Bill Mechanic, the former CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment, recently spoke to Business Insider to mark the upcoming 4K re-release of David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” the dismal box office for which in fall 1999 set the stage for Mechanic’s exit. He served as Fox’s studio boss from 1994-2000 and oversaw box office hits such as “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” “Independence Day” and “Titanic,” all of which were the highest-grossing films of their respective years.
But according to Mechanic, he was never able to make a fan out of Rupert Murdoch. Fox was owned at the time by Murdoch’s News Corps. Mechanic claimed Murdoch wanted the film studio to be like Page Six (which Murdoch also owned) in favoring flashy fare over artistically-driven projects
“He didn’t think movies were there to challenge,” Mechanic said of his boss.
If Murdoch didn’t want to be challenged, then there was no way he was going to like Fincher’s “Fight Club.” Based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel and starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, Fincher’s brooding and violent vision allegedly outraged Murdoch. Mechanic remembered attending one News Corps. meeting where “[Rupert] started attacking, and he said, ‘What kind of sick fucking human being would make a movie like this?’ I said, ‘Me. David Fincher. We’re not embarrassed.’”
“I knew he hadn’t seen the movie yet,” Mechanic added. “That’s probably the nexus of when he wanted to get rid of me.”
Mechanic said his tumultuous relationship with Murdorch is one reason he asked Fincher if at the end of “Fight Club” he could put the Fox Plaza Tower amidst the movie’s final shot, which depicts a bomb blowing up a skyline of buildings.
“David took me through the sequence. I think I was up in the actual building talking to him, and I asked David if he would put the Fox building in there for my tribute to Rupert,” Mechanic said. “I just realized I went to work for the wrong person. I think I got movies made that wouldn’t have been made, and there’s a price to pay.”
Variety has reached out to Murdoch’s reps for comment.
“Fight Club” was a box office bomb out of the gate and would only emerge as a cult classic upon its DVD release. Mechanic was hit with other failures after “Fight Club” such as Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The Beach.” He left Fox in June 2000, one month before the first “X-Men” movie opened in theaters and would provide the studio with one of its biggest franchises. But Mechanic said his bosses thought “X-Men” would be a trainwreck, which he figures also played a role in his demise at the studio.
“They saw it and thought it was a disaster — why would anybody make a Marvel comic into a movie?” he said.
Head over to Business Insider’s website to read Mechanic’s “Fight Club” interview in its entirety.
Leave a Reply