The 2007 David Fincher film based on the unsolved Zodiac murders is Zodiac.
The crime thriller dramatizes the investigation into the Zodiac Killer, who terrorized Northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer sent taunting letters and coded messages to newspapers, claiming responsibility for attacks and challenging authorities to identify him. The real case remains unsolved, which gives Fincher’s film its unusually unresolved and investigative tone.
The screenplay by James Vanderbilt was based on Robert Graysmith’s nonfiction books Zodiac and Zodiac Unmasked. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Graysmith, a San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist whose interest in the case develops into an all-consuming personal investigation. Mark Ruffalo portrays inspector Dave Toschi, while Robert Downey Jr. plays crime reporter Paul Avery.
Zodiac is often confused with Fincher’s later films Gone Girl or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but neither concerns the Zodiac case. The film was released on March 2, 2007, and is known for its meticulous recreation of evidence, newsroom work, police procedure, and the uncertainty surrounding the killer’s identity.