“Zodiac Killer Project” Finds Humor in Abandoned Filmmaking

Charlie Shackleton attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Zodiac Killer Project” at the Egyptian Theater on January 27, 2025, in park City, UT. (Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)

By Shelby Shaw

“I just hate waste,so the idea of devoting a lot of time and energy and thought to something and then having nothing exist is obviously an unavoidable part of the filmmaking process,but one I find very frustrating,” says writer-director Charlie Shackleton about projects that fall apart. “Normally, I’d just bore my friends in the pub by describing unrealized ideas.” Shackleton’s experimental documentary, Zodiac Killer Project, is a personal essay film detailing his decision to abandon a movie right before production. The film,planned to be about the notorious serial killer,stopped when the rights to a “tell-all” book – which Shackleton used for his script – unexpectedly disappeared at the last minute. “So I thought, why not bore the world’s friends in the ‘cinematic pub’?” he joked to the audience after the premiere on January 27.

Premiering in the NEXT section at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Zodiac Killer project is constructed almost entirely from 16mm film shots of parking lots, building exteriors, and what many filmmakers would consider simple “establishing shots.” Shackleton’s voiceover recounts the movie he could no longer make, but the story unfolds with witty humor and a candid, improvised narrative.