If you bought or rented the new Fight Club blu-ray and brought it back to the store convinced you rented a faulty disc, you’ve been Punk’d by director David Fincher. When the disc boots up it displays the menu for Never Been Kissed for a few seconds before showing its true Fight Club colors.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case of Fincher making fun of a bad romantic comedy behind its back. Never Been Kissed star/executive producer Drew Barrymore signed off on the gag, a PR rep for Fox explains in a press release:
As you have probably noticed, there is a Never Been Kissed gag on the Fight Club 10th Anniversary BD, evident immediately upon insertion. As promised, below you’ll find the background on this prank, which was devised by David Fincher himself.
Fincher was heavily involved in the 10th Anniversary BD and as you may know, is a bit of a prankster. As a fun gag for the Fight Club fans, Fincher wanted the Fight Club Blu-ray Disc to begin with “a fake menu” of a romantic comedy from the same year as Fight Club, as a trick on the audience. Never Been Kissed was his top choice and he eventually went to Drew Barrymore for her approval. When users insert the disc into their BD player, the menu for Never Been Kissed will pop up for a few seconds prior to the real Fight Club menu.
As you are writing your reviews of the Fight Club 10th Anniversary BD, please feel free to let your readers know about this prank and Fincher’s intentions.
Fincher should have taken the joke the extra mile and substituted the entire Never Been Kissed movie for Fight Club as some sort of anti-materialist, marketing-media complex deconstruction statement.
More From Consumerist
-
Even Tyler Durden Knows You Shouldn't Run A Toddler Fight Club Out Of A Daycare Center
-
For Some Reason Nuns Really Don’t Want Strip Club To Open Next To Their Convent
-
Strip Club Claims Lap Dances Are Just As Arty As Other Dances & Should Be Tax Exempt
-
Held In The Disney Movie Club’s Enchanted Prison
-
Grocery Shrink Ray Hits Feta Cheese, Shrinks Product And Packaging (Updated: Not So Fast!)
I’m sure I get the joke… it just seems like more of an inconvenience than anything.
@adamczar:
Maybe it’s me, but I fail to see the humor in this. It just seems a bit childish and stupid. Okay, a LOT stupid.
@amberlink: Wait, are you describing the movie itself or the menu gimmick?
I know you meant the menu gimmick…which I actually find 100x more endearing than the movie.
The thing is, I would have missed it. I tend to pop in the disc and then walk around and do other things while the FBI warning shows and what not.
I don’t come back into the room until the menu is fully loaded.
@RedCatLinux: Me too, my BluRay player takes like 5 minutes to load so I always put in the disk and go do other stuff for a minute.
@RedCatLinux: In that case, you’ve probably also never seen the faux-FBI Warning from Tyler that was on the original DVD. I love stuff like this. It wouldn’t be enough to make me buy the Blu-ray, but if I were already doing so anyway, I’d be tickled.
@CheritaChen: My favorite is the fake credits in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
A moose once bit my sister!
and I bet one of the extra features is all of the still shots of naked men spliced into the movie.
This kind of thing totally fits into the asthetic of the film, though.
Hahahaha. So funny, I’m not buying it.
It would have been more clever if they inserted a frame from a porno, as they did in the movie. They could have superimposed the director’s head somewhere.
@dialmelo: They already did that…
Not as subversive as I’d ultimately like, but still: GG, Fincher.
you broke rule one and rule two . . .
I haven’t been pranked like that since grade school.
@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes: NICE!!
@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes: I want to have your ejected DVD.
I feel like this is one of those things that would be amusing the FIRST time you tried to watch it. Subsequent times would just be another few seconds between you and your movie night.
@lucky929: Most Blu-Ray players have persistent storage, so it should have been quite easy to save a “stopfile” of some sort to only show the gag the first time the disc is inserted into that drive. No clue if they actually did that or not.
@lucky929: Key word here is “few seconds.” Really? Is it that big a deal?
