Leonard Zelig

Why Seven still has one of the most shocking endings in cinematic history

“What’s in the box?!”

C. Molly Smith and Will Robinson
September 21, 2023
Entertainment Weekly

In 1995, Brad Pitt‘s exclamation of fear and dread jolted audiences and left a lasting cultural imprint. The ending of Seven, director David Fincher‘s breakout film, is one of the most shocking, disturbing, and iconic twists in modern cinema, capping a tight, wrought thriller.

The film’s initial introduction to its world, a metropolis mired in unrest, is normal enough. Cool veteran Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is paired with young hothead Detective Mills (Pitt) in pursuing a serial killer who picks his victims based on the seven deadly sins. They follow the clues and corpses, and the murderous John Doe (Kevin Spacey) eventually makes it into their custody, promising to reveal his two final victims—targeted for envy and wrath.

But the third act abandons cinematic tropes and convention. The promise of the final two corpses is questioned when a mysterious box arrives that is Doe’s coup de grace; it contains the head of Mills’ wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow)—never seen on screen, but revealed through dialogue and reaction. Doe acted on his envy of Mills’ normal life and incurs Mills’ lethal wrath. Though he’s killed at the hands of the good guy, the bad guy’s death serves as a loss for the positive forces of the world.

And it was all this close to not happening; “What’s in the box?!” nearly missed its canonization. Fincher, scribe Andrew Kevin Walker, and some of the cast, including Brad Pitt, fought for the original planned finale, against the studio’s protests. The producers eventually conceded to uphold the work’s artistic integrity. “There’s nothing wrong with up endings, it’s just that the dark ending of Seven was what it was about,” Walker told Uproxx. “To change the ending to something else was to remove the very heart of the story.”

Entertainment Weekly looks at how off-camera elements of the film successfully crafted suspense and resulted in Seven‘s enduring ending.

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Venice Film Festival: “The Killer” World Premiere

September 3, 2023
Venice Film Festival (YouTube)

Press conference featuring Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt ASC, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Director David Fincher, and Editor Kirk Baxter ACE.

Red Carpet featuring Producer Peter Mavromates, Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt ASC, Writer of the original “The Killer” (“Le tueur”) comic Alexis “Matz” Nolent, Editor Kirk Baxter ACE, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, Director David Fincher. The original stream has the ambient sound turned down to a minimum because it is too busy and noisy, and only barely intelligible in the close-ups.

“The Killer” interview with the director David Fincher

Chiara Nicoletti
September 8, 2023
FRED, The Festival Insider

David Fincher, director of “The Killer“: “We thought it would be interesting if the ‘cool’ assassin movie tropes were all taken away”.

For his twelfth film, “The Killer“, in competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, the director David Fincher reunites with Andrew Kevin Walker, with whom he created the indelible serial killer thriller “Se7en” (1995).

Adapted from the acclaimed graphic novel written by “Matz” (Alexis Nolent), the film explores the boundaries of the revenge movie and sees Michael Fassbender in the role of a hitman failing at his main task and being threatened because of this.

In his production notes, David Fincher writes: “We thought it would be interesting if the ‘cool’ assassin movie tropes were all taken away”. The director describes how he decided to let the audience into the protagonist’s train of thoughts as to understand that “what he does and what he thinks do not match”.

“The Killer“ releases globally on Netflix November 10, 2023.

Listen to the interview

Venice Film Festival: Why David Fincher Wanted Michael Fassbender to Look ‘Dorky’

THE PROJECTIONIST

Movies are full of glamorous hit men. For “The Killer,” the director put his star in a bucket hat: “The $3,000 suit seems like it’s played out.”

By Kyle Buchanan
Reporting from Venice, Italy
September 3, 2023
The New York Times

It’s been 24 years since David Fincher brought one of his movies to the Venice Film Festival, and the last time, things didn’t go so well.

“I came here with a little film called ‘Fight Club’” in 1999, he told me during an interview on the Lido this week. “We were fairly run out of town for being fascists.” Even before the premiere of that controversial Brad Pitt flick, the director could sense trouble. “I looked down and the youngest person in our row was Giorgio Armani,” Fincher said. “I was like, ‘I’m not sure the guest list is the right guest list for this.’”

So what makes lofty Venice the right place to premiere “The Killer,” Fincher’s new thriller and his first film since the Oscar-winning Hollywood drama “Mank”?

“Nothing,” cracked Fincher. “Venice seems like it’s very highbrow — important movies about important subjects — and then there’s our skeevy little movie.”

Still, Fincher has always enjoyed toying with people’s expectations. He does it even within the world of “The Killer,” which premiered in Venice on Sunday and stars Fassbender as a hired gun who has to improvise after a fatal assignment goes awry.

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THE KILLER: New Stills

September 1, 2023
Netflix

After a fateful near miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.

Netflix Presents Michael Fassbender “THE KILLER”, with Tilda Swinton.

