Michael Fassbender is a killer with a meditative streak.
The actor leads David Fincher‘s drama “The Killer” as an assassin who begins to have a psychological crisis in a world with no moral compass.
The official synopsis reads: After a fateful near miss, an assassin battles his employers — and himself — on an international hunt for retribution he insists isn’t personal. Solitary, cold, methodical, and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool.
The Netflix film is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alexis Nolent AKA Matz, which “Se7en” screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker adapted for the screen. Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, and Sophie Charlotte also star. Ceán Chaffin produces.
Director Fincher also reunites with Oscar-winning “Mank” cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt for the international production, which was partially filmed in Paris. The film made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and screened at NYFF.
Netflix film chief Scott Stuber told Variety that “The Killer” is in the vein of Fincher’s signature thrillers.
“‘The Killer’ is based on a graphic novel and it is about someone who is a contract killer and the methodology of that world and what he does, which David does detail better than anyone. He’s so good in the detail of method, of watching something unfold,” Stuber said. “Seeing that early stages of what he does, and something goes awry which then affects him personal. It’s a really fun, big movie in the hands of one of the best filmmakers, and someone we’re really lucky to have a relationship with.”
IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio called “The Killer” the “‘Jeanne Dielman’ of assassin movies,” writing in the review, “‘The Killer’ is nothing if not committed to its own one-note bit, an existential nihilism that stays the same even as the protagonist, in a mostly silent Michael Fassbender performance, starts to change. It’s as unfeeling as any Fincher thriller, at once predictable in its simplicity but also strangely daring because of it.” For all the details on the “The Killer,” click here.
“The Killer” premieres in select theaters and on Netflix November 10. Check out the trailer below.
