to play its world of pixie stick-drug addicts, anachronistic gangs, and nonsensical musical performances with a nod and a wink. But the fact that everything is played so earnestly makes it work so much...

Ryan Lambie Nov 3, 2017

Netflix's Mindhunter is the latest example of the unique, outsider characters in the work of David Fincher...

When FBI agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) sits down with convicted serial killer Edmund Kemper (Cameron Britton) in the Netflix series Mindhunter, he’s both terrified and fascinated. Kemper, serving multiple life sentences for a spate of brutal kidnappings and murders - including his own mother - could offer a valuable insight into a criminal mindset that was barely understood in the late 1970s. Ford hopes to use a series of interviews with Kemper, and convicts like him, to build up a psychological profile which could be used to help track down other serial murderers; it soon becomes apparent, however, that Ford’s fascination with Kemper runs beyond the strictly professional.

See related Lee Unkrich interview: Pixar, Toy Story 3, sequels and scary characters

Mindhunter, executive produced by David Fincher...

Kirsten Howard Oct 17, 2017

The first season of Mindhunter is peppered with tiny peeks at the life of a burgeoning serial killer, but who is it?

This article contains spoilers for the first season of Mindhunter, and Zodiac.

See related The Snowman review

It’s as though director and executive producer David Fincher posed us a very simple question: “what do you want?” And we replied “10 hours of Zodiac, please.” To which, in his wisdom, he cheerfully responded “say no more fam.”

Yes, 70s-set binge-fodder Mindhunter arrived on Netflix this past Friday and ended up monopolising our entire weekend – bums were not leaving sofas until we’d chained all 10 episodes of the relentlessly creepy (and unexpectedly funny) FBI drama, based on the legendary book Mind Hunter: Inside The FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.

After the final credits rolled, we were left with a few tantalising threads still dangling.

Janet Leigh’s brutal death just 20 minutes into Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is one of the most iconic moments in movie history — but her time in the shower, as in the rest of film, was shorter than initially believed.

While Leigh later told The New York Times that her brief performance, which earned her a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, cost her a lifetime fear of showers, she wasn’t actually in the shower for most of the stabbing.

In fact, her appearance in the scene was almost entirely limited to camera angles above the neck,...

“Mindhunter” is nothing like “House of Cards.”

“Mindhunter,” adapted from a novel by Mark Olshaker and John E. Douglas, is set in 1979 and follows two FBI agents, played by Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany, who are tasked with understanding the fractured psyches of serial killers in order to crack existing investigations and prevent future murders.

“House of Cards,” adapted from a British TV series by Andrew Davies, is set in the modern day and follows two married politicians, played by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, whose quest for power in Washington D.C. takes them to unexpected extremes.

Save for David Fincher’s involvement and their distribution platform, the trailer for “Mindhunter” doesn’t look anything like “House of Cards.”

Except, of course, it does: It looks exactly like “House of Cards” — literally. The sharp, clean contrast; the blue and gray color palette; the shadows and silhouettes. “Mindhunter” looks like “House of Cards...

Looking back on this still-young century makes clear that 2007 was a major time for cinematic happenings — and, on the basis of this retrospective, one we’re not quite through with ten years on. One’s mind might quickly flash to a few big titles that will be represented, but it is the plurality of both festival and theatrical premieres that truly surprises: late works from old masters, debuts from filmmakers who’ve since become some of our most-respected artists, and mid-career turning points that didn’t necessarily announce themselves as such at the time. Join us as an assembled team, many of whom were coming of age that year, takes on their favorites.

The most ready-made accolades handed out to our greatest film artists are invocations of other art forms. An artist can be labeled “painterly,” “literary,” or perhaps one who’s “sculpting in time.” (But never “theatrical,” by God.

Don Kaye Mar 20, 2017

Why David Fincher’s masterpiece about the Zodiac Killer still haunts us a decade on...

David Fincher’s Zodiac is now ten years old. The two-hour-and-38-minute film follows the years-long investigation by police and journalists of the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who cut short the lives of five people and injured two others during a spree that stretched across 1968 and 1969 in northern California. The Zodiac may have also been responsible for a number of other killings, going back as far as 1963 and as late as 1972, but those have never been confirmed. The Zodiac himself, who wrote a series of letters to the press, was never captured, and a long list of suspects that have surfaced over the years has yet to yield a conclusive answer to the question of his identity.

See related Marvel's Iron Fist episode 3 viewing notes: Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch Marvel's Iron Fist...

Don Kaye Mar 2, 2019

Why David Fincher’s masterpiece about the Zodiac Killer still haunts us all these years later.

