Russell Crowe as Tyler Durden. You gotta be kidding, right? Nope: there was a point in time whereupon this could have been a genuine reality. Star of Gladiator and various Hollywood meltdowns, Russell Crowe, might have ended up as the infamous character who asks Edward Norton to punch him in a parking lot. You can imagine the sort of on-set fight that might've unravelled had Norton whacked Crowe for real (as he did with Brad Pitt). A major brawl, for certain. So the producers over at 20th Century Fox met with Crowe around the same period as they met with Pitt; at the time, Crowe was considered a hot property because of his recently successful turn in L.A. Confidential, and Pitt was coming off of the back of a flop with Meet Joe Black. Eventually it was decided that Pitt was more suited for the role (the studio offered him $17.5 million dollars to play Tyler Durden) and Crowe was out. Fight Club with Russell Crowe, though? No thanks.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
