Advertisement

Mank. Mank. Mank? Mank! David Fincher's 'Mank' Trailer Is Here

From Esquire

The trailer for David Fincher's noirish Thirties Hollywood biopic Mank has dropped. Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins all feature heavily, and there's a particularly good bit where lots of different characters say 'Mank'. Mank. Mank. Mank! Mank? Mank!! Maaaaaaaank.

"Herman Mankiewicz!" says Charles Dance's Randolph Hearst, extremely helpfully avoiding nicknames and getting to brass tacks. "New York playwright and drama critic..."

"Turned humble screenwriter, Mr Hearst," continues Gary Oldman as Herbert 'Mank' Mankiewicz. Mank will follow this humble screenwriter, humble genius and and humble chronic alcoholic, as he tries to get it together to write Citizen Kane with Orson Welles.

This trailer has also confirmed that this is going to be a film with a raging horn for the Golden Age of Hollywood, in all its sleazy innocence.

"This is a business where the buyer gets nothing for his money but a memory, and what he bought still belongs to the man who sold it," says a bald man stomping around a studio backlot. "That's the real magic of the movies." Is there anything more Hollywood Golden Age than a circus strong man carrying prop dumbbells? No, there is not.

Photo credit: Netflix
Photo credit: Netflix

There was also a pointer that Mank isn't going to be a totally literal retelling of Mankiewicz' life: "You cannot capture a man's life in two hours," Mankiewicz slurs over the trailer, "all you can hope is to leave the impression of one."

Fincher's Mank looks like it'll be telling the story in the style of Citizen Kane itself: in black and white, using period lenses and with a soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross using only period instruments. There's also a very nice hand-drawn poster, which is well worth a look.

Mank is set to come out in cinemas in late November before hitting Netflix on 4 December.

Like this article? Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox

SIGN UP

Need some positivity right now? Subscribe to Esquire now for a hit of style, fitness, culture and advice from the experts

SUBSCRIBE

You Might Also Like