How Netflix has sold a drama about an assassination gone wrong
The Killer hits Netflix this week from director David Fincher and writer Andrew Kevin Walker. Not to be confused with John Woo’s 1989 action classic, the movie is an adaptation of the graphic novel from writer Alexis Nolent and illustrator Luc Jacamon.
Michael Fassbender stars as the hitman known simply as The Killer. When a contracted killing goes wrong The Killer finds himself on the run and, upon finding his girlfriend Magdala (Sophie Charlotte) has been targeted by those who wish to do him harm, out for revenge. Despite this, he insists what he does isn’t personal, that he is just doing what he can do without moral qualms or judgment.
Arliss Howard costars as The Client, the individual who hired The Killer for the job that ultimately went sideways, while Tilda Swinton costars as fellow assassin The Expert. With all that established, let’s look at the marketing campaign from Netflix.
announcement and casting
Fincher had been developing the project since 2007 but it wasn’t until 2021 that it went into production at Netflix, where the director recently setup an overall deal. Fassbender and Swinton were officially cast in the last half of that year.
Oddly, some of the first looks at the movie came in behind the scenes footage included in an episode of Fassbender’s YouTube series about qualifying race cars at Le Mans, with the actor talking about how this was his first acting job in a few years and what it was like working with Fincher.
A handful of clips from the movie was included in Netflix’s 2023 sizzle reel of original movies coming out this year.
the marketing campaign
The official marketing campaign launched at the end of August with the release of a teaser trailer (10m YouTube plays). Between the deep, thumping audio track and the orange color palette it’s easy to identify this as a Fincher film. In terms of actual footage, the focus is on how methodical and unfeeling The Killer is as he goes about his business, all while the voiceover has him reminding himself to “Stick to the plan” and not get emotional about what’s happening.
A teaser poster came out at the same time that features a painted look and feel to the image of The Killer staring down the barrel of his gun at the camera.
Shortly after that the movie had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in early September. Fassbender wasn’t there, of course, but Fincher spoke about his goal of making the main character someone who could be anyone, not a glaring bad guy but simply an individual without any sympathy.
An additional festival screening took place at the BFI London Film Festival in early October. That was followed in mid-October by the New York Film Festival, a surprise addition announced at the end of September. Around that time Netflix announced this movie would serve as the opening feature at the newly-renovated Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles.
The official trailer (5.8m YouTube plays) wasn’t released until the end of October. It again doesn’t offer any story details beyond establishing how cold and methodical The Killer is, instead focusing on showing the audience just how sternly he can walk down hallways, prepare for the assassinations he’s hired to carry out and so on. It’s all about vibes, but that’s not surprising given both the subject matter and the fact it’s Fincher directing.
The same painted look is sported on the theatrical poster, which puts The Killer in profile and adds some of the supporting characters around him. On both this and the teaser poster the title treatment features a bullet hole where the “i” should be, with that letter on its side like it’s been taken out by the assassin.
overall
As I said above, there’s a lot about this campaign that clearly identifies the movie as coming from Fincher, which is part of the plan since the director has a solid reputation among moviegoers and a pretty devoted fanbase.
Other than that the main point is that The Killer is a cold-hearted, serious assassin, a message conveyed almost entirely through visuals since there’s little dialogue in the trailers and not much else in the way of supporting materials. Whether that’s enough to get audiences interested in the movie remains to be seen.
Cinematic Slant 