David Fincher’s Zodiac is now over ten years old. The two-hour-and-38-minute film follows the years-long investigation by police and journalists of the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who killed five people and injured two others during a spree that stretched across 1968 and 1969 in northern California. The Zodiac may have also been responsible for a number of other killings, going back as far as 1963 and as late as 1972, but those have never been confirmed. The Zodiac himself, who wrote a series of letters to the press, was never captured and a long list of suspects that have surfaced over the years has yet to yield a conclusive answer to the question of his identity.

Fincher’s goal with Zodiac was not to make a fast-paced, grisly thriller like his earlier classic,...

Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.

The software used by Studio Ghibli will be free and open source starting on March 26th, Wired reports.

Explore the symmetry and camera movement in Amélie:

RogerEbert.com‘s Steve Erickson on the current state of foreign-language film distribution:

There’s no end to the essays by baby-boomers recalling the golden age of art cinema from the ‘50s to the ‘70s, many of them proclaiming the death of the movies in the present day. I was born in 1972, so I missed out on personally experiencing this arthouse heyday; my earliest exposure to world cinema came in the late ‘80s, when its Us distribution was at an unprecedented nadir.

Of the two marquee-exhausting films about new millennium journalism that played at this year’s Tiff, it’s somewhat fitting that Truth will end up the also-ran. While any movie about breaking the Massachusetts Catholic sex abuse scandal shouldn’t make for light digestion, at least Spotlight gives the fourth estate a clear victory to point to. Truth, an adaptation of Mary Mapes’ memoir, “Truth and Duty: The Press, The President And The Privilege Of Power,” hasn’t the luxury of such clarity. That’s somewhat the point, but it’s also what makes this particular story a tough fit for a two-hour retelling.

Opening in the eye of a six-month media storm that would be reduced to shorthand like Rathergate, Truth takes Mapes’ perspective on the 2004 controversy that would cause the Peabody-winning TV news producer to lose her job. When we first see Mapes, assayed by Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett,...

The wait it over! It's time for us to reveal our favourite movie of 2014. Those who've been following the list will have seen the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Gone Girl and 12 Years a Slave already fly by - so what's our number one spot?

Read on to find out Digital Spy's top five, and scroll down to have your say in the comments.

Best movies of the year 2014: 25-21

Best movies of the year 2014: 20-16

Best movies of the year 2014: 15-11

Best movies of the year 2014: 10-6

5. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

We said: "Mockingjay - Part 1 is a rare blockbuster that builds on the complex themes and ideas of its predecessors in a thought-provoking and compelling way. The darker, more mature tone, each victory coming at a personal cost and the fact that everything seems to be going to hell for...

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures Entertainment Weekly has released several new images from upcoming 2015 releases including the likes of some artwork from Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens as seen directly above as well as pics from Ted 2, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, Furious 7, Jurassic World and many more. Full disclosure, just from looking at these pictures I wouldn't have been able to figure out what some of them are from, but lucky for you this isn't a "Guess the Movies" installment. Here's a look at several of the new pictures along with a little commentary of my own over the course of the next couple pages. I would have guessed this first picture below was for a Baby Mama sequel I didn't yet know existed -- in which case I'd have yelled, "Whoop whoop!" -- but alas, it's for a film called Sisters (previously known as The Nest...

Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo.s acting prowess has been criticized by crime writer, James Ellroy - but fans of The Avengers need not worry about the author slamming their favorite superhero movie. Instead the writer actually takes issue with their performances in David Fincher.s 2007 crime drama, Zodiac. As it turns out, Ellroy really hated the lead actors in that film Ruffalo and Downey Jr. played Inspector Dave Toschi and Paul Avery, respectively, in the delightfully meandering-yet-engrossing examination of the crimes of the Zodiac killer. And while James Ellroy has greatly supported the film in the past, having provided a commentary track on the DVD release and called it "one of the half-dozen greatest American crime films," it turns out that he really didn't care for the performances by Ruffalo, Downey Jr., or Jake Gyllenhaal (who played puzzle-loving cartoonist Robert Graysmith). Recently doing an interview with NPR, the...

Director: Dan Gilroy; Screenwriter: Dan Gilroy; Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed, Kevin Rahm; Running time: 117 mins; Certificate: 15

Jake Gyllenhaal has one of the most trustworthy faces in Hollywood. His textbook doe eyes and wide toothy smile imbue his characters with innocence, from Brokeback Mountain's wounded Jack Twist to Zodiac's obsessive Robert Graysmith to the stalwart cops of End of Watch and Prisoners.