Click to view the gallery of all available official stills:

World Premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival: September 3

Release Date: In Select Theaters October 27 / On Netflix November 10

David Fincher’s “The Killer” Will Screen at the BFI London Film Festival 2023

“David Fincher’s much-anticipated adaptation of Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon’s graphic novel finally arrives. And it slays!”

The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films.

The festival’s Headline Galas include David Fincher’s The Killer.

Tegan Vevers:

In absolute stillness, an unnamed assassin lurks in the darkness, surveilling his next target with an almost inhuman patience. But beneath his steely resolve is a man wrestling with his inner conscience. When a botched hit leaves the gunman with no choice but to retire from the world of professional killing, his shadowy past isn’t so willing to let him go – making him a target for his former employers, and his own demons. Teaming up with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker for the first time since Se7en, David Fincher’s cold-blooded action thriller is a masterful work of icy precision, punctuated by meticulously executed, genuinely jaw-dropping action set pieces. Heading up a stellar cast, Michael Fassbender is mesmerising as the titular killer, his poise and physicality perfectly embodying a man losing the control that once defined him.

October 5, 2023
Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
October 6, 2023
Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
October 12, 2023
BFI Southbank, NFT1

Tickets on sale September 12, 2023

BFI Members will get priority booking tickets.

THE KILLER: Teaser Trailer and New Stills

August 29, 2023
Netflix

After a fateful near miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.

Netflix Presents: Michael Fassbender “THE KILLER”

Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O’Malley, Sala Baker

With Sophie Charlotte and Tilda Swinton

Casting: Laray Mayfield
Sound Design: Ren Klyce
Music: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Costume Designer: Cate Adams
Editor: Kirk Baxter ACE
Production Design: Donald Graham Burt
Director of Photography: Erik Messerschmidt ASC
Executive Producer: Alexandra Milchan
Producers: William Doyle, Peter Mavromates
Produced By: Ceán Chaffin p.g.a.

Based on “The Killer”
Alexis “Matz” Nolent
Illustrator: Luc Jacamon

Screenplay By: Andrew Kevin Walker

Directed By: David Fincher

World Premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival: September 3

Release Date: In Select Theaters October 27 / On Netflix November 10

We Have the Exclusive First Look at the Teaser Poster for THE KILLER!

CLICK TO VIEW THE TEASER POSTER IN FULL RESOLUTION

After a fateful near miss an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn’t personal.

THE KILLER

EXECUTION
IS EVERYTHING.

World Premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival:
September 3

Release Date:
In Select Theaters October 27 / On Netflix November 10

Anastas Michos ASC GSC, “Cabinet of Curiosities: The Autopsy”

Spine-tingling visuals

Anastas Michos ASC GSC reteamed with director David Prior to shoot the Emmy-nominated episode “The Autopsy” for Guillermo del Toro’s anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities.

Adrian Pennington
August 25, 2023
British Cinematographer

In this version of Michael Shea’s short story, adapted with the help of screenwriter David S. Goyer, a small-town sheriff (Glynn Turman) is investigating a tragic mining explosion. One of the bodies pulled from the wreckage is given to pathologist Dr Winters (F. Murray Abraham) to examine, only to uncover a much more gruesome and macabre secret.

The episode, shot on RED Digital Cinema cameras, also received recognition with an ASC Award nomination earlier this year. Given the subject matter and their successful collaboration on Prior’s feature debut the horror film The Empty Man (2020) it was natural the pair should hook up.

“A director and cinematographer might not always see eye to eye but when they work together a lot you tend to challenge each other and that becomes part of the creative process,” says Michos. “You develop a shorthand which is paramount to getting through it all, particularly for TV. We shot this 58-minute episode in 15 days which astounded the both of us. Having the ability to understand what the director is trying to communicate is certainly useful.”

Knowledge of each other’s sensibilities proved advantageous when they arrived in Canada to shoot “The Autopsy” in 2021 during COVID since they were instantly confined to quarantine.

“We had about three weeks in our respective apartments which allows a lot of time to think. Our main reference for exteriors and tonality was The Deer Hunter (1978). In most projects, tonality is the first thing we try and decide.”

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The Dolby Institute Podcast: The Emmy-Nominated “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities: The Autopsy”

Glenn Kiser, Director of the Dolby Institute
August 24, 2023
The Dolby Institute

Executive Producer (and co-showrunner) J. Miles Dale joins us on the podcast to discuss the horror anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, which was recently nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards. Joining the conversation are nominees: Supervising Sound Editor Nelson Ferreira, MPSE, and Director of Photography Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC.

To avoid spoilers, be sure to watch “The Autopsy” before watching this podcast! But be forewarned, it is extremely dark — both thematically and visually — which was entirely by design. Anastas Michos:

“The genre is squarely within a horror/sci-fi mode. It is about what we don’t see in life. That’s what makes shooting horror films or thrillers so interesting. That we allow the audience to only see what we want them to see, and tease the rest of it into the blacks [of the image].”

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities is currently streaming on Netflix in Dolby Vision® and Dolby Atmos®.

Listen to the Dolby Institute Podcast:

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