Say what you will about David Fincher's work, but I've been with him the whole way. Yeah, I even liked Alien³, at least at the time. Okay, I have to admit a lot of my attraction to Fincher's movies is actually to the cinematography of Darius Khondji and Harris Savides (now that I look back, I'm surprised to see they only shot two Fincher titles each). But hey, at least the guy can pick a DP, right? Well, I do appreciate Fincher's directorial talents, as well, and regardless of how few films I've seen this year, I continue to consider his Zodiac to be the best of the year. Fincher recently wrapped his next feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons, which reunites him with Brad Pitt. Now that that's done, he may choose to direct an adaptation of a French graphic novel titled Le Tueur (The Killer). According to Variety, Paramount has bought the rights to the comic, written by Matz and illustrated by Luc Jacamon, with Fincher in mind. Producer Allesandro Camon (American Psycho) is writing the screenplay, and Pitt's company, Plan B, and Alexandra Milchan (Chapter 27) are producing.

Despite the need for a title change, and the fact that we have too many hitman movies coming out these days, the graphic novel should make for an interesting adaptation. Publisher's Weekly compared it to the films of Godard and Melville and the illustrations of Darwyn Cooke and even addressed Jacamon's placement of the camera (maybe Fincher should recruit him to be the film's DP). So, it already sounds like a cinematic story. Unfortunately, PW also claims there's too much "self-consciously cool narration," which can really ruin this type of pic. Another opinion of The Killer, this one from The Comic Book Bin, relates the graphic novel to American Psycho (nice, then, for Camon's involvement) and Leone/Eastwood westerns. Dark antihero with a gun? We see them every day. But with Fincher at the helm, I have higher hopes than usual.

In case you haven't been paying attention, today is filled with Critics Circle Awards news. There are still a few major cities, Chicago for example, who haven't yet announced their picks, but so far, with the New York Film Critics Circle picks added in, it looks like a complete sweep for the King (Forest Whitaker of The Last King of Scotland) and the Queen (Helen Mirren of The Queen) in the lead acting categories. It isn't quite, though, if you take into account that Whitaker tied with Sacha Baron Cohen (for Borat) for the Los Angeles best actor spot. Otherwise, can we assume that these will be our Oscar winners? Hey, you never know -- Philip Seymour Hoffman almost swept last year's critics awards (NY and SF went with Heath Ledger) and he was a lock.

The rest of the NYFCC awards were like a snatch and grab of the rest we've seen so far. United 93, Half Nelson, Martin Scorsese and Jennifer Hudson were represented yet again. The group had a few surprises, however. Best supporting actor went to former child actor Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children and the foreign language pick was Army of Shadows, which Jean-Pierre Melville made more than 35 years ago.

The Screengrab has an interesting inside story on the voting process Monday morning (held at a conference room at Star Magazine). Some of the juiciest revelations are that the best picture category was nearly a tie (it was 12-10, United 93 over The Queen); that technically A Scanner Darkly might have won best animated film had Andrew Sarris not been in the bathroom during the category's vote; that Army of Shadows won only because of a tight battle between The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Volver. This really goes to show how a group's awards don't necessarily reflect the choices of all of its critics.

Anyway, to keep up with all the Awards season winners, check out the Movie City News scoreboard.

Check out the full list of NYFCC winners after the jump.