Rian Johnson
November 15, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams
Director David Fincher and actor Michael Fassbender discuss making The Killer with moderator Rian Johnson at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.
Watch The Killer on Netflix
Tag: Soundtrack (Score, Music)
In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” in New York
October 27, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams
David Fincher discusses the making of The Killer with Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, Editor Kirk Baxter, and Sound Designer Ren Klyce, after the “Tastemaker” screening for The Academy at the Whitby Hotel in New York.
Watch The Killer on Netflix
In Conversation: David Fincher and The Crew of “The Killer” at the Academy Museum
Elvis Mitchell
October 24, 2023
Netflix: Behind the Streams
Director David Fincher, Editor Kirk Baxter, Writer Andrew Kevin Walker, Sound Designer Ren Klyce, and Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt, discuss their film The Killer with moderator Elvis Mitchell at The Academy Museum in Los Angeles.
Watch the conversation with subtitles in French, Spanish, and Italian.
Watch The Killer on Netflix
David Fincher and Sound Designer Ren Klyce at The Egyptian Theater: “The Killer” Screening and Q&A
Froilan Fuentes
Jim Hemphill
November 9, 2023
West Coast POPCast (YouTube)
The Egyptian Theatre re-opened in Hollywood with a special screening of The Killer, followed by a Q&A with Director David Fincher and Sound Designer Ren Klyce hosted by Jim Hemphill.
David Fincher at The Cinémathèque Française: “The Killer” Screening and Q&A
Frédéric Bonnaud, Director of the Cinémathèque française
Anaïs Duchet, Interpreter
October 13, 2023
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française (French Cinematheque) hosted a David Fincher Retrospective from October 13 to 22, 2023, in Paris (France).
Supported by Netflix, Patron of the Cinémathèque, it opened with a preview screening of The Killer followed by a Q&A with Director David Fincher, and Director of Photography Erik Messerschmidt, ASC.
The next day, a screening of Zodiac was followed by a discussion with the director about the film and his career.
‘The Killer’ filmmakers David Fincher, Andrew Kevin Walker on paring down the dialogue and being inspired by Don Siegel
David Fincher, Erik Messerschmidt, Michael Fassbender (Monaris / Netflix)
The Killer sees David Fincher deliver a lean, efficient and darkly funny hitman tale. Screen talks to the filmmaker and screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker about bringing a French graphic novel to the screen.
Mark Salisbury (Ex-Twitter)
December 20,2023
ScreenDaily
“Obviously, I’m drawn to nihilism,” says a grinning David Fincher, director of Se7en, Fight Club and Gone Girl, when asked why he wanted to adapt French graphic novel series The Killer into a film. “But I wanted to make a fucking Don Siegel movie. I wanted to make a Michael Winner movie. I’m so tired of slogging through characters you create to deliver some idea of backstory. What’s the greatest backstory in the history of motion pictures? ‘What were you doing in Chinatown, Jake?’ ‘As little as possible.’ It explains everything in one line.
“I love it when you can distil motivation down to these incredibly brief and simple evocations,” he continues. “I’m tired of two-hour 45-minute movies, and two-hour 30-minute movies. I’m tired of making them. I’m joking, but does it warrant it? Then I started thinking about Get Carter, Charley Varrick. Movies where it just is what it is.”
This was back in 2007, when the graphic novel series — written by Alexis ‘Matz’ Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon, and first published in 1998 — was being developed into a film by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Paramount. Fincher was intrigued, but was directing Pitt in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, so was not ready to commit. “It wasn’t like you were going, ‘This has to be seen.’ It was more of a way to explore some things I was interested in — the broadest brushstrokes of backstory and this idea of intercepted thought. Why is it we assume when we hear a character’s thoughts that it’s the truth? I don’t know people who aren’t lying to themselves.”
