David Fincher originally planned to make The Game before Seven (1995). But once Brad Pitt became available for the latter, Fincher shelved this film until Seven (1995)'s filming was done.
Deborah Kara Unger fractured a bone in her foot and jumped into a dumpster infested with real rats while working on this film.
Jodie Foster was originally signed to play Michael Douglas's sibling in the film. However, Foster changed her mind and wanted to appear as Douglas's daughter instead. Douglas and director David Fincher were very opposed to this change so the part went to Sean Penn instead. Foster promptly sued PolyGram to the tune of $54.5 million - even though her Egg Pictures was one of the film's production companies. The matter was fortunately settled out of court. Douglas - who is a personal friend of Foster - said that it didn't seem right for him to play Foster's father, given that there is only 18 years age difference between the two. Ironically, Douglas played Foster's guardian in the 1972 Disney film "Napoleon and Samantha" when both were just starting their film careers.
Despite its success in the box office and cult following, David Fincher has admitted in interviews that he is not proud of the film. He has explained that he was fighting with executives at Polygram Entertainment, which was the distributor of the film and that he agreed with his wife Ceán Chaffin, who produced the film, that he never should've made the film, citing that they couldn't get the third act, "and it was my fault, because I thought if you could just keep your foot on the throttle it would be liberating and funny."
Nicholas's "San Francisco" home was actually the historic Filoli Mansion, 25 miles south of San Francisco in Woodside, California. The plain gravel forecourt of the mansion was made to look more like a wrap-around driveway by the addition of the fountain, which was constructed of lightweight foam. The interior shots of the kitchen were made in the original time-worn kitchen, which is displayed on tours but no longer used. The kitchen's state of repair is not good, which partially accounts for the very dim lighting used in the kitchen scenes. The scenes in which the walls were defaced with graffiti were done by tacking up lightweight graffiti-painted foamcore boards over the wood paneling. All of the scenes at the mansion were completed in one day.
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