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Fight Club (1999)
Fight Club is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the 1996 novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays the unnamed narrator, who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a "fight club" with a soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Pitt) and becomes embroiled with an impoverished but beguiling woman, Marla Singer.
Directed by David Fincher · Shot by Jeff Cronenweth · Cut by James Haygood · Music by Dust Brothers · Ratio 2.39:1 · 139 min
How it was made
- Makeup artist Julie Pearce studied mixed martial arts and pay-per-view boxing to design realistic fight injuries, including giving one extra makeup for an ear with missing cartilage, referencing Mike Tyson biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear.
- Makeup artists developed two sweat techniques for the fight scenes: spraying mineral water over a coat of Vaseline for a glistening look, and using plain water for "wet sweat".
- Meat Loaf wore a 90-pound fat harness to give his character enlarged breasts, along with eight-inch lifts in his boots.
- The script originally had no narration; Fincher found the film "sad and pathetic" without it and had it rewritten to include the Narrator's voice-over.
- Brad Pitt had pieces of his front teeth chipped off by a dentist so his character would not have perfect teeth, then had them restored after filming wrapped.
- The production budget rose from an initial $23 million to a peak of $67 million during filming; producer Arnon Milchan threatened to withdraw New Regency's financing until seeing three weeks of dailies, after which he restored it, settling near $63-65 million.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by David Fincher
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