David Fincher's 'Fight Club' is re-released with 4K remaster

David Fincher is breaking the first rule of “Fight Club” on the occasion of its 25th anniversary: ​​the author is revisiting the legendary 1999 thriller with a remastered re-release, accompanied by an accompanying book. New Regency and 20th Century Studios announced the 4K Ultra HD remastered, overseen by Fincher. The iconic film will be released in cinemas again at a later date and plans are being prepared.

In conjunction with the remaster, Insight Editions and New Regency are releasing an exclusive 25th anniversary collector's art book. The book includes new interviews, exposed footage, original artwork and rare behind-the-scenes footage, giving fans the deepest look yet into the making of the film and its enduring legacy.

In Fight Club, Edward Norton plays the narrator who falls in love with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and their love Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) while exploiting his inner wildness thanks to an underground fight club.

The story of the New Regency film goes far beyond the breathtaking twist ending: Fight Club was apparently edited by Meat Loaf, filmed by Paul Thomas Anderson, almost starred Courtney Love and even resulted in Janeane Garofalo claimed that Norton caught her being kicked out of the cast by telling director Fincher that she “didn't have what it took” to take on the role of Marla (and subsequently, according to Garofalo, lobbied Love for the role takes over…only for Pitt to object). since Love blocked his attempts to make a Kurt Cobain biopic.)

And if the whole film story didn't already feel like a punch in the gut, “Fight Club” was re-edited in 2022 to have a censored ending for its streaming release in China via Tencent Video.

Fincher didn't mince his words when it came to reacting to the changed ending, which is actually more in line with author Chuck Palahniuk's original conclusion for the novel. “If you don’t like this story, why would you license this film?” To me it doesn't make sense for people to say, 'I think it would be good for our service if we had your title on it… we just want it to be a different movie,'” Fincher told Empire magazine. “The damn movie is 20 years old. It’s not like it had a reputation for being super cozy.”

When it was first released in 1999, “Fight Club” was initially a box office hit. The film premiered in Venice and later grossed $37 million domestically against a budget of $63 million.

“It was an interesting experience because we all really enjoyed it and were very confident. We were a little annoyed,” lead actor Norton said during PeopleTV's “Couch Surfing” in 2019. “It wasn't financially successful at first, there was never any talk about awards and all that crap. You can never completely separate your ego from how it behaves when you first start it, but then we all had the very special experience of realizing that the relationship it built with people was just that, what you dream about when you get involved in films.”

Fincher reflected on the film's legacy on the occasion of its 20th anniversary, saying at the time: “We were making a satire. We said, 'This is about blowing up buildings as seriously as The Graduate is about fucking your mother's boyfriend.'