The Assassin on Netflix: Which French Comic Is David Fincher’s New Movie Adapted From?

Finally available on Netflix, The Killer is one of the most anticipated films from the great director on the platform. This new thriller in six chapters from David Fincher, who signed an exclusive contract with the platform, immerses us in the psyche of a killer who fights against his employers and himself, in a punitive mission around the world that is supposed to be nothing personal, after narrowly avoiding disaster.

The Assassin allows the filmmaker to return to his first love and first of all to see one of his long-standing projects brought to the screen. Indeed, David Fincher created a successful French comic book adaptation that he read when its English version was published in 2007.

For this, he found screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who had signed on to write the script for Seven but had also been involved in writing The Game and Fight Club (uncredited), so he could write the script for The Killer from that popular comic. .

Which French comic was adapted by David Fincher?

This comic is called The killer And his first volume was released in 1998! Twenty-five years later, the comic book series has 13 albums and is still not finished. This detective comic series, published by Casterman in the Ligne rouge collection, is owed to Frenchman Alexis Nolent (Matz) for the script and Luc Giacomoni for the illustration.

The comic tells the story of an assassin character, an assassin who coldly fulfills his contracts. There is almost no dialogue in these works, we mostly follow the inner monologue of the killer character through his memories, questions and state of mind.

“He told me he loved the comic, what it said, how the story unfolded, everything.”, Alexis Nolent explained at the film’s press conference. The author who put this dark humor and this cheeky tone into his work has not forgotten David Fincher’s enthusiasm for reading comics in his later years.

However, the adaptation project did not take off until Andrew Kevin Walker came on board. The screenwriter and the director have close ties after various collaborations and continue to be in touch.

As David Fincher explains, working together again on The Killer was a natural fit: “Andy and I have talked a lot about intercepting thoughts. How honest is this introspection?”

Indeed, the film adaptation takes on this mechanism of inner thoughts with a voiceover that underlines Michael Fassbender’s revenge story. As such, the plot is tighter than the comics, which are richer in twists and political context.

It was the immersion into the thoughts of the killer that fascinated David Fincher, who was confident in adapting the comics: “I love the idea of ​​Assassin’s Code. But from a narrative point of view, what took us to the next level was the fact that we were right in the center of subjectivity. We’re in this guy’s head.”

David Fincher’s The Killer is available on Netflix.