March 1st: ZODIAC (David Fincher, 2007)

The search for a serial killer in California's Bay Area becomes the obsession of two detectives and two journalists over a 20-year period.



The Zodiac Killer is one of the great unsolved murder cases in American history, and the story of the protracted investigation has been shepherded over the years by former newspaper cartoonist Robert Graysmith, whose ability to crack encrypted code led to an eventual longtime association with the case, and resulted in his bestselling book about the subject. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt brought his script to the attention of director David Fincher, who joined the production after abandoning a project based on the unsolved Black Dahlia murder.



Fincher, Vanderbilt, and Graysmith essentially "reopened" the case and conducted a whole new series of interviews with various people connected to the murders, and also had new forensic experts examine pieces of evidence. To ensure a thorough portrayal of the story, they fought with studios to insure a longer running time for the film, and insisted on meticulous attention to detail in the production design (especially the staging of the various murders) to make the film as realistic as possible.



Starring in the film are Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, and Anthony Edwards, as well as a deep cast of seasoned character actors. The cinematographer is Harris Savides, who had also shot Fincher's previous Bay Area-set film The Game. Fincher decided to shoot the film digitally on the Viper camera to reduce the budget as well as his stress about the film development process. While many hit songs are used to illustrate the passage of time, Fincher also wanted original music for the film, and hunted down David Shire, who had been responsible for memorable film work in the 1970's (The Conversation, All The President's Men).



Zodiac was released to a very good critical response, but failed to make much of a dent in the box office and was largely ignored during the very competitive awards season of 2007. It is now considered by many to be Fincher's best work to date.



Running time is approx. 2.5 hours.