The graphic novel "The Killer" (written by Alexis Nolent, illustrated by Luc Jacamon) has been a passion project for David Fincher for nearly 20 years.
A list of all 9 aliases used by The Killer:
- Felix Unger - The Odd Couple (1970)
- Archibald Bunker - All in the Family (1971)
- Oscar Madison - The Odd Couple (1970)
- Howard Cunningham - Happy Days (1974)
- Reuben Kincaid - The Partridge Family (1970)
- Lou Grant - The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)
- Sam Malone - Cheers (1982)
- George Jefferson - The Jeffersons (1975)
- Robert Hartley - The Bob Newhart Show (1972)
David Fincher was considering numerous projects for his follow-up to Mank (2020). He met with Michael Fassbender and, after several in-depth discussions about this project and seeing how committed Fassbender was to doing it, Fincher decided to make "The Killer."
In a 2023 interview with GQ, David Fincher spoke about how The Smiths ended up being the preferred music of Michael Fassbender's character: "I always knew that I wanted to use 'How Soon is Now?' because I love the guitar. And I love the idea of somebody going, 'what Johnny Marr is doing here is my meditation.' I just thought it was amusing. But originally, we had an entire soundtrack that was Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, full-on pre-goth. It was really cool, and really interesting, but you kept asking yourself, 'Is he a music critic?' But as we went along, you would find out that a song's publishing was split amongst two or three different parties who are no longer speaking, and blah, blah, blah. And every time a song would drop out, we would replace it with The Smiths. 'This Charming Man,' and so on. Every single time it was The Smiths, it was both sardonic, and raw. Trent Reznor was a big part of this: we kept thinking, what do we want to say about this guy? I love the idea of a guy who has a mixtape to go and kill people. But if we have all of these disparate musical influences, are we missing an opportunity to see who this guy is? So The Smiths became a kind of stained glass window into who this guy was."
In 2008 Fincher originally thought of Brad Pitt for the role of The Killer but Pitt said it was a little too "nihilistic" for him.