David Fincher’s Next Film Mank is Halfway Done

Indiewire and The Daily Press report that principal photography is halfway completed on David Fincher’s new film Mank, which follows the making of Citizen Kane. It’s his first film since 2014’s Gone Girl.

The film has been under production at Kemper Campbell Ranch in Victorville, California. Location manager William Doyle chose the location due to its connection to the story. The film was written by Fincher’s father Jack and follows Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he tries to complete writing the script for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. Mankiewicz won the Oscar for that script. Doyle has said the movie won’t just be a biopic about the writer.

Mankiewicz was known for his drinking and after he suffered a leg injury in a car crash, Welles took him to Kemper Campbell Ranch so he could finish without distractions. He worked on it for two months and went through hundreds of draft pages before giving it to Welles to edit.

Doyle said: “The place hasn’t changed. You get over that hill into that ranch, and you’re in this tiny time capsule. Here you are where Herman Mankiewicz really sat, and stood and wrote this story.”

The film also stars Amanda Seyfried as actress Marion Davies, Lily Collins as Mankiewicz’s secretary Rita Alexander, Tuppence Middleton as wife Sara Mankiewicz, and Tom Burke as Orson Welles. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, frequent Fincher collaborators, will provide the score. It will be released by Netflix in the fall of 2020.