How Fight Club Almost Didn't Happen

A Cheap Rights Buy And A Wary Director

Fox picked up Chuck Palahniuk's novel for just ten thousand dollars after an executive heard an audio recording of the script. The bargain acquisition still needed a director, but David Fincher was hesitant. He had a bad experience making Alien 3 for Fox and was reluctant to work with the same studio again.

Finding The Narrator

The first draft Fincher saw had no narration at all, and he found it unsatisfying, so he pushed for a rewrite that added the Narrator's voice-over. That rewrite was not a solo job. Over the course of a year Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Fincher worked with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker on five revisions. Fincher also kept the novel's homoerotic overtones on purpose, wanting the audience to feel uneasy in a way that would make the plot twist land harder. The film also softened the book's bleakness at the end, giving the Narrator redemption by rejecting Tyler Durden instead of leaving him institutionalized as the novel does.

Casting Collisions

Edward Norton couldn't just say yes. He was contractually obligated to make a film for Paramount first, an obligation he eventually met with 'The Italian Job' in 2003. The role of Marla Singer was initially Fincher's choice for Janeane Garofalo, who accepted, but she was dropped from the project after Norton felt she was unsuitable for it.

Getting Physical

Commitment showed up in the body. The cast trained in boxing, taekwondo, grappling and even soapmaking to prepare for their roles. Brad Pitt took it further, voluntarily having a dentist chip his front teeth during filming so his character would not look too perfect, with the damage restored afterward. The result was a film built on friction, rewrites and deliberate discomfort.