Visual Preview
with Spiritual
Connections
ZODIAC
by david bruce
hollywoodjesus.com
SHORT SYNOPSIS
It is the ultimate cold case.
The rampage of a madman who has never been caught; the
elusive cipher slayer who gripped the nation in fear,
America’s very own Jack the Ripper. He publicly claimed 13
victims, then more, two dozen more. Police pinned him with
seven, five dead. The true body count may never be known.
One thing is certain: That count includes the living.
DID YOU KNOW?
Zodiac is the first major
Hollywood movie that
was created without
the use of either film or
video tape.
David Fincher decided to use the digital
Thomson Viper to shoot the film. This
will be the first time the camera has
been used to shoot an entire film.
Michael Mann's Miami Vice, as well as
his previous effort, Collateral (a coproduction of Paramount and its
current sister studio DreamWorks, and
which also starred Mark Ruffalo), were
also shot with the camera but mixed in
other formats.
Once shot on Viper cam the files were
converted to DVCPro HD 1080i and
edited in Final Cut Pro.
Other digital productions like Superman
Returns or Apocalypto recorded to the
mildly compressing HDCAM tape
format.
CAST
Robert Graysmith
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
Paul Avery
ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
Dave Toschi
MARK RUFFALO
CREW
DAVID FINCHER
(Director)
made his feature film
debut in 1992 with
“Alien 3.” In 1995, he
directed “Se7en,” also
about tracking down
a serial killer.
DAVID SHIRE
(Composer)
winner of an Academy
Award, a Grammy,
multiple Emmy and Tony
nominations, is one of
the most prolific and
honored composers of
film, television, theater
and recordings.
JAMES VANDERBILT
(Screenwriter/ Producer)
optioned the rights to
Robert Graysmith’s
Zodiac and wrote the
screenplay adaptation
on spec – a gamble that
paid off with only three
produced scripts to his
credit.
CHLOË SEVIGNY
(Melanie)
Known in the mid to late nineties for her
status as a fashion impresario and "it girl,"
with over a dozen art house films to her
credit, Chloe Sevigny also stands out as
one of the most prominent queens of
contemporary independent cinema.
Originally hailing from Darien,
Connecticut, Sevigny attributes weekend
trips into nearby New York City in her
teens as an important early saving grace
from her super rich and stuffy hometown.
It was on one such trip at the age of
eighteen, that Sevigny was spotted on the
street by a fashion editor for Sassy
magazine. And so began her career…
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
(Robert Graysmith)
Gyllenhaal's first notable film
appearances was in 2001's cult hit
Donnie Darko, in which he played a
troubled teenager. In the 2004
blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, he
portrayed a student caught in a
cataclysmic global cooling event. He
played against type as an angry Marine
in Jarhead (2005) and, that same year, he
won critical acclaim as a "gay cowboy"
in the controversial, but highly lauded,
film Brokeback Mountain.
Gyllenhaal has taken an activist role in
supporting political and social causes,
promoting environmental causes and the
American Civil Liberties Union.
DAVID FINCHER (Director)
Inspired by the film, Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid, he began making movies at
the age of eight with an 8 mm camera.
Filmmaking seemed the perfect outlet for a
kid who could spend all day drawing and
loved to make sculptures, take pictures and
tape-record. Fincher eschewed the film
school route, getting a job loading cameras
and doing other hands-on work for John
Korty's Korty Films. He next got a job at
Industrial Light and Magic in 1980 with his
first screen credit being for Return of the
Jedi, and stayed until 1984.
Fincher directed big-budget music videos
for artists such as Madonna, Jody Watley,
Rick Springfield, Steve Winwood, George
Michael, Aerosmith, Paula Abdul, the
Rolling Stones, Nine Inch Nails, etc. Like a
number of other music video directors, he
then moved into film.
EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Based on the true story of a serial killer who terrified the San
Francisco Bay Area and taunted authorities in four
jurisdictions with his ciphers and letters for decades. Hunting
down the hunter would become an obsession for four men, an
obsession that would turn them into ghosts of their former
selves, their lives built and destroyed by the killer’s endless
trail of clues.
EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Inspector Dave Toschi (Ruffalo)
meets with newspaper cartoonist
Robert Graysmith (Gyllenhaal)
Paul Avery
(Downey Jr.)
Of the four, Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) was the wild
card. A shy editorial cartoonist, Graysmith didn’t have the
cache and expertise of his seasoned and cynical colleague
Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.), the San Francisco
Chronicle’s star crime reporter. He didn’t have Avery’s
connections with San Francisco Police Department’s
celebrated and ambitious Homicide Inspector Dave Toschi
(Mark Ruffalo) and his low-key, meticulous partner Inspector
William Armstrong (Anthony Edwards). What he did have
was a crucial insight no one anticipated. It first appeared
Aug. 1, 1969.
EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
A crudely written Letter to the Editor arrived in the day’s pile of
mail. One of three penned to the Chronicle, the San Francisco
Examiner and the Vallejo Times-Herald, its contents brought
the newsrooms to a standstill. “Dear Editor, This is the
murderer…” of David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, and of
Darlene Ferrin and the attempted murder of Mike Mageau. He
didn’t call them by name, but he gave a laundry list of details
only the police could know.
EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Zodiac inadvertently had turned detectives Toschi and
Armstrong and reporter Avery into overnight celebrities.
Characters based on Toschi would prove pivotal roles
launching three movie stars’ careers. Graysmith remained
committed to his armchair sleuthing from the sidelines,
injecting his input when Avery would allow. Zodiac was always
one step ahead, covering his tracks, peppering his lettered
taunts with more threats. And then they became personal.
EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Infamy would eclipse fame as Toschi fell from grace; Armstrong,
frustrated moved on; Avery left the paper, crippled by his
addictions. Zodiac would no longer reveal his targets. Copycats
sprang up coast to coast. The key suspect was still out there.
Graysmith’s moment had come. That moment would change
their lives forever.
ZODIAC:
Spiritual
Connections by
David Bruce
Jake Gyllenhaal observes, “I think what is most
interesting about this story is that when something
like this happens there’s mass hysteria. And then
it’s given to the experts. And sometimes the experts
don’t have the same heart that just a kind of a
regular guy like Robert Graysmith would have. They
also have so much red tape to go through, all the
jurisdiction. Robert, a sort of regular person off the
street, doesn’t have to get a warrant for this, or
permission for that.”
Even though I can appreciate experts, professionals
and, yes, huge organization. The truth is, however,
that it is the outsider –the regular person, like
Robert Graysmith - who gives us our best
innovations. To often we give to the so-called
“experts” more than we should. Organized
business is never as innovative as the independent
entrepreneur. The system did not trust Graysmith
as it should and everyone lost. Bottom line: Give
place to the innovator, to the regular person, to
yourself, and never give your soul away.
ZODIAC:
Spiritual
Connections by
David Bruce
He was the ultimate bogey man.
“If you grew up there, at that time,
you had this childhood fear that
you kind of insinuated yourself
into it. What if it was our bus?
What if he showed up in our
neighborhood? You create even
more drama about it when you’re a
kid because that is what kids do. I
grew up in Marin and now I know
the geography of where the crimes
took place, but when you’re in
grade school, children don’t think
about that. They think, `He’s going
to show up at our school.’”
- Director David Fincher
THE IMPORTANCE OF FEAR
“Fear is a question:
What are you afraid of, and
why?Just as the seed of health
is in illness, because illness
contains information, your
fears are a treasure house of
self-knowledge if you explore
them.”
--Marilyn Ferguson
ZODIAC:
Spiritual
Connections by
David Bruce
“Remember that fear always lurks behind
perfectionism. Confronting your fears
and allowing yourself the right to be
human can, paradoxically, make you a
far happier and more productive
person.”
--Dr. David M. Burns
“Innovation has nothing to do with how
many R&D dollars you have. When Apple
came up with the Mac, IBM was spending
at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not
about money. It's about the people you
have, how you're led, and how much you
get it.” --Steve Jobs
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the
creatively maladjusted.” --Martin Luther
King Jr.