Development

In 1996, a galley proof of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Fight Club was sent by a 20th Century Fox book scout to creative executive Kevin McCormick. A studio reader wrote coverage for the book that discouraged a film adaptation of the material, but McCormick passed the proof on to producers Lawrence Bender and Art Linson. Bender and Linson rejected it, and producers Josh Donen and Ross Bell expressed interest in the project. They arranged unpaid screen readings with actors to determine the length of a script from the book, which initially lasted 6 hours. After cutting out sections to reduce the running time and recording the dialogue, Bell sent the book on tape to Laura Ziskin, head of the division Fox 2000. After hearing the tape, she purchased the rights to Fight Club for $10,000.

To adapt the story into a screenplay, Ziskin initially considered hiring Buck Henry. Ziskin thought that Fight Club was similar to The Graduate, which had been adapted by Henry. A new screenwriter, Jim Uhls, began lobbying Donen and Bell to be hired to write the adapted screenplay, and the producers chose Uhls over Henry. Bell began seeking directors, of which he had four in mind: Peter Jackson, Bryan Singer, Danny Boyle, and David Fincher. Bell, considering Jackson the best choice, contacted the director, but Jackson was too busy filming The Frighteners (1996) in New Zealand. Singer received the book, but did not read it. Boyle met Bell and read the book, but he pursued another project. Fincher was approached, and the director expressed interest in Fight Club. Fincher, though, was hesitant to work with the studio again after the failure of Alien³ (1992). The director met with Ziskin and studio head Bill Mechanic, restoring his relationship with the studio. Mechanic and Ziskin initially planned to finance the film with a $23 million budget. In August 1997, Twentieth Century Fox announced that Fincher would helm the film adaptation of the novel.