David Fincher’s ‘The Killer’ Is Surprise NYFF Spotlight Selection
“The Killer” is setting a new target: the New York Film Festival.
IndieWire can confirm that David Fincher’s latest film is a surprise addition to the Spotlight Selection at NYFF 2023. “The Killer” will screen October 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Netflix-owned Paris Theater and October 15 at 8:45 p.m. at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center.
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Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alexis Nolent AKA Matz, the film’s logline reads: “After a fateful near-miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.”
Michael Fassbender leads the film as the titular assassin who has a psychological crisis. Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, Arliss Howard, and Sophie Charlotte also star. Ceán Chaffin produces.
“Se7en” screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker adapted the graphic novel which was originally published in the French language by Editions Casterman. Luc Jacamon illustrated.
Oscar-winning “Mank” cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt reunites again with Fincher for the international production, which was partially filmed in Paris. The film made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival and is now set to screen at NYFF before debuting in theaters October 27 and streaming on Netflix November 10.
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.
In addition to “The Killer,” the NYFF Spotlight selection is additionally Netflix’s “Maestro,” written, directed, and produced by Bradley Cooper, who also stars in the lead role as composer Leonard Bernstein. “The New York Film Festival is proud to present the North American debut of ‘Maestro,’ Bradley Cooper’s tour de force film about the life of renowned conductor, composer, and musician Leonard Bernstein,” Lesli Klainberg, President of Film at Lincoln Center, said in an official statement.
Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of New York Film Festival, added, “‘Maestro’ is a bravura achievement for its director and star, a work of conviction and imagination that does justice to the brilliance and complexity of its subject. We are honored to have Bradley Cooper’s enthralling film as a gala presentation at this year’s festival, and doubly so to be showing it in a venue that is synonymous with Leonard Bernstein.”
Lim chairs the NYFF Spotlight selection committee along with Florence Almozini, Justin Chang, K. Austin Collins, and Rachel Rosen. This year’s NYFF takes place September 29 through October 15.
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