But within those eyes also lies the potential for mania, and screenwriter Dan Gilroy's directorial debut Nightcrawler exploits this to unsettling effect. Gyllenhaal lost some widely publicised weight to play the stringy, slippery Lou Bloom, an ambitious petty thief on the search for a clean break in Los Angeles. "I've made up my mind to find a career I can learn and grow into," he tells a disinterested potential employer, one of many recruitment platitudes he spouts. If you thought you hated corporate speak before,...

40. Night of the Hunter (1955)

Scene: The Preacher on the Horizon

Video: http://youtu.be/9PyNL2ahKwc?list=PLZbXA4lyCtqolaQOAXly96de5FYQlPzqK Just like a few others in this section of the list, Charles Laughton’s brilliant Night of the Hunter isn’t really a horror film, but still sets out to keep the audience on edge. Starring a diabolical Robert Mitchum as a preacher/serial killer Reverend Harry Powell, it follows him as he tries to woo his former cellmate’s widow Willa (Shelly Winters), hoping to learn where he has hidden his bank loot. Powell devises that his children John and Pearl must know, but he struggles to gain young John’s trust. When Willa learns of his plan, Powell is forced to kill her and hide the body, leaving him as sole caretaker of the children, who flee down the river. And then the scene. Having believed they have escaped Powell,...

Gone Girl review: Rosamund Pike a revelation in David Fincher thriller

David Fincher brings Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl to the big screen this week, and long-standing fans of the filmmaker will be delighted to know the thriller is up there with his very best.

Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as a couple whose marriage severely hits the rocks, is the tenth feature in Fincher's 20-year career. Digital Spy picks out some of the highlights from his previous nine films below...

1. Alien 3's death of Ripley (1992)

Fincher himself is no big fan of his directorial debut Alien³, a blockbuster that experienced a turbulent production and was ultimately disowned by the man calling the shots behind the camera. That said, it featured a watershed moment for the franchise - Ripley sacrificing herself while a Xenomorph bursts through her chest, desperate to escape certain death.

2. Seven's "What's in the box?...

I hadn't seen David Fincher's Gone Girl before creating this list. I felt I'd let his latest film simmer for a bit before attempting to figure out where exactly it fit within a filmography that now spans 22 years. I must also confess to being a David Fincher fanboy. It was Fincher's films before any other that got me to start looking at the way movies were made and who was making them rather than simply consuming one after the other. His leaning toward dark and brooding material is as much about his taste in the movies he makes and his approach to movie making. Even with films such as The Social Network, looking at the fellas behind the creation of Facebook, Fincher delivers a dark, moody and atmospheric piece of cinema. But let's not spoil the conversation of each film before getting to the list. What follows is...

Director discussed being “sodomised ritualistically” on Alien3, his reputation for multiple takes, the opportunities of TV and his latest film, Gone Girl.

Us director David Fincher opened up about his career to date at BAFTA in London last night, entertaining the sold-out ‘A Life In Pictures’ event with anecdotes surrounding the highs and lows of his filmmaking.

The visionary director behind Se7en, Fight Club and The Social Network is on the promotion trail with his latest feature, Gone Girl, a psychological thriller based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel that stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

Flynn also wrote the screenplay based on her own novel, about a man who becomes a suspect in his wife’s disappearance after being the focus of an intense media circus.

“It begins as a mystery, it becomes an absurdist thriller and is ultimately a satire,” said Fincher. “I’d never seen someone try to juggle those things and actually do it. It...

We sort of can’t stress enough how great a film David Fincher’s “Zodiac” is. Fincher’s near 3-hour epic of investigation, based on a true story and rich in enthralling and frustrating dead ends and missed chances, is one of the most perfect films ever made about the actual and often futile process of finding out whodunit (and, for most of the movie, whostilldoingit). As this nice little supercut points out, one of the ways Fincher gets that across is through the art of the insert. Much of “Zodiac” revolves around documents: the taunting letters and cyphers that the killer sends to San Francisco newspapers, fixated cartoonist-turned-investigator Robert Graysmith’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) drawings, and miniscule details of handwriting that could hold the key piece of information. Josh Forrest’s supercut shows how Fincher’s frequent use of the insert—the quick cut within a frame to some specific object,...

amz asin="B00E96AZBK" size="small"Vimeo user Josh Forrest put together the following supercut of insert shots from David Fincher's Zodiac as if to emphasize the importance of just such a shot. It's an interesting watch considering how important Fincher considers pretty much every insert, but it's also interesting with this film specifically as we learned in the Blu-ray extras the shot of Robert Graysmith's sketchbook being thrown on the car seat (12 seconds into this video) was accomplished in 36 takes. Fincher is known to be a perfectionist and this is just one more of those examples.