David Fincher baffled by standing ovation after the premiere of his new Netflix movie

David Fincher's latest movie was a hit at Venice Film Festival – but the director seemed a little perplexed by the enthusiastic response. 

The Killer premiered at the festival last night (September 3) and was followed by a five-minute standing ovation from the audience. "What is this?" the director asked (via Variety). As a producer led Fincher down from his seat to meet fans, he tried to leave, not realizing what was happening. 

Fincher's first movie since 2020's Mank, The Killer follows Christian (Michael Fassbender), a cold-blooded assassin, who begins to have a psychological crisis in a world with no moral compass and finds himself at the center of an international manhunt after a job goes wrong. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Charles Parnell, and Sala Baker. 

Fincher re-teamed with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker for the film, who he previously worked with on Seven. The film is based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon.

The Killer currently has a score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Total Film gave the movie four stars, writing that the "premise of contract murderers making something personal isn’t new, but Fincher is having fun with the genre – loading needle-drops, pop-culture hat-tips (Antiques Roadshow, Storage Wars, aliases that are all TV characters), and Bondian ingenuity into a propulsive pace. Split into seven chapters which play out in different cities around the world, the action may be serious but the gags are plentiful."

After a limited theatrical release on October 27, The Killer arrives on Netflix on November 10. In the meantime, fill out your watch list with our picks of the best Netflix movies available to stream right now.