David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’ Gets 6-Minute Ovation At Venice World Premiere

David Fincher’s latest feature, The Killer, earned 6 minutes and 45 seconds of applause Sunday evening at the film’s world premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival.

The atmosphere inside the room following the premiere was respectful, with Fincher in attendance without his main cast but with a healthy contingent of Netflix collaborators and his filmmaking partners leading the applause. As a Netflix production, the film is not eligible for SAG’s interim agreement program.

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The pic, based on Alexis Nolent (pen name: Matz) and Luc Jacamon’s graphic novel series, stars Michael Fassbender and is Fincher’s first feature since 2020’s Mank, also for Netflix, which scored 10 Oscar noms, including Best Picture, and won two.

Fassbender plays an assassin who battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt while insisting none of it is personal. Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton also star. Andrew Kevin Walker adapted the graphic novel, which debuted in French via Casterman and was published in the U.S. by Archaia Studios Press in 10 volumes from 2006-2009. Walker and Fincher previously collaborated on Se7en, Fincher’s twisty 1995 genre thriller hit that starred Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Spacey.

The Killer marks Fincher’s return to genre filmmaking following Mank, and at this morning’s official press conference, the director was asked why he landed on this material for his latest.

“The task at hand is relatable, it’s dramatic, it’s high stakes, and in a lot of ways it’s extremely procedural, there are a lot of boxes that you need to tick before you exhale and pull,” he said. “I didn’t think of the movie as an assassin movie, I think of it more as a revenge movie.”

The pic hits domestic theaters on October 27, then launches on the streamer November 10. Venice runs until Sept 9.

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