In case some of you haven’t heard, the highly-regarded director has been quietly putting together his first feature since 2014’s Gone Girl for a 2020 theatrical release.
Mank will be a detailed look at the life and times of Citizen Kane screenwriter, Herman J. Mankiewicz, as he struggles with Orson Wells to create what has come to be widely regarded as the most influential movie of all time.
That’s right, The Social Network wasn’t enough, Fincher has to once again waste his talents on another biopic.
No, Zodiac does not count as a biopic.
Herman J. Mankiewicz was somewhat of a tormented soul who found it hard to conform to the studio system after spending many years as a foreign correspondent in Europe covering World War I and German politics in the run-up to the Third Reich.
Despite being a notoriously pathetic drunkard, the man managed to pull down over ninety writing credits in thirty years.
How pathetic? So pathetic that Orson Welles claimed that he had to assign producer John Houseman to keep Mankiewicz sober during the drafting of the Citizen Kane screenplay.
There is some dispute about how much, if any, of the famous script Mankiewicz actually wrote, with loud voices arguing both sides.
Regardless of the truth, we are unfortunately going to get a dramatized version of the clashes between Mank and Well over the creative direction of Citizen Kane — something I couldn’t care less about.
One of the reasons that Fincher cares is that his father wrote the script for Mank.
The Famous Cast
It looks like all of the most well-known people from 1930s Hollywood have been cast.
Gary Oldman is Herman J. Mankiewicz
Lily Collins is Rita Alexander
Amanda Seyfried is Marion Davies
Tom Burke is Orson Welles
Craig Robert Young is Charlie Chaplin
This cast looks great, I just wish we weren’t getting another dumb, boring movie from the guy who did some of the best thrillers of all time.
