Netflix truly is the new home for auteurs. First it was Adam Sandler, and then Cary Fukunaga. Now, David Fincher — who produces and has directed Neflix’s House of Cards — is returning to the streaming service with Mindhunter, a series based on the 1996 non-fiction book Mind Hunter: Inside The FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, according to The Hollywood Reporter . Fincher will co-produce with Charlize Theron, and is expected to direct. It’s not clear whether or not Theron will star in the series or will just be acting behind the scenes.
The book, written by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, tells of Douglas’ work tracking down serial killers while working with the FBI. The script will be written by Joe Penhall, who wrote The Road, and the entire project has been in the works for more than four years—it was originally in development at HBO, but obviously that’s no longer the case.
The book takes a long look at the FBI’s profiling techniques, so perhaps this series will be more based in reality than something like, say, Criminal Minds. Fincher’s inclusion guarantees that, at the very least, it will be more stylistically advanced than that show, and the long development window hopefully helped the series establish its own distinctive point-of-view, because lord knows the last thing the world needs is another damn cop show.
There’s not yet word of a potential release date for the series.