Director Charlie Shackleton had his Zodiac killer documentary shut down. Debuting at Sundance, his new film explains how it would've unfolded.

Director Charlie Shackleton's meta project about the notorious serial killer challenges, with wry humor, our entire approach to true crime.

Two titles in the non-fiction category play with real-life expectations as well as filmmaking conventions. While Zodiac Killer Project is a meta-examination of the true crime show, The Dating Game looks at Chinese men hunting for romantic partners.

Watch enough true-crime documentaries and patterns begin to emerge—a situation that speaks to the genre’s embrace of a cookie-cutter formula defined by a host of recurring narrative and formal tropes.

All Charlie Shackleton had to do was give the Sundance Film Festival a 90-second video introducing himself and his documentary Zodiac Killer Project, which premiered at the festival on Monday. Instead,

The Zodiac Killer Project by Charlie Shackleton masterfully exposes the tricks and tropes of true crime. It just debuted at Sundance.

Charlie Shackleton’s quasi-true crime documentary 'Zodiac Killer Project' is a fascinating approach to form but a tepid experience overall.

Charlie Shackleton's pseudo-documentary about not being able to make a film on the Zodiac Killer is true crime exploitation at its most jarring.

Up’, a.k.a. ’The Silenced Badge’. Director Charlie Shackleton had been set to adapt the book into a true crime documentary, until Lafferty’s estate abruptly withdrew the rights. Shackleton’s response was to create a film about the film he wanted to make,