Nobody Thought Fight Club Would Make It Out Of Pre-Production
By Travis Yates/March 24, 2022 10:39 am EST
“Fight Club” is David Fincher’s stylistic, nuanced view on 21st-century masculinity and consumerism. The film is an adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name. The scathing indictment on modern workplaces and what we’re expected to do with our money was borne partly from Palahniuk’s own frustration with his lot in life. He wrote the novel while completing the mundane work of writing repair manuals.
After pouring out his frustrations in the form of a pliant narrator and Gen-X antihero Tyler Durden, the story took a long and winding path to become the visual masterpiece we have today. It seemed that the first rule about fight club might have been that you don’t make “Fight Club.” For the longest time, it looked like the project would never make it out of pre-production. But a determined director and a cast that resonated with the film’s message helped see the project to fruition.
After pouring out his frustrations in the form of a pliant narrator and Gen-X antihero Tyler Durden, the story took a long and winding path to become the visual masterpiece we have today. It seemed that the first rule about fight club might have been that you don’t make “Fight Club.” For the longest time, it looked like the project would never make it out of pre-production. But a determined director and a cast that resonated with the film’s message helped see the project to fruition.
The studio didn’t know how to turn it into a movie
“You get to the twist, and it makes you reassess everything you’ve just read. I was so excited; I couldn’t sleep that night.”
That was easier said than done for a project that everyone seemed to love but no one thought would ever get made.
Everyone kept saying ‘It’s never going to get made’
Fincher cast Brad Pitt and Edward Norton as the analogous main characters. The trio met for weeks with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, kicking around ideas and re-working the script. Pitt described the arduous task of evaluating the complex material:
After months of work, Fincher delivered what he calls a “dictionary-sized package” to Fox, who approved the project for production. When the film finally arrived in theaters, its violence, complex narrative, and confusing ending led to a poor reception and box office performance. But the film has aged as well as Brad Pitt. “Fight Club” ranks as the 12th best film of all time on IMDb’s Top 250 Films list. Laura Ziskin was right, someone would know exactly how to make the movie. “Fight Club” is David Fincher’s enduring love letter to Gen X angst and a rebellion against the consumerist world inherited from previous generations.
“It’s such a hard film to get a handle on. How do you characterize something you’ve never seen before?”
