Mank Director David Fincher Sparks Debate After Joker Comments

David Fincher is known for an array of films from Se7en to Gone Girl, and his upcoming movie Mank is already receiving a lot of early praise. The film hit theaters yesterday and will drop on Netflix next month and follows a behind-the-scenes look at the Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane. The film currently has a 91% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and Fincher is in the midst of doing press for the movie. In fact, his recent interview with the Telegraph has sparked some controversy. The movie Joker came up during the chat and some believe he slammed the Joaquin Phoenix-led movie. However, others think his words are being taken out of context. Take a look at the quote and tell us your thoughts in the comments!

"I don't think ­anyone would have looked at that material and thought, Yeah, let's take [Taxi Driver's] Travis Bickle and [The King of Comedy's] Rupert Pupkin and conflate them, then trap him in a betrayal of the mentally ill, and trot it out for a billion dollars."

While some believe Fincher is saying Joker was a "betrayal of the mentally ill" others are arguing that he meant "society's betrayal" in the context of the movie. Either way, it definitely doesn't sound like Fincher was a fan of the film based on the suggestion that the movie "conflated" two Robert De Niro characters and that it was "trotted out." You can check out some of the tweet reactions below:

fun fact david fincher was actually the one driving the taxi https://t.co/NRWJ0mbSRj pic.twitter.com/tj3XxbYq4v

— gwen (@phqntomthrd) November 14, 2020

david fincher: joker bad

me: pic.twitter.com/R3N9IA8KLY

— mya (@DUNENATION) November 14, 2020

I think people are taking David Fincher's quote out of context. Is seems like he's saying society's betrayal of the mentally ill rather than the movie's betrayal: pic.twitter.com/U7tZsxNQf6

— 🌟Stephanie🌟 (@GeekPride5) November 14, 2020

Fincher also went on to say that Joker reminded him of his struggle to get Fight Club made. The director discussed how the movie was not initially received well by the studios and spoke about the early screenings, saying, "the general view afterward among the studio types was, 'Our careers are over.' The fact we got that film made in 1999 is still, to my mind, a miracle." Fincher said the initial, uneven reaction to Fight Club was the opposite reaction Warner Bros. had to Joker, which led to its ultimate box office and awards-season success.

Mank is now playing in select theatres and will be available to stream on Netflix on December 4th.