Zodiac - Die Spur des Killers

The murder victims' costumes were meticulously recreated from forensic evidence that was lent to the production.

(at around 52 mins) One of the books Robert Graysmith has in 1969 has a barcode on the back. Barcodes did not even exist in any stores until the summer of 1974, and most items did not contain barcodes for several years after that.

The end text reads as follows: Following Mike Mageau's identification of Arthur Leigh Allen, authorities scheduled a meeting to discuss charging him with the murders. Allen suffered a fatal heart attack before this meeting could take place. In 2002, a partial DNA profile, that did not match Allen, was developed from a 33 year-old Zodiac envelope. Investigators in San Francisco and Vallejo refused to rule out Allen as a suspect on the basis of this test. In 2004, the San Francisco Police Department deactivated their Zodiac investigation. Today, the case remains open in Napa County, Solano County, and in the city of Vallejo, where Arthur Leigh Allen is still the prime and only suspect. Inspector David Toschi retired from the San Francisco Police Department in 1989. He was cleared of all charges that he wrote the 1978 Zodiac letter. Paul Avery passed away on December 10, 2000 of pulmonary emphysema. He was 66. His Ashes were scattered by his family in the San Francisco Bay. Robert Graysmith lives in San Francisco and enjoys a healthy relationship with his children. He claims he has not received a single anonymous call since Allen's death.

The director's cut contains approximately 5 minutes of new footage, including:

• Melvin Belli (Brian Cox) talks about his Safari trip (when the Zodiac letter came to his house)
• Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) introduces himself to the Riverside Police Chief
• A new scene between Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Avery (Robert Downey Jr.)
• A three-way conversation laying Leigh as a suspect to get a search warrant
• Extended audio montage (over a black screen)
• Plus extra bits of dialogue

Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: Zodiac/Gray Matters/Wild Hogs/Smarter for 10 (2007)