Viewers of Netflix’s David Fincher-helmed serial killer/police-procedural/semi-horror series Mindhunter, who are sweatily anticipating Season 3 will just have to slide their cold (and frankly, somewhat unseemly) anticipation-slab back into its refrigerated cubby-hole (for now).
Fincher (director of Se7en, Zodiac, The Social Network) has decided to pull away from the show in order to concentrate on yet another Netflix project (BESIDES Love, Death & Robots, the “Heavy Metal”-redux anthology series created by Tim Miller). This time it’s a film entitled Mank. It’s a 40’s-set biopic about Citizen Kane co-screenwriter (and raging drunk) Herman J. Mankiewicz, and his battles with Orson Welles over credit for”Kane’s” screenplay.
Fincher fetishists will be indeed be in He7en with the “Mank” film’s period-setting (scripted by Fincher’s father, Jack), which will likely heavily feature starkly-lit, smoke-filled offices filled with booze-adulterated coffee cups, and sweaty guys wearing loose ties/ rolled-up shirtsleeves (starring Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, of course). It’s possible that Fincher may be trying to follow the Netflix release-template set by Scorsese’s The Irishman (limited theatrical release, then streaming, for Oscar qualification/bait).
Meanwhile, the cast of Mindhunter have been mercifully freed from their Network contractural restraints, hoses and lotion-baskets are being withdrawn, and actors such as Jonathan Groff, Anna Torv, and Holt McCallany can now pursue other projects, instead of having to to wait for this unpredictable Netflix UNSUB to become active again.