David Fincher is returning to the director's chair five years after Gone Girl (2014), a crime-thriller starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in lead roles. As reported by Hollywood Reporter, Fincher will helm a biopic on the co-screenwriter of 1941 classic film Citizen Kane, Herman Mankiewicz. Keeping in with the times, the film will be shot in monochrome. Fincher's father Jack, is said to have written the script of Mank, which will be in collaboration with Netflix.
Gary Oldman is reported to have been cast as Mankiewicz, the newspaper man turned screenwriter, who is best known for collaborating with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane.
Mankiewicz worked on numerous films like The Wizard of Oz (1939), Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), which are all considered classics now. However, in 1941, Mankiewicz accused Welles of trying to push him out of the limelight, even saying Welles offered to pay him off in exchange for sole credit, reported the entertainment website.
Writing about the history and the transitioning phase of Mankiewicz's career, Hollywood Reporter explained that Mankiewicz was a reporter and a critic in the 1920s, as well as a member of the Algonquin Round Table, New York City’s famed literary club.
By the late '20s, Mankiewicz was recruited by Paramount Pictures to come to Hollywood and work in the film business, which at the time was transitioning to talkies. He even enlisted fellow journalists into joining the screenwriting ranks, famously writing to Ben Hecht, "Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots."
Fincher's latest venture will reunite him with his longtime associate, producer Cean Chaffin (The Game among others). Fincher has worked with Netflix on Original series like Mindhunter and Love, Death and Robots.
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