David Fincher reveals why ‘Mindhunter’ discontinued
David Fincher isn’t giving up on Mindhunter just yet. However, the director admits that the Netflix series about the FBI’s initial attempts at profiling serial killers may not have much of a future provided its price tag, reported Variety.
“I don’t know if it makes sense to continue,” Fincher told the outlet during an interview for a cover story on the making of Mank. “It was an expensive show. It had a very passionate audience, but we never got the numbers that justified the cost.”
Earlier, the season three of Mindhunter had been put on an indefinite hold by Netflix, while cast members had been released from their contracts. According to TVLine, the move was made due to scheduling conflicts at producer Fincher’s end. A Netflix representative released a statement confirming the same, “David is focused on directing his first Netflix film Mank and on producing the second season of Love, Death and Robots.”
He then confessed that the second season was a nightmare to produce. Fincher had fired the initial showrunner and tossed out eight scripts, along with the “show bible,” which outlined all the details of Mindhunter’s on-screen universe.
He ended up moving to Pittsburgh to oversee production on the season. “It was exhausting,” added Peter Mavromates, Mindhunter and Mank’s co-producer. “Even when he (Fincher) wasn’t directing an episode, he was overseeing it.”
The Netflix series which starred Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv as FBI agents who launch a task force to interview serial killers as a way of understanding their pathology, debuted in 2017. Fincher had hoped to have a new series appear every 12 to 14 months, but production headaches meant there was a two-year delay between seasons. The sophomore season focused largely on the “Atlanta Child Murders.”
“I certainly needed some time away,” says Fincher. “We had all hands on deck to finish (season two) and we didn’t have a ton of scripts and a ton of outlines and a bible standing by for season three. I’ll admit I was a little bit like ‘I don’t know that I’m ready to spend another two years in the crawl space.’”
Fincher is hoping that an indefinite hiatus might reignite his passion for the material and says he’d like the series to end with the FBI taking Dennis Rader, the real-life BTK Stranger played by Sonny Valicenti, into custody.
“At some point I’d love to revisit it,” admitted Fincher. “The hope was to get all the way up to the late 90’s, early 2000’s, hopefully get all the way up to people knocking on the door at Dennis Rader’s house.”
Fincher’s next feature film, Mank, is being released by Netflix in selected theaters this month before heading to the streamer on December 4. It looks at Herman J. Mankiewicz, the brilliant, but troubled screenwriter behind Citizen Kane.
Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.
Article source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/2272924/david-fincher-reveals-why-mindhunter-discontinued