Edward Norton has described David Fincher as the most comprehensively talented filmmaker he has worked with, despite their reported creative disagreements during the making of Fight Club. Norton’s remarks matter because they come from an actor with experience of working with leading directors including Wes Anderson, Ridley Scott, Spike Lee and Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Norton, who played the unnamed Narrator opposite Brad Pitt in 1999’s Fight Club, said Fincher was a better photographer, writer and actor than the specialists around him, calling him a “Renaissance technician of film”. The pair reportedly clashed over whether the film’s humour should be made clearer, while Fincher wanted audiences to remain uncertain about its satire; Fight Club initially received mixed reviews but later became a major cultural phenomenon.