@pharmacyfires: Yes. It is annoying as hell. We know its only a few seconds, but each of those few seconds feels like a lifetime.
A better gag would have been to reshoot the movie with Drew Barrymore in the lead role.
@vladthepaler: She could be Edward Norton, and Cameron Diaz would be Brad Pitt…
excuse me. I’m suddenly ill.
@lucky929: Helena Bonham Carter, being already unusual, can just play the same role.
@pecan 3.14159265: I would watch an all-Bonham Carter film all day long. It’s not often that I’m taken with Hollywood stars, but she is a totally different story, even when she’s feeling a little bag lady-ish.
The 10th Anniversary Fight Club Soup tasted awfully… Salty as well.
@Trai_Dep: Something was off with the lemon meringue pie, too.
Practical jokes aren’t funny when you have to explain them in a press release.
What kind of weird freak am I that I enjoyed both movies? Okay, Fight Club way more than Never Been Kissed, but still.
Know what would be awesome? Ever After 2: Danielle Kicks Ass. Keep her in the big flumphy dresses but let her go around the countryside beating the snot out of nobles who are mean to their serfs.
But then, my real fantasy movie is Wolverine: The Musical, in which Hugh Jackman sings, dances, slices, and dices in a ripped tank top. Oh, except for the scene where he cleans up real nice into a tux…which then gets ripped off in another musical battle.
What can I say…I’m a nerd and a girl at the same time.
@kaceetheconsumer: I would pay money for Wolverine the musical. Seriously.
@lucky929: I *knew* I was not alone in this!!
Kinda wish the gag wasn’t spoiled for me. I was planning on buying that blu-ray soon.
Meh. The movie sucks balls anyway. Those who returned the disc were doing themselves a favor. The book is far, far superior.
If you haven’t done so yet, read the book. Then watch the movie. I guarantee the ending will leave you seething and wondering what the hell Fincher was thinking.
@Riff-Raff: Oh no he din’t…
@Riff-Raff: I’m having a hard time tracking down the interview, but Palahniuk has commented that some elements of the film, particular some character developments, are improvements upon the book. I consider Fight Club in the same way that I think of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/Blade Runner: one based upon the other, but two entirely different works of art, both worthy in their own right.
@h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes: I know a few die hard Chuck Palahniuk fans. And not only is this their least favorite book of his, but they much prefer the movie as well.
There is male nudity in this movie? OMG! Now it’s my favorite movie, EVER. And I’ve never seen it.
gay
Here’s a concept, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Personally, I agree that the joke plays into the theme of the movie. If you don’t like the joke, the movie probably isn’t for you.
If you don’t mind the joke, but it annoys you, you’re probably the type of person that would only watch this movie once a year at most anyway — and in that context, a few seconds won’t kill you.
If you’re the type that can watch this movie over and over, you need help anyway.
@adamczar: Have you seen the movie? This is a play on how Tyler worked snippets of porn into film reels at his job at the movie theater. It’s silly, sure, but it makes sense in-context.
@GitEmSteveDave_WantzTaunTaunBag: Not to mention that when you make your own pranks, you know exactly what goes into them. And they’re cheaper. It’s really not all that much work and it lets you feel superior on the internets.
@nbs2: It’s not unavoidable. You can easily bypass your player to play it at that spot. Set a bookmark or simply just accept that three or four seconds will be added to your movie viewing pleasure. It doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal.
@morlo: There is one. I think it’s at the end during the credits.
@morlo: Stupid MPAA and their ratings…
@pecan 3.14159265: Some films are locked. I recently went to watch My Bloody Valentine and kept getting the “this operation is currently prohibited” screen every time I tried to skip the previews and there seriously were 7-8 of them and it took me a few minutes to get by them all.
@Cyberxion101:
maybe if the beginning had a snippet of porn in it then I’d get it but a terrible movie inside a great one? Eh…