David Fincher’s latest film, The Killer, is now streaming on Netflix. The new film stars Michael Fassbender and is based on Le Tueur, the French comic book series by writer Alexis Nolent (under the name Matz) and artist Luc Jacamon. The screenplay was written by Andrew Kevin Walker who recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the film. One topic that came up during the chat was the aliases used by Fassbender’s character throughout the film. They were all sitcom names, including Felix Unger (The Odd Couple), Archibald Bunker (All in the Family), Oscar Madison (The Odd Couple), Howard Cunningham (Happy Days), Reuben Kincaid (The Partridge Family), Lou Grant (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Sam Malone (Cheers), George Jefferson (The Jeffersons), and Robert Hartley (The Bob Newhart Show).
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“[I] didn’t want it to be the same name, because, even if that’s his alias, it becomes his name,” Walker explained. “So it just made sense to shuffle the deck of names we used every time. Fincher, to his credit, and in his genius, made sure to really hit them. In my draft, they were just spoken last names; in the movie, he really makes sure you see and hear not just last names but full names. It’s one of my favorite notions about this film that there’ll be some 20-year-olds sitting beside some 50-year-olds, [and] the 20-year-old is wondering, why in the hell is this person laughing every 10 or 15 minutes?”
What Is The Killer About?
You can read a description of The Killer here: “After a fateful near-miss, an assassin battles his employers and himself on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.” The Killer “tells the story of an assassin that begins to develop a conscience and doubts his work, which happens at a time when clients demand his particular set of skills.”
The Killer stars Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton, leading a cast that includes Kerry O’Malley as Dolores, Charles Parnell (Top Gun: Maverick) as Hodges, Arliss Howard (Full Metal Jacket), and Brazilian star Sophie Charlotte. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (Mindhunter) is re-teaming with Fincher for the film, while his musical collaborators Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, Mank) will compose the score. Fincher’s Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker penned the script, which is based on the French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent.
“This is the type of film I was salivating to do,” Fassbender shared with Empire. “There’s suspense and intrigue. A slow drip. I love that kind of movie.” He added, “There’s just trying to understand the mind of a sociopath … I try and put together a lifespan, to where the character is now.”
“Michael’s eyes betray a lot … He can hold a lot of conflicting things in his mind and his eyes allow you access to it,” Fincher shared. “He’s like Daniel Craig [who starred in Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo] in that way, saying, ‘I can do it better.’ Tell him to stop 1/3 inch shorter and he can fine-tune that technical stuff, while on top of that, he’s got really good ideas about behavior.”
The director added, “He has this gift as an actor, but clamped on top of it is this incredible discipline about how he subdivides his next move.”
The Killer is now streaming on Netflix.
