20 Things You Didn't Know About Fight Club
5. The Production Caused Problems With Locals
The mammoth Fight Club shoot included two hundred locations in addition to studio shooting, which inevitably caused some friction with the locals.
The exterior of the Paper Street house had been built from scratch on an empty lot in Wilmington, California. Initially it looked like a brand new property, but the production designers dilapidated and aged the prop to achieve the desired look. Once the film had been shot, the prop was torn down and the lot emptied again.
However, during night shooting at that location, director of photography Jeff Cronenweth had floated lights on helium balloons above the ‘house’ in order to get the lighting he needed. These lights ended up causing a number of reports of UFO sightings in the local area, which prompted a visit from the local Sheriff’s Department to get to the bottom of things.
In other location shoot, the production annoyed one local so much that he threw a 40oz beer bottle at Cronenweth’s head, cutting him open. Another visit from the police had the culprit arrested.