Gina McIntyre
December 6, 2023
Netflix Queue
For his muscular new thriller, David Fincher worked with many of his closest collaborators to develop inventive approaches to the film’s cinematography, with Erik Messerschmidt ASC, editing, with Kirk Baxter ACE, sound, with Ren Klyce, and score, with Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross.
Kirk Baxter and David Fincher enjoying some downtime at Miraval Studios.
Iain Blair
December 6, 2023
postPerspective
David Fincher’s The Killer is a violent thriller starring Michael Fassbender as an unnamed hitman whose carefully constructed life begins to fall apart after a botched hit. Despite his mantra to always remain detached and methodical in his work, he lets it become personal after assassins brutally attack his girlfriend, and soon he finds himself hunting those who now threaten him.
The Netflix film reunites Fincher with Kirk Baxter, the Australian editor who has worked on all of Fincher’s films since The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and who won Oscars for his work on The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I spoke with Baxter about the challenges and workflow
How did you collaborate with Fincher on this one?
I try not to weigh David down with too many background questions. I keep myself very reactionary to what is being sent, and David, I think by design, isolates me a bit that way. I’ll read the script and have an idea of what’s coming, and then I simply react to what he’s shot and see if it deviates from the script due to the physicality of capturing things.
The general plan was that the film would be a study of process. When The Killer is in control, everything’s going to be deliberate, steady, exacting and quiet. We live in Ren Klyce’s sound design, and when things deviate from The Killer’s plan, the camera starts to shake. I start to jump-cut, the music from composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross comes into the picture, and then all of our senses start to get rocked. It was an almost Zenlike stretching of time in the setup of each story then a race through each kill. That was the overarching approach to editing the film. Then there were a thousand intricate decisions that we made along the way each day.
Kirk Baxter and David Fincher enjoying some downtime at Miraval Studios.
Steve Hullfish, ACE
November 23, 2023
Art of the Cut (Boris FX)
Today on Art of the Cut, we’re talking with Kirk Baxter, ACE, about editing David Fincher’s latest: The Killer, which is now on Netflix.
Kirk’s been on Art of the Cut before – for Gone Girl and for Mank. He was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He won an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie for The Social Network. He was nominated for an ACE Eddie and won an Oscar for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Was nominated for an Emmy for House of Cards. Was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Gone Girl. Was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Mindhunter. Was nominated for an ACE Eddie for Mank and won an ACE Eddie for Love, Death and Robots.
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Follow Steve Hullfish, ACE, and the “Art of the Cut” podcast on Ex-Twitter. Buy his book “Art of the Cut. Conversations with Film and TV Editors” (Routledge, 2017).
Read the transcription of this interview:
Kirk Baxter, ACE, director David Fincher’s long-time editor, talks about the power of believing in the process, pacing, and voiceover changes on the action-packed thriller.
Steve Hullfish, ACE
November 23, 2023
Art of the Cut (Boris FX)
nin.com
November 10, 2023
Photo by John Crawford
The Killer Original Score by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, from the film directed by David Fincher, is available now:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music
bandcamp
TIDAL
pandora
Tracklist:
Music written, arranged, produced, performed, programmed, and mixed by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Engineer: Jacob Moreno
As his new film gets ready to hit Netflix, the legendary director talks to Nick Chen about The Smiths, Michael Fassbender, and the similarities between directors and hitmen.
Nick Chen
November 6, 2023
Dazed
To prove the catchiness of “Unhappy Birthday” by The Smiths, David Fincher sings to me the opening refrain with a huge grin. For our conversation, the 61-year-old director of feel-bad fare like Se7en, Zodiac, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is in surprisingly good spirits. Or bad spirits, given the miserabilist nature of The Smiths.
In Fincher’s sleek, bleak thriller The Killer, his second feature for Netflix, there are 11 killer songs by The Smiths on the soundtrack. An unnamed hitman (Michael Fassbender) – simply The Killer, in the credits – calms his nerves when operating a sniper rifle by listening to “How Soon Is Now?”, the tremolo reverberating through his earphones. “That guitar shouldn’t be comforting, because it’s sinister,” says Fincher, speaking in Ham Yard Hotel during the London Film Festival. “But to me, it’s comforting. We originally had Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees. [Trent] Reznor was like, ‘Every time we use The Smiths, it’s just funny.’”
