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Wednesday
03Sep2008

The Increasingly Curious Case of 'Benjamin Button'

DateWednesday, September 3, 2008 at 1:20PM
The world got its first look at The Curious Case of Benjamin Button this past weekend at the Telluride Film Festival. In a tribute to director David Fincher, a 20-minute compilation of clips from the new F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation was shown, and it received mixed reviews. It's tough to totally understand the context of scenes chopped together for a period drama like this, especially with a movie as large in scope as Button, but the early noise following the tribute was not splendid by any means.

Movie length is a problem for Fincher, both in terms of movie running time and production time. Regular readers know how much admiration I have for Zodiac, which disappeared quickly after its spring 2007 release. Of course, the film was supposed to be a fall 2006 offering, which would've helped its chances for box office, awards consideration, and even DVD sales dramatically. As it was, Zodiac was still voted onto quite a few top ten lists at the end of last year. And if you watch the making-of featurette on the DVD, you'll see Fincher blow through about 30 takes of Jake Gyllenhaal tossing a newspaper in his car or something ridiculous like that. The scene itself isn't even very long in the movie, and the shot is only memorable after you see the featurette.

Imagine how many takes important stuff might require...

Now, the counterargument is, he's the director, he's the artist, he's the guy who moved trees from one side of Lake Berryessa to the other for the sake of authenticity in that movie, and if the release gets delayed and it doesn't make as much money, so be it.

I don't disagree with that. Paramount might, however. In a recent interview at The Playlist, Kevin Eastman, publisher of Heavy Metal, sheds some light on the behind-the-scenes battles between the studio and the mercurial, talented director. You see, Paramount is also on board for Button and they were the first studio Fincher was working with on his update of Heavy Metal (a still-ahead-of-its-time animated anthology from the early 1980s). However, the film has since left Paramount under a cloud of mystery, and here's the reason why, according to Eastman:

"We developed it for Paramount in January... And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time... and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, fuck you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there."

I almost always take the director's side in things like this. As it relates to Paramount/Fincher, I mean, what did the studio expect? He's not Woody Allen, and he won't give you a new movie every nine or ten months. So if you're hearing his ideas for Benjamin Button, a movie that was technologically impossible to film up until a few years ago, and you have a feeling it's going to be a long one (somewhere between 150 and 180 minutes is the educated guess), why would you work with him again immediately if you don't like long-ass movies?

I get that Fincher's probably not easy to work with in the conference room, but you gotta know...

Speaking of Button, we received an enormo image from the film of Brad Pitt and Tajari P. Henson. In the film, Pitt plays Benjamin Button, who was born an old man and ages backwards, very much like Jonathan Winters on Mork and Mindy. Here's a picture of Pitt and Henson from the film, which you've seen in smaller formats in the trailer:

I do want to point out Pitt's make-up, though, and we'll go to the big zoom in for that.

That's pretty impressive work, all right. Combine that with the digital effects that are required to make Pitt the size of a boy in this scene and others, and you can understand why it is not a film you just decide to walk into lightly. The effects, by the way, are the work of Digital Domain, with whom Fincher worked on Zodiac. You wouldn't know it, but Zodiac is about 35% a digital effects movie. And that's just how good they are in that film, because you have to have it pointed out to you.

Will the Telluride reaction change Fincher's final cut? He has apparently chopped it down from over three hours, and if it's two-and-a-half, he should be fine. If we're letting summer blockbusters balloon to the length of The Godfather, then an epic awards movie from a guy who really knows what he's doing should get the same consideration, despite the headaches he might cause the studio.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

Let Fincher do what he wants. He makes fantastic movies, not only visually, but he is a great storyteller who also gets really strong performances from his actors. Not many Directors out there today can claim being that accomplished at all three things.

Also, Paramount must have read the script, how could they not have known it would be a long film?

I like that Fincher doesn't bend to the will of sometimes clueless studio executives. Too many bad movies made by committee these days... ahem, FOX.

end rant.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJohn Hoffman

Although there are other Fitzgerald tales worth explorin beyond Button, I am ALWAYS intrigued by Fincher, whether it be success or failure.

My problem with this film is the trailer, which I feel exposes the whole story in three minutes, leaving little for the viewer to discover for themselves...

Maybe, and I hope I'm right about this...

Maybe I am wrong.

Either way, I'll be among the first in line when Benjamin Button is finally released; David Fincher movies are too few and far between to skip.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWill

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