"I was born under unusual circumstances"

And so begins Warner Bros.’ new whimsical love story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” about a man (Brad Pitt) who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: A man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. From New Orleans at the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, on a journey as unusual as any man’s life can be, the film tells the grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds and loses, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” began its life as a short story written in the 1920s by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who, in turn, drew his own inspiration from a quote by Mark Twain: “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.”

Fitzgerald’s story was a caprice, a find of fancy, and bringing it to life on the screen was long perceived as too ambitious, too fantastical to accomplish. The project floated around for 40-some odd years until producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall took it up. For over a decade, the project has likewise intrigued screenwriter Eric Roth, director David Fincher and Brad Pitt.

For Roth, the concept became an opportunity to introspectively view the broad canvas of a life through the synthesis of intimate moments experienced every day, through events that may be as large as a world war or as small as a kiss.

“Eric was the ideal person to fully realize the potential of such a large-scale but deeply personal story,” Kennedy notes. “In ‘Forrest Gump,’ he revealed intimate portraits against the backdrop of epic stories, and a gift for richly observed detail.”

The chance to live life backwards would seem ideal. “But it’s not that simple,” says Roth. “On the surface, you think it would be just lovely, but it is a different kind of life, which I think is so compelling about this story. Even though Benjamin is going backwards, the first kiss and the first love are still as significant and meaningful to him. It doesn’t make any difference whether you live your life backwards or forwards – it’s how you live your life.”

While conceiving and writing the screenplay, Roth experienced the personal loss of both of his parents. “Their deaths were obviously very painful for me, and gave me a different perspective on things,” he notes. “I think people will respond to the same things in this story that I responded to.”

The movie explores the human condition that exists outside of time and age – the joys of life and love and the sadness of loss. “David and I both wanted it to feel as if this was anybody’s story,” Roth says. “It’s just a man’s life – that’s what’s sort of extraordinary about the movie and very ordinary at the same time. What affects this odd character affects everyone.”

While Benjamin’s predicament is entirely peculiar, his journey highlights the complex emