Mank is an upcoming American biographical drama film about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his battles with director Orson Welles over screenplay credit for Citizen Kane (1941). The film is directed by David Fincher, based on a script written by his father Jack who died in 2003, and is produced by Fincher, Cean Chaffin, Douglas Urbanski, and Eric Roth. The film Gary Oldman stars in the title role, while Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, and Charles Dance also star. The film is distributed by Netflix.
Mank was announced in July 2019, when David Fincher said he would direct the film, with Gary Oldman set to star. The screenplay was written by Fincher's father, Jack Fincher, prior to his death in 2003. The additional casting was announced in October, with Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, Arliss Howard, and Charles Dance among the new cast added.
Fincher reunites with much of his usual filmmaking team, including composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, using only period-authentic instruments and production designer Donald Graham Burt. Fincher opted for cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (ASC) with whom he worked on his Netflix series Mindhunter. Filming began on November 1, 2019, in Los Angeles. It also took place in Victorville, California, and wrapped on February 4, 2020.
The 120-page draft of the initial script revealed that Jack Fincher closely followed a claim voiced by Pauline Kael in her 1971 New Yorker article Raising Kane that Welles did not deserve screenwriting credit. The article angered many critics, including Orson's friend and fellow filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich who rebutted Kael's claims point by point in "The Kane Mutiny", an October 1972 article for Esquire. Her argument was discredited by several film scholars through the years, including Robert L. Carringer in his study of "The Scripts of Citizen Kane.
The story centers around the life of Herman J. Mankiewicz as he wrote Citizen Kane, and the problems that arose with Orson Welles during production and leading up to the film's release. The Summer Movie Season may have been effectively canceled this year, but if all goes according to plan, we will have a new David Fincher movie to devour this fall.
After spending a few years basically show running the Netflix series Mindhunter and developing a World War Z sequel only to see Paramount balk at the budget at the last minute, David Fincher turned his attention to a passion project called Mank.
Based on a screenplay by his own father Jack Fincher, the film tells the true story behind the making of Citizen Kane, chronicling the relationship between groundbreaking filmmaker/star Orson Welles and the film’s screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. Debates have swirled for years over whether Kane was Welles’ vision or Mankiewicz’s.
Oscar-winning Forrest Gump scribe Eric Roth, who wrote Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, said on the Pardon My Take podcast recently (via The Film Stage), that Mank is supposed to be released by Netflix in October.
Mank Movie Cast
- Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz
- Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies
- Lily Collins as Rita Alexander
- Arliss Howard as Louis B. Mayer
- Tom Pelphrey as Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Sam Troughton as John Houseman
- Ferdinand Kingsley as Irving Thalberg
- Tuppence Middleton as Sara Mankiewicz
- Tom Burke as Orson Welles
- Joseph Cross as Charles Lederer
- Jamie McShane as Shelly Metcalf
- Toby Leonard Moore as David O. Selznick
- Monika Grossman as Fraulein Freda
- Charles Dance as William Randolph Hearst
- Jeff Harms as Ben Hecht
- Leven Rambin as Eve
Mank Movie Release Date
This Mank release date has not been verified by the streamer, and indeed they usually like to keep their release dates under wraps until much closer to when the film will be unveiled. It’s also possible that Mank was supposed to be released in October but may have to be delayed. The film was able to complete principal photography, but post-production was underway when the COVID shutdown happened and it’s unclear if that’s been able to progress well enough to hit an October debut date.
But that month sounds right. Mank is undoubtedly an Oscar contender for Netflix, and since the streamer recently announced it will be skipping the fall film festival season where many awards contenders launches, releasing the movie in October gives it a bit of a longer lead on Oscar season as opposed to dropping it in November or December.
Roth also offered some tantalizing teases about the film’s aesthetics. We know it will be in black and white, with Fincher working with his Mindhunter cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, but Roth says the entire style of the film is that of a 1930s movie.
The ensemble cast is led by Gary Oldman as the title character alongside Tom Burke as Orson Welles, Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies, Lily Collins as Rita Alexander, and Ozark breakout Tom Pelphrey as Mank’s brother.
So here’s hoping that the October release date turns out to be true. The way 2020 is going, we’re really going to need a new Fincher movie to look forward to later this year.
Mank Movie Trailer
The review of the film will be coming soon
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