Fincher approached Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who had done uncredited rewrites on Fight Club and The Game as well as work on several unmade Fincher projects — among them The Girl Who Played With Fire, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, an adaptation of Arthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous With Rama and a remake of The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud — to see if he was interested in adapting The Killer. But Walker was not, according to Fincher. “He didn’t want to touch it then.”
Mix Presents Sound For Film: The Sound of “The Killer”
Jennifer Walden
December 13, 2023
Mix
Join Mix’s Jennifer Walden as she speaks with the audio pros behind director David Fincher’s action thriller, ‘The Killer.’ Discussing their work on the film are:
- Ren Klyce, Sound Designer, Re-recording Mixer, and Supervising Sound Editor
- Jeremy Molod, Supervising Sound Editor
- Stephen Urata, Re-recording Mixer
- Drew Kunin, Production Sound Mixer
Presented by Netflix.
‘Killer’ Sound Designer Ren Klyce Thrives Under the Challenge of Artistic Constraints
Clarence Moye
December 14, 2023
AwardsDaily
Netflix’s The Killer marks sound designer Ren Klyce’s 13th collaboration with David Fincher on a project spanning film and television. Their creative partnership resulted in Klyce receiving six Academy Award nominations, most recently for 2020’s Mank. (Klyce also received three other Oscar nominations for Disney-based work.) His work with Fincher excels creatively based on a shorthand gained from decades of idea sharing and artistic challenges that often redefine the relationship between sound design and the audience.
Fincher’s creativity and way of looking at a scene differently can still strike fear in the hearts of his filmmaking partners.
Take the climactic fight sequence in The Killer between Michael Fassbender’s Killer and Sala Baker’s Brute. Traditional filmmaking and sound design would have incorporated fight-based vocalizations (grunts, etc.) within the audio.
But Fincher had different ideas for the scene.
From The Frame: David Fincher, What Often Goes Unnoticed
November 30, 2023
From the Frame
David Fincher’s films have often been analyzed for their visual style – the exacting cinematography, precise editing, muted color palette, and meticulous construction of the frame. But with the release of The Killer, people are starting to take note of another aspect – his evocative use of SOUND. However, you can’t really discuss the sonic landscape of a Fincher film without talking about his longest creative collaborator – sound designer Ren Klyce. From Se7en to The Killer, and every project in between, Klyce’s mixes have provided a crucial aural backdrop, frequently blurring the line between sound and music. They both build a textural ambience that sets the tone of the film while also allowing us to access the subjectivity of the characters on screen. So let’s explore how a David Fincher film sounds.
CHAPTERS:
0:00: Intro
1:33: Se7en & Ren Klyce
2:43: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5:01: Zodiac & Musique Concrète
8:15: Role as Re-recording Mixer
10:33: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
11:43: The Social Network & Expressionistic Sound
SOURCES:
- Sound + Image Lab: David Fincher and Ren Klyce Transport Us to The Golden Age of Hollywood in “Mank”
- SoundWorks Collection: The Sound and Music of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Mix Magazine 2020: The Music in Sound with Ren Klyce
- SoundWorks Collection: The Sound and Music of “The Social Network” Panel
“The Killer” sound designer, editor, mixer Ren Klyce: “I’m finally figuring out how to do my job”
Ray Richmond
December 5, 2023
Gold Derby
You wouldn’t think that Ren Klyce would have a whole lot more to learn about his job as a sound professional on movies. He’s been at it for nearly 30 years, going back to “Se7en” in 1995 and presiding as director David Fincher‘s designated sound guy ever since. He’s earned nine Academy Award nominations for his sonic work, including on Fincher’s “Fight Club,” “The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Mank.” And yet while discussing his latest collaboration with his favorite director, Netflix‘s “The Killer,” he asserts, “I learned a lot on this film. I think I learn every time. I always think, ‘Oh, I’m finally figuring out how to do my job.’ You get a new project and you realize that you’re learning a whole new set of skills. I like the idea that there’s still sort of a beginner mentality to the approach, and I think that’s actually a healthy way to do any type of work, honestly.”
The Fincher Analyst 