Fight Club (1999)

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 Bob had bitch tits

 I want you to hit me as hard as you can

The condom is the glass slipper of our generation 

 I felt like destroying something beautiful

 Tyler's new look

 Where is My Mind

Development

Prior to its publication in 1996, the Chuck Palahniuk novel Fight Club was sent to Laura Ziskin, president of production at Fox 2000 Pictures by New York executive Raymond Bongiovanni. Bongiovanni, whom the movie is dedicated to, was previously responsible for acquiring the rights to The Firm and Nobody’s Fool. Fight Club would be Bongiovanni’s last passion, he died in 1996 at age 41 from a blood infection.

Ziskin and her partner at Fox 2000, Kevin McCormick, found Palahniuk’s voice refreshing and felt that such provocative material deserved to be made into a film. They brought the book to producers Joshua Donen and Ross Grayson Bell, then with Atman Entertainment. Ignoring the studio’s official condemnation of the book, Donen and Bell responded positively to the themes and championed the film through pre-production.

Fincher was sent a copy of the book by Producer Josh Dolen, who summarized the convenience store scene to Fincher over the phone. Fincher latched on to the material and met with Ziskin and agreed to work with a screenwriter for no money to present a script, budget and storyboards to the production company that both the creators and executives could agree on.

As the casting process began, Bell met with actor Russell Crowe while Linson began to court superstar Brad Pitt. Fincher was so enthusiastic about the project that he actually camped out on Brad Pitt’s porch while the star was filming Meet Joe Black. Both men had been looking for that next special project since their collaboration on Se7en and Fincher felt that Fight Club was it. Pitt agreed and signed on to play the nefarious agent of anarchy, Tyler Durden—for a salary of $17.5 million.

For the role of the narrator, actors considered included Matt Damon and Sean Penn. Fincher favored Edward Norton for the role based on his appearance in The People vs. Larry Flynt, but Norton was initially unable to sign due to contractual obligations to Paramount Pictures. Once Fincher agreed to star in a later Paramount film (The Italian Job) to fulfill his contract, Fincher signed for $2.5 million.

Both actors prepared for the roll by taking soap-making classes at a shop called Auntie Godmother’s in California’s San Fernando Valley. Brad Pitt had his crowns removed to help Durden’s teeth appear more imperfect.

Fincher’s first choice for Marla Singer was Jeanine Garafalo, but the comedienne objected to her character’s sexual nature. Fincher cast Helena Bonham Carter based on her performance in The Wings of the Dove. For the character of Robert Paulson, Fincher considered Meat Loaf after seeing an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music featuring the singer. Meat Loaf auditioned for Fincher and Norton and was offered the job after reading only a single page.

Screenwriter Jim Uhls was hired to adapt the sprawling, contrarian Palahniuk prose into reality. Fincher, Uhls and Bell worked together on an initial draft of the screenplay. This first draft didn’t contain the film’s trademark narration, since the prevailing thought in Hollywood at the time was that the technique was unnecessary.

Once Fincher officially signed on and became focused on pre-production, Uhls worked closely with Bell and Producer Art Linson to polish the first draft into a shooting draft. After consulting with filmmaker Cameron Crowe, the character of Tyler Durden was expanded to make his existence more ambiguous. Fincher also enlisted Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker to perform several unaccredited rewrites on the script, for which Walker received a tribute credit in the names of the three detectives who attempt to castrate Edward Norton.

Fight Club began principal photography with a budget of $50 million, but that would eventually balloon to a final budget of $63 million. Filming lasted 138 days and included location shooting in downtown Los Angeles and San Pedro, where a full-scale exterior of the Paper St. house was constructed on land that was later reclaimed for use as a port. The interior of the house was constructed in two parts at Los Angeles Center Studios.

Costume designer Michael Kaplan (Flashdance, Blade Runner) scoured thrift stores to find eccentric clothing for the character of Durden. Representing the tonal opposite of Norton’s straight-laced, conservative office drone, Durden’s wardrobe included Gucci loafers, postal service pants and ‘70s style shirts.

Fincher hired Jeff Cronenweth, the son of the later cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth (Bladerunner), to film Fight Club in the Super 35 format.   The pair utilized a combination of de-saturated background colors and plasticized skin tones to make the characters appear unreal. Fight Club also made extensive use of exposure techniques to make the film appear “dirty.”

Fincher believed that an established film composer would be unable to capture the unique tone of Fight Club. Therefore, he enlisted breakbeat duo The Dust Brothers to craft a non-traditional, techno-inspired score.

Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Tod Haug farmed out the major visual effects sequences in the film to different special effects houses, to ensure the best people for each type of effect were selected. The main title sequence of rising up from the fear center of Edward Norton’s brain and exiting through a hair follicle was produced by Academy Award-winning effects house Digital Domain. The scientific accuracy of the composition was altered subtly to produce the effect of driving down a highway at night, while the scale of the shot is changing constantly during the pull-back. Detailed photographs were taken of Norton’s face to produce the detail of each pore and pockmark.

The virtual catalogue sequence, a pseudo-commercial for a chain Scandinavian furniture store, was accomplished by filming Norton walking through his furnished apartment. Pieces were removed individually, all the time adjusting for radiosity and lighting alterations as objects were removed and added. The pieces were added back in sequence and combined with the footage of Fincher and digitally-rendered text to produce the completed shot. Sequences in Norton’s “ice cave” during meditation included recycled computer-generated breath from Titanic.

The mid-air collision was a collaborate effort between the casting, art and visual effects departments. Extensive pre-visualization was performed to establish the exact movement of the camera and the timing of the practical effects. Various passes were performed using the motion control camera in front of green screen to capture the actors and practical wind and debris, and then composited computer-generated pieces of the hull breaking apart as the plane descended.

The sex sequence was accomplished in a similar fashion to the bullet time effects in The Matrix. A series of still cameras were positioned in an arc around Bonham Carter, Pitt and two body doubles to capture their movements. The live action footage was combined with computer-generated bodies and extensive motion blur to produce an otherworldly, fantastical effect.

Originally scheduled to be released in July 1999, Fight Club was delayed until October 15. Observers attributed the delay to the recent Columbine School Massacre, but internally, negative test screenings and confused reactions on the part of executives not involved with production helped contribute to the delay.

While Fincher wanted to market the film based on its theme of anti-consumerism, mainstream marketing wanted to focus on the star factor of Pitt and the film’s fight scenes. A $20 million, large-scale marketing campaign was created that included commercials during WWF events. Many involved with the production believe that the decision to market the film as an action-heavy film for teenagers contributed to its lukewarm box office returns.

The film received scathing reviews from mainstream critics, who attacked the film’s perceived glorification of violence. Produced for $63 million, the film earned just $37,030,102 domestically, eventually grossing $100,853,753 worldwide. 

While largely reviled by the mainstream, Fight Club has attained a cult following in the years since its release. Many have latched on to the film’s message of anti-consumerism, producing strong DVD sales and a repeated midnight showings of the film nationwide. In 2006, Empire magazine readers voted Fight Club the eighth greatest film of all time.