20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Zodiac (2007)

As we have established, David Fincher is a man who knows exactly what he wants. Woe betide anyone who disagrees with his vision, as he is a man who rarely backs down. In a way, this attitude is sensible. As someone who takes pride in perfection, you have to be willing to argue your point and stick to your guns.

An early cut of Zodiac clocked in at a staggering three hours, eight minutes. Unsurprisingly, Paramount Pictures (who were in charge of the North American distribution) rejected it and insisted on the film being cut down dramatically. Eventually, after a while butting heads, Fincher cut down the film to a more reasonable two hours, forty-five minutes. Yet his biggest sticking point was odd, to say the least.

The original cut had included a montage, showing the years passing by... Though 'showing' may be the wrong word to use here. The montage was a blank screen, with famous songs from each year portraying the passage of time. While artistically brilliant, the studio was strongly opposed to subjecting audiences with two minutes of nothingness and it was replaced with the 'Four Years Later' title card.

Fincher finally got his way when it came to the DVD Directors Cut, which features the montage in full.