The ZODIAC script

Who is our greatest living director? This question inspires endless strong opinions from the film community. It’s the one argument we debate again and again, refining and revising as each new film from our personal pick is released for scrutiny. Scorsese is a popular choice (and Roger Ebert’s pick.) You got your Spielberg people, your Eastwood camp, and more inspired choices like Terry Gilliam, Quinten Tarantino, Robert Zemeckis, Peter Jackson, James Cameron and P.T. Anderson.



Me? I’m a David Fincher fanatic.









There are (arguably) only five directors who’ve truly learned to master all aspects of filmmaking. Many great directors know everything about performance, but care little about camera technique. (Sydney Pollack, Curtis Hanson). And many showoffs can do neat things with a camera, except film a credible relationship (paging Michael Bay). But directors who are masters of both…you’ve got Spielberg, Cameron, Jackson, Zemeckis, and Fincher.

Four of these directors have Oscars, and it would be difficult for me to explain why I think Fincher is better (plus it’s not the point of this article.) But when I watch a film from the other masters, I stare in awe and I have a deep admiration for what they do, but Fincher films transport me. I don’t just watch and regard a Fincher film, on first viewing I am in it, absorbing the experience.
While other directors build on or outright copy tricks from Fincher, he creates fresh cinema, trying new techniques every time out. (Anyone who saw the making of documentary on PANIC ROOM, knows what I’m talking about. And I guarantee you Jodie Foster’s performance in FLIGHTPLAN will be compared to her work here.)
Which brings me to the script for ZODIAC (or as I like to call it, “David Fincher’s Next Masterpiece.”) [FYI: The draft I read is dated 3/25/05 and runs a lengthy 189 pages.]

The script is tailor made for Fincher’s style. In particular, an early scene which follows a letter and our lead character in one long, super-tricky shot. But this is not just a trip down familiar territory for Fincher. He’s been handed some of the best sequences of his career. Incredible to read, I can’t imagine how Fincher plans to film some of these tasty bits (which is why I didn’t mind reading the script.)

There’s a shooting where pages of dreadful suspense lead to a slowed down description of the numerous gunshots. Another murder contains the warning “Dear God, we’re actually going to have to watch this.” Which brings me to another reason why I love Fincher. He makes thrillers for Adults and doesn’t pull punches to get a wider audience.

ZODIAC gives Fincher the opportunity to attain a whole new level of credibility. Like Cameron’s TITANIC and Spielberg’s SCHINDLER’S LIST, Fincher is making a film in the world of the real and the true. The Zodiac killings, which terrorized San Francisco in the late 60’s and early 70’s, are still an open wound for the city, in particular for the officers and journalists covering the case. The case was sensationalized for DIRTY HARRY (presented in a superb scene where the detectives watch the film, angry at Hollywood’s simplistic solution.) Like SE7EN, the script takes a methodical approach to the details, never overlooking the emotional toll it takes on the characters.
On top of that, I’ve learned that Fincher personally interviewed numerous people involved with the case, returning with pages of new material he wants to pack into an already stuffed script.

And so far the film is cast to near perfection. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist with the San Francisco Chronicle whose rare intelligence brings him into the case with the paper’s self-destructive Ace reporter, played by Robert Downey Jr. (who should knock this out of the park.)

Meanwhile Mark Ruffalo is Detective David Toschi who becomes obsessed with the case. I know that sounds cliché, but the character is given a lot of nuance and layer and feels very real on the page, like this is the guy that cliché obsessed detectives are based on.

Special mention to his partner, Bill Armstrong, played by Anthony Edwards. I especially liked how Armstrong doesn’t play 2nd banana, and gets equal time with Toschi. I hope Edwards doesn’t full under the editor’s knife, because he emerges as one of the most interesting characters and his final beat is my favorite moment of the script.

Gary Oldman plays a lawyer named Belli. Described as “a rotund attorney with a foppish fashion sense” the character reads perfectly fussy for Paul Giamatti. But Oldman can play anything and do a good job of it, so he’ll be more than fine.

What matters is Fincher has a damn near perfect story to tell. It starts as a white-knuckle serial killer film, turns into a “Law & Order” style detective piece (with a lot of character beats) and eventually unfolds into a JFK style re-examination of the clues and events as our heroes desperately try and find the killer. It’s a great read. I can only imagine how it will play once it goes through the Fincher process. Safe to say, there’s no film in 2007 I’m looking forward to more.