Sex, power, politics... The first trailer for House Of Cards has hit and suggests a show as sinuous and sly as you would expect from the minds behind **Zodiac **and The Ides Of March. David Fincher is executive producing the 13-part series, written chiefly by Beau Willimon and due to stream – in its entirety – on Netflix from February 1.
Based on the 1990 BBC TV series, itself an adaptation of Michael Dobbs’ novel, it’s a political thriller which stars Kevin Spacey as the ruthless Francis Underwood, a US politician who, betrayed by his superiors, is out for revenge.
“Francis is not amoral – actually, I guess he is amoral – but he’s apolitical,” says Fincher. “He’s in it for the ground acquisition of people like himself. He’s not betrayed by a differing belief system. He’s betrayed by politics. And his retribution is political.”
The other directors are James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross), Joel Schumacher (Falling Down), Allen Coulter (The Sopranos) and Charles McDougall (Hillsborough, The Office), while the cast includes Robin Wright as Spacey’s equally Machiavellian wife and Kate Mara, as ambitious reporter Zoe Barnes.
Of course this is not the first time Spacey has played a masterfully manipulative villain for Fincher. Here, though, the heads are in ballot boxes.