Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins and Charles Dance have joined Gary Oldman in Mank, David Fincher’s drama about the writer who co-wrote the screen classic Citizen Kane with Orson Welles.
Arliss Howard, Ferdinand Kingsley, Jamie McShane, Joseph Cross, Sam Troughton, Toby Leonard Moore, Tom Burke, Tom Pelphrey and Tuppence Middleton are also appearing in the production, which is set to begin shooting in November in Los Angeles.
Douglas Urbanski, Eric Roth, Cean Chaffin are producing the picture.
Herman Mankiewicz, a reporter and critic in the 1920s, was recruited by Paramount to come to Hollywood. Mankiewicz worked on many films, such as The Wizard of Oz (1939), Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). But it was 1941’s Citizen Kane that caused a controversy which would dog him until his death. Both Mankiewicz and Welles worked on the script, but Mankiewicz accused the filmmaker of trying to push him out of the limelight, even saying Welles offered to pay him off in exchange for sole credit.
Fincher initially wanted to tackle the story after making his 1997 feature The Game. The director’s father, Jack Fincher, also a newspaper man, wrote the script.
While some character details have not been revealed, it is known that Seyfried will play screen star Marion Davies; Collins will play Rita Alexander, Mankiewicz’s secretary; Burke (The Musketeers) will play Welles; and Pelphrery will play Mankiewicz’s brother.
