Behind the Scenes: The Killer

The precision design of David Fincher’s hit-man feature mirrors its subject, writes Adrian Pennington

James Bond by way of B&Q is how director David Fincher conceived of The Killer, his feature adaptation of an acclaimed French graphic novel.

The character played by Michael Fassbender doesn’t have cars or gadgets provided by a state-of-the-art organisation. Instead, he shops on Amazon and in convenience stores, dresses like a tourist and creates his own low-fi means of trapping and eliminating people.

“The Killer is a spider sitting in a web,” said cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt ASC.

While the source material by Alexis Nolent and artist Luc Jacamon is quite expansive in terms of story and politics the screenplay by Fincher and long-standing collaborator Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) strips things back to become...

Latest Behind the scenes
Centre L-R - Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba), Director Jon M. Chu, and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) on the set of Wicked

Behind the Scenes: Wicked

Opposing colours in the same frame, 6000 lightning cues and shooting 17 sound stages - one the size of four American football fields, all merit why Wicked is the ‘latest hurrah to the golden days of epic studio filmmaking,’ writes Adrian Pennington.

Read more
Steve McQueen in Blitz, now streaming on Apple TV+

Behind the Scenes: Blitz

The director of 12 Years A Slave and Small Axe has created a historical aesthetic of a tragic and turbulent London, depicting lives subjected to a permanent black out, in Blitz, Steve McQueen’s new film based on authentic anecdotes and inspired by filmmaker archives of the era.

Read more
Favourites:

Registered users only: Login

Share this:
Other themes: