David Fincher, director of MANK, has Blunt Words Regarding Blockbusters

Director of Mank Has Blunt Words Regarding Blockbusters

David Fincher, director up the upcoming art house drama Mank expressed his contempt for contemporary blockbuster culture, which he feels has strangled the life out of non-traditional productions.

Times have changed in the film industry. There are now more ways than ever to watch new releases, and now everything about how and what is produced has been shaped by that fact. While there are some benefits to the new paradigm, there are also some unfortunate consequences, which Fincher pointed out in a recent interview.

Fincher has recently been promoting his upcoming film Mank, about the struggle for credit for the story of Citizen Kane, which stars Gary Oldman, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, and Arliss Howard. While making the press rounds, he had a conversation with Total Film discussing the new “binary” reality of the movie business where only big budget studio tentpoles and Oscar bait are what can get made nowadays. “Unless you’re making a tentpole movie that has a Happy Meal component to it, no one’s interested… There’s really only two seasons for movies.” Fincher said. “There’s ‘spandex summer’ and there’s ‘affliction winter’. You’re making your movie for one of two seasons. And if you miss, you’ll fall into one of those other two seasons, which are nominally dumping grounds.”

Eric Eisenberg of Cinema Blend pointed out that Fincher may be forgetting “about the wave of “micro-budget” titles (which is to say movies that are made for less than $10 million) that have become a big part of the release calendar.” Though he acknowledges that with “studios ever more focused on massive investments or guaranteed prestige pictures, movies that aim for a budget in the $30-50 million range have become hard to get made and, as a result, rare.”

Because Mank couldn’t be made on a mere seven-figure budget, Fincher scraped by for years trying to secure the funding he needed to properly realize his artistic vision. Eventually though, he was able to find a production partner in Netflix, with whom he has previously worked on series such as House of Cards and Mindhunter.

Based on a script written by David Fincher’s late father Howard Fincher, Mank tells the story of Herman J. Mankiewicz – who co-wrote the script for what is considered one of the most revered films of all time: Citizen Kane. The movie follows Mankiewicz during his time working in 1930s Hollywood and meeting the inspiration he found for Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist of Citizen Kane.

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