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Zodiac (2007)
Zodiac is a 2007 American crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by James Vanderbilt, based on the nonfiction books by Robert Graysmith: Zodiac (1986) and Zodiac Unmasked (2002). It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr., with Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Chloë Sevigny, Philip Baker Hall, and Dermot Mulroney in supporting roles.
Directed by David Fincher · Shot by Haris Savides · Cut by Angus Wall · Music by David Shire · 158 min
How it was made
- Fincher had the screenplay rewritten from original police reports rather than secondary accounts, and hired forensic linguist Gerald McMenamin to analyse the sentence structure and spelling of the real Zodiac letters.
- Fincher shot the film on the digital Thomson Viper FilmStream camera, a system he had trialled on commercials for Nike and Heineken, while still using traditional high-speed film cameras for the slow-motion murder sequences.
- Footage from the Viper was converted to DVCPro HD 1080i and cut in Final Cut Pro for editorial decisions only; the final assembly was built from uncompressed 1080p 4:4:4 RAW source files kept as an up-to-date digital negative throughout post-production.
- Cinematographer Harris Savides deliberately avoided repeating Seven's stylised look, aiming instead for a visual mundaneness that would make the film's version of events read as fact rather than spectacle.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by David Fincher
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