Gary Oldman is to star in a biopic about the writer of ‘Citizen Kane’.
The 61-year-old actor will join forces with David Fincher on the movie, which will be the filmmaker’s first feature film since 2014, about screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz.
According to Variety, Oldman is in line to portray the lead role in the motion picture, ‘Mank’, which is based on a script penned by Fincher’s late father Jack, who passed away in 2003.
Sources told the publication that the film will follow the tumultuous development of the script between Mankiewicz and the movie’s director Orson Welles.
Production will begin in November and the motion picture will be shot in black and white.
Cean Chaffin and Douglas Urbanski will produce alongside Fincher.
‘Citizen Kane’ starred Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Everett Sloane, Ray Collins and even Welles himself.
While the 1941 mystery drama movie was nominated for nine Academy Awards, it only picked up one, for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) thanks to Mankiewicz and Welles’ script.
Fincher is also expected to helm a ‘World War Z’ sequel, but earlier this year it was reported production had stopped following a budget dispute.
Production was due to start on the movie – which is to star Brad Pitt – over the summer.
Sources said at the time that the project was still in the early stages and Paramount had been looking to fill out the cast, but the studio had concerns with the budget.
The original movie also hit budget issues in pre-production, and its costs spiralled further when producers brought Damon Lindelof in at the last minute to do extensive rewrites on the final third of the project, after filming had wrapped, causing a delay on its release.
Paramount executive Marc Evans previously admitted drastic action was needed following a screening of the movie, which saw the entire room fall silent afterwards.
He previously said: "It was, like, Wow. The ending of our movie doesn’t work. I believed in that moment we needed to reshoot the movie."
Gary Oldman to star in Citizen Kane writer biopic
