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- Herman Mankiewicz
- Orson Welles
- Marion Davies
- William Randolph Hearst
- Louis B. Mayer
- Irving Thalberg
From his struggles with alcohol to his friendship with Marion Davies, the broad strokes of Mankiewicz’s life as depicted in Mank are largely based in truth. Mankiewicz began his writing career as a journalist and sometimes playwright who served as the original theater critic for the New Yorker and a member of the Algonquin Round Table. After arrivi...
Welles only appears in a handful of scenes throughout Mank, but his shadow hangs over Mankiewicz’s struggle to finish the script that he’s been hired to write— tentatively titled American—in a matter of months. Just as MANK‘sopening title card states, “In 1940, at the tender age of 24, Orson Welles was lured to Hollywood by a struggling RKO Picture...
We first meet Davies in Mank when she’s screaming from atop a pyre constructed as part of a movie set on William Randolph Hearst’s—or as she calls him, Pops’—infamous San Simeon estate. “This is all Pops’ idea,” she tells Mank. “He wants me ready to take on the talkies.” In real life, the Brooklyn-born Davies was the longtime live-in mistress of He...
The inspiration for the titular Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, Hearst was a powerful media magnate best known for developing America’s largest chain of newspapers in the late 19th century—including a number of publications that dealt in sensational yellow journalism. Despite running for office as a Democrat several times early in his career—w...
As the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer was an ultra-powerful figure in Hollywood at a time when the studio system reigned supreme. After co-founding MGM in 1924, Mayer propelled the studio to great success, earning it the nickname of the “Tiffany studio,” where there were “more stars than there are in the heavens.” Despite personally earning the highes...
Nicknamed the “boy wonder of Hollywood,” Irving Thalberg served as MGM’s head of production from 1925 until his death at the age of 37 in 1936. Over the course of those years, he oversaw nearly every creative aspect of the estimated 400 filmsthat he helped produce, becoming known for his unique vision and inherent flair for storytelling and transfo...
- Megan Mccluskey
Mar 15, 2021 · The main story—written by Fincher’s late father Jack Fincher, before his death in 2003—is based on the true story of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, or Mank (played by Gary Oldman ), who is...
- Anna Menta
- 2 min
Dec 4, 2020 · ( JTA) — Acclaimed director David Fincher’s highly anticipated film “Mank,” on the Jewish screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and the story behind his writing of the classic film “Citizen Kane,”...
Mank is a 2020 American biographical drama film about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his development of the screenplay for the 1941 film Citizen Kane. It was directed by David Fincher based on a screenplay written by his late father Jack Fincher and was produced by Ceán Chaffin, Douglas Urbanski, and Eric Roth.
