10 Ingenious Ways Film Directors Beat The Studio

David Fincher may be one of the most respected filmmakers working today, but he is himself no stranger to feuding with studios, suffering through the traumatic production of Alien 3 amid constantly meddling from Fox.

Production on Fight Club was no picnic either, especially as studio executives had little faith in the movie, effectively wanting to plane the edges off the film and turn it into something more outwardly commercial.

The studio particularly balked at the brief post-coital exchange between Marla Singer (Helen Bonham) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), where she was originally supposed to say, "I want to have your abortion."

Because Fincher didn't have final cut privilege, Fox insisted that he change the line to something else, yet Fincher somehow convinced the executives to agree to a deal that he'd change the line once and only once.

But Fincher never specified the change would be for the "better," and so replaced the original line with the even more horrifying quip, "I haven't been f**ked like that since grade school."