David Fincher and Netflix have a proven track record for being a successful combo. Their collaboration on the series House of Cards changed the nature not only of Netflix originals, but also of modern television as a whole. Now, the director is teaming up with the streaming service yet again in the upcoming series Mindhunter.
IndieWire reported that Netflix has now released the final trailer ahead of Mindhunter’s premiere later this week. The 10-part series follows the true story of FBI agents in the 1970s who used the help of serial killers to catch other murderers out in the world. Jonathan Groff (Frozen, Glee) and Holt McCallany (Shot Caller, Sully) play the two FBI agents at the center of the story. David Fincher is director and executive producer on the series.
John E. Douglas’ true crime book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit served as inspiration and source material for the series. In the book, Douglas recounts his interviews with notorious criminals such as Charles Manson and the Boston Strangler in order to catch other murderers at large.
Though the series might seem to be in the vein of Fincher’s own film Zodiac, which told the story of the infamous Zodiac Killer in San Francisco during the 1960s and 70s, Fincher said that this series actually works to undo the narrative pushed by films like Zodiac. The filmmaker said he found that many popular crime films present serial killers as highbrow criminal masterminds, and that he wanted a more honest approach with Mindhunter.
“I don’t want to talk about the gourmet, you know, opera expert — to me these are very sad people under who have, you know, grown up under horrendous circumstances,” Fincher explained. “We’d seen so much of this sort of literary conceit of [how] there’s a very fine line [that] separates the hunters from the hunted. And I really thought it was time to sort of take that back and make it, really, the reason that we are fascinated with them is because we’re nothing like them. They are unfathomable.”
Fincher is known for his keen ability to handle disturbing storylines and subject material, and it will no doubt be interesting to see the director known for films such as Zodiac and Seven take on the story behind Mindhunter.
Mindhunter premieres Friday, October 13th on Netflix.