THE KANE EVENT
Even with a heavyweight like David Fincher behind it, it’s hard to imagine a film like Mank getting made anywhere else than Netflix. A period film, shot in black-and-white, looking and sounding like it could’ve come from the ’30s: a textbook Hard Sell. “Unless you’re making a tentpole movie that has a Happy Meal component to it, no one’s interested,” says Fincher, who was trying to drum up interest from studios as far back as 1997, as soon as his writer father Jack Fincher (a journalist and author) had finished the script.
A passion project for Fincher Sr. and Jr., David suggested the retired Jack write a screenplay about the film he introduced him to as a teen: Orson Welles’ seminal 1941 debut, Citizen Kane. Well, not about Citizen Kane, per se, but about its creation, and specifically the input of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, aka Mank. Over the years, it’s been contested just how much input boy wonder Welles had in the landmark film’s screenplay. Critic Pauline Kael brought the suggestion to mainstream attention in her 1971 essay, Raising Kane (director Peter Bogdanovich later countered with his own piece, The Kane Mutiny).
Throw into the mix studio politics, real-world politics and alcoholism, and you’ve got a package almost designed to repel backers. Jack Fincher’s screenplay had been gathering dust for over two decades, having initially been ready to shop around in 1997; Jack died in 2003. Then an opportunity presented itself. Fincher has fostered a long-standing relationship with Netflix, having worked with the streaming giant on House Of Cards, Love, Death & Robots and Mindhunter. When Fincher found himself in the position of not having the headspace for a third season of the latter, Netflix execs Cindy Holland and Ted Sarandos asked him what he wanted to do.
“I said, ‘I might want to make a movie,’” recalls Fincher, talking to Total Film in October 2020. “‘I have this movie on the shelf that I’ve always wanted to make, but it might be too weird and inside baseball.’ So I sent it to them, and they were like, ‘We would make this movie.’
‘In mono and black-and-white?’ ‘Yeah.’
And I said, ‘OK!’”
Netflix’s offer came with a caveat, explains Fincher. He pauses. “My wife, well, my producer said, ‘You’ve been thinking about this for 30 years, and it’s not helping you.’”
