'I like killing people because it is so much fun.'

October 5, 2005 10:58 AM

This is the Zodiac speaking...I am waiting for a good movie about me. Who will play me. David Fincher's upcoming movie on the Zodiac Killer aims for historical accuracy and uses witnesses, survivors, detectives and reporters as consultants. A detective who worked on the original case says, "their investigation was deeper than anything I did at the time," and the filmmakers claim to have uncovered new evidence, but Fincher says, "What we've learned...we want to keep for our film." The case was deactivated in 2004. The killer sent taunting letters to the police and the media. (Podcast of interviews with a detective and a reporter who received a letter from the killer.)
Apparently the Zodiac Killer isn't a fan of the 1971 movie about the case, but he may have been inspired by a Charlie Chan movie [mp3]. Dirty Harry is loosely based on the case.
posted by kirkaracha (24 comments total)

Got to be better than the Halo flick. Thanks for the links.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:10 AM on October 5, 2005

David Fincher + Serial Killers = Classic
posted by blackvectrex at 11:18 AM on October 5, 2005

John Douglas' book, Cases That Haunt Us, has a great chapter on Zodiac. The case reads like a screenplay, especially with the near misses the police had in catching him. Fincher is one of the few director's that I'd trust to get the creepiness of the story down.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:19 AM on October 5, 2005 [1 favorite]

From the SFGate article:

the filmmakers claim they have discovered new, substantial evidence. "What we've learned from our research," Fischer said, "we want to keep for our film."

Is this ethical?
posted by mazola at 11:20 AM on October 5, 2005

I hear it'll be called EI8HT.
posted by Plutor at 11:27 AM on October 5, 2005

Robert Graysmith really dropped the ball as the go to author on this topic. After the arrest he republished, tacking on a small aftterword without digesting any of the new information.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:29 AM on October 5, 2005

David Fincher + Serial Killers + Robert Downey Jr. = Timeless Classic
posted by JeffK at 11:35 AM on October 5, 2005

Nicely played Plutor, nicely played.

I'm looking forward to this and the upcoming movie about Truman Capote.

The trailer for Capote and clips they showed on Ebert/Roeper look phenominal.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:40 AM on October 5, 2005

I hear it'll be called EI8HT.

Shouldn't it be TWE12E?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:46 AM on October 5, 2005

I'm looking forward to this and the upcoming movie about Truman Capote.


Don't get me started...(not here...wait until the right post).
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:47 AM on October 5, 2005

Was the Charlie Chan movie the one that had Caesar Romeo in it as the magician guy?
posted by unreason at 11:47 AM on October 5, 2005

The writers of the screenplay/book do not make me look forward to this flick, though I like Fincher. Hopefully he brought AK Walker in for (yet another) uncredited rewrite as he did on Fight Club and The Game.

As for Capote, I'm sure it'll be excellent. Bennett Miller's first film, The Cruise, is superb.
posted by dobbs at 11:57 AM on October 5, 2005

Oops. Pardon my previous dig at the screenwriter. I was viewing his credits but it appears those are for acting. This is his first script. Here's hoping he hits it out of the park.
posted by dobbs at 12:02 PM on October 5, 2005

Okay, I'm on crack, apparently (or just posting to MeFi when I should be working), as between posts I clicked the wrong tab and viewed the wrong writer's credits. The writer of Zodiac indeed has written poo in the past. It's the writer of Capote who's an actor and having his first at bat for writing the Miller film.

*slinks out of room*
posted by dobbs at 12:05 PM on October 5, 2005

the filmmakers claim they have discovered new, substantial evidence. "What we've learned from our research," Fischer said, "we want to keep for our film."

Is this ethical? - mazola

I wouldn't think so. Is it legal? I think that depends on what the 'evidence' is. That's what makes me think that claim is bogus and just meant to generate hype. /unadulterated speculation
posted by raedyn at 12:06 PM on October 5, 2005

no dobbs please stay!
posted by matteo at 12:17 PM on October 5, 2005

Shouldn't it be TWE12E?

Well, if you believe the Zodiac Killer, it's "Me - 37, SFPD - 0."
posted by kirkaracha at 12:47 PM on October 5, 2005

THIRTYS37EN?
posted by nervestaple at 1:20 PM on October 5, 2005

What I find freaky is that Andrew Kevin Walker and I graduated from the same high school. What's even weirder about my high school is that Dean R. Koontz taught English there briefly, but decided to quit teaching after working at my school, because he felt the principal put too much emphasis on enforcing dress codes (specifically, measuring miniskirt lengths) than on actual learning. In other words, my high school not only takes credit (or blame) for Andrew Kevin Walker, but also takes credit (or blame) for convincing Dean R. Koontz to write full time. Does anybody else have two horror writers that went to their high school?
posted by jonp72 at 2:49 PM on October 5, 2005

What arrest?

I think they're referring to Arthur Leigh Allen, a pedophile who was posthumously cleared of the Zodiac murders after tests done in 2003 showed that neither his DNA nor his fingerprints matched the Zodiac letters.
posted by jonp72 at 2:53 PM on October 5, 2005

D'oh! I meant Arthur Leigh Allen
posted by jonp72 at 2:53 PM on October 5, 2005

I don't think Arthur Leigh Allen was ever arrested as the Zodiac.

Yeah, but Allen was busted as a pedophile and he had been in police custody as a potential Zodiac suspect. He was also Graysmith's most likely candidate for being the Zodiac. Allen may have rightly been suspected by his neighbors for doing things that the police didn't yet know about, but being the Zodiac probably wasn't one of them. In other words, at best, they can say, "We think Allen was a freak who did some freaky shit, but we can't prove that he did the freaky shit that we actually care about."
posted by jonp72 at 10:35 PM on October 5, 2005

The Spike Lee movie Summer Of Sam was about the Zodiac killer, though the Son Of Sam arc was really just something to provide structure and backdrop to the film - it was more about the life of a bunch of people who live in NYC during the summer of '77 while David Berkowitz is at large, killing people and leaving freaky notes. These people have really hot sex for about 60% of the movie. Highly recommended.
posted by newton at 12:34 AM on October 6, 2005

Errrr... newton - Summer Of Sam is about the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz. It's got bog-all to do with the Zodiac Killer; different decades, different states and different killers.
posted by longbaugh at 7:50 AM on October 6, 2005