After the black-and-white seriousness of Mank, Fincher has returned to the kind of big-screen, popcorn fun he delivered in Gone Girl – except it also mischievously isn’t. Adapted from a French graphic novel, The Killer is less of a John Wick-esque, gun-toting adventure and more observing an assassin do admin to bypass security measures. He shuffles through paperwork to identify home addresses, and fills in endless forms to join a victim’s gym. To remain faceless, he picks up Amazon purchases from a locker and eats at a McDonald’s that doesn’t involve entering a building. If it weren’t too meta, he’d wind down by using someone else’s password to stream Fincher’s House of Cards on Netflix.
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.
Rick Rubin (Mike Blabac) and Trent Reznor (Baldur Bragason)
Rick Rubin
June 14, 2023
Tetragrammaton
Trent Reznor is a musician, songwriter, and composer. As the creative force behind Nine Inch Nails, Trent has continuously pushed the boundaries of music, crafting powerful and innovative music that has captivated audiences worldwide. He has also scored numerous films, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy for his work on both The Social Network and Soul.
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nin.com
Release date: February 2, 2023
The critically acclaimed score for David Fincher‘s Mank from Academy Award™ winners Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. Featuring 90 minutes of new compositions in the style of orchestral, big band, and foxtrot music of the 1940s.
3xLP pressed on 180-gram vinyl in a deluxe hinged box set. Foil-stamped canvas spine.
Tracklist
Side A
1. Welcome to Victorville
2. Trapped!
3. All This Time
4. Enter Menace
5. First Dictation
6. A Fool’s Paradise
7. Once More unto The Breach
8. About Something
9. Glendale Station
10. What’s at Stake?
11. Every Thing You Do
Side B
12. Cowboys and Indians
13. Presumed Lost
14. (If Only You Could) Save Me
15. Means of Escape
16. All This Time (A White Parasol)
17. M.G.M.
18. A Respectable Bribe
19. I, Governor of California
20. A Leaden Silence
21. San Simeon Waltz
22. Time Running Out
Side C
23. Mank-Heim
24. Lend Me A Buck?
25. You Wanted to See Me?
26. In Your Arms Again
27. The Dark Night of The Soul
28. Clouds Gather
29. Way Back When
30. An Idea Takes Hold
31. Marion’s Exit
32. Absolution
Side D
33. Scenes from Election Night
34. Election Night-Mare
35. All This Time (Dance Interrupted)
36. All This Time (Victorious)
37. I’m Eve
38. A Rare Bird
39. Look at What We Did
40. Menace Returns
41. Forgive Me
42. Final Regards
43. Where Else Would I Be?
Side E
44. The Organ Grinder
45. All This Time (Not No More)
46. Costume Party
47. Dulcinea
48. Shoot-Out at The Ok Corral
49. The Organ Grinder’s Monkey
50. An Act of Purging Violence
51. All This Time (Happily Ever After)
52. A Rare Bird (Reprise)
Order the Mank (Original Musical Score) Deluxe Edition 3xLP
Mank marked the fourth collaboration between Fincher, Reznor & Ross.
They will reunite again for The Killer, out November 10 on Netflix.
Edith Bowman
December 26, 2022
Soundtracking with Edith Bowman
Now, Christmas week is just about to get a whole lot cooler, as we welcome Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to Soundtracking for a second time
Edith LOVES talking to this dynamic duo about film music, and the good news is we have two of their scores to unpack: the first being for Luca Guadagnino‘s Bones And All and the second for Sam Mendes‘ Empire Of Light.
They also confirm that they have scored The Killer for David Fincher.
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deezer
Jazz Tangcay
April 5, 2021
Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF)
Variety’s seventh annual Artisan Awards celebrates those essential to the filmmaking process and who have exhibited the most exciting and innovative work of the year in their respective fields.
The Variety Artisans Award were presented to Editor Alan Baumgarten (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker (Sound of Metal), Costume Designer Alexandra Byrne (Emma), Production Designer Donald Graham Burt and Set Decorator Jan Pascale (Mank), Visual Effects Supervisor Sean Faden (Mulan), Hair Department Head Mia Neal (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Actor and Musician Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), Musicians Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Mank, Soul), Cinematographer Joshua James Richards (Nomadland).
The Fincher Analyst 