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#030 David Fincher: Fight Club vs. Alien 3

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Download MP3 In today's episode Nate and Austin compare David Fincher's best and worst rated films, Fight Club (1999) and Alien 3 (1992), respectively. Nate decides to stop defending Alien 3, Austin wishes Charles S. Dutton would sing more, and Tyler creates three new podcasts over the course of ours. Check back next Sunday at 7pm PST where we will compare Woodie Allen's Annie Hall (1977) and To Rome with Love (2012), his best and worst rated films. We were joined today by Tyler from FutureHorsePod. Check him out on Twitter: @FutureHorsePod.
Also check out this video where David Fincher and Brad Pitt talk about the festival screening of Fight Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-a36Zk1SjY

Alien 3 Notes

Worst Rated

PLOT: After her last encounter, Ripley crash-lands on Fiorina Fury 161, a maximum security prison. When a series of strange and deadly events occur shortly after her arrival, Ripley realizes that she brought along an unwelcome visitor.
  • Ratings: IMDb 6.4 | RT 44% C / 47% A
  • Released: 1992
  • Director: David Fincher (The Social Network, Gone Girl, Seven)
  • Writer(s): Dan O'Brannon and Ronald Shusett (characters), Vincent Ward (story), David Giler & Walter Hill and Larry Ferguson (screenplay)
  • Cinematographer: Alex Thomson (Demolition man, Labyrinth)
  • Notable actors: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Brian Glover, Lance Henriksen, Pete Postlethwaite, Peter Guinness
  • Budget: $50-55 million
  • Box office: $159.8 million
  • Fun Facts:
    • At one point, David Fincher was denied permission by the film's producers to shoot a crucial scene in the prison understructure between Ripley and the alien. Against orders, Fincher grabbed Sigourney Weaver, a camera and shot the scene anyway. This scene appears in the final cut.
    • First-time director David Fincher disowned the film, citing constant studio interference and actually walked out of production before final editing began. He did preside over a rough cut that became the basis for the 'Assembly Cut', a longer version of the movie later released on DVD and Blu-ray.
    • $7 million had been spent on sets that were never used thanks to the ever-changing script before filming had even started.
    • Off-duty, Sigourney Weaver had to wear a wig as her then two-year-old daughter Charlotte didn't like to see her mother bald.

Fight Club Notes

Best Rated

PLOT: An insomniac office worker, looking for a way to change his life, crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker, forming an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.
  • Ratings: IMDb 8.8 | RT 79% C / 96% A
  • Released: 1999
  • Director: David Fincher (The Social Network, Gone Girl, Seven)
  • Writer(s): Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)
  • Cinematographer: Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network, Gone Girl)
  • Notable actors: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier, Richmond Arquette, Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto
  • Budget: $63 million
  • Box office: $100.9 million
  • Fun Facts:
    • When a Fight Club member sprays the priest with a hose, the camera briefly shakes. This happens because the cameraman couldn't keep himself from laughing.
    • In the short scene when Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are drunk and hitting golf balls, they really are drunk, and the golf balls are sailing directly into the side of the catering truck.
    • Author Chuck Palahniuk first came up with the idea for the novel after being beaten up on a camping trip when he complained to some nearby campers about the noise of their radio. When he returned to work, he was fascinated to find that nobody would mention or acknowledge his injuries, instead saying such commonplace things as "How was your weekend?" Palahniuk concluded that the reason people reacted this way was because if they asked him what had happened, a degree of personal interaction would be necessary, and his workmates simply didn't care enough to connect with him on a personal level. It was his fascination with this societal 'blocking' which became the foundation for the novel.
    • When the Narrator hits Tyler Durden in the ear, Edward Norton actually did hit Brad Pitt in the ear. He was originally going to fake hit him, but before the scene, David Fincher pulled Norton aside and told him to hit him in the ear. After Norton hit him in the scene, you can see him smiling and laughing while Pitt is in pain.
    • Author Chuck Palahniuk has stated that he found the film to be an improvement on his novel.
    • Brad Pitt says he didn't want his parents to see the movie, but he couldn't convince them not to watch. They changed their minds after watching the chemical burn scene.
    • To prepare for their roles, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt took basic lessons in boxing, taekwondo and grappling, and also studied hours of UFC programming. Prior to principal photography, Pitt also visited a dentist to have his front tooth chipped.
    • When Tyler catches The Narrator listening at the door as he has sex with Marla, he is wearing a rubber glove. This was Brad Pitt's idea, and caused a great deal of controversy with President of Production at Fox 2000 Pictures, Laura Ziskin. She was horrified when she saw the scene and demanded that it be removed. However at a subsequent test screening, the appearance of the glove got the biggest laugh of the whole movie, prompting Ziskin to change her mind.
  Intro music: Calm The Fuck Down - Broke For Free / CC BY 3.0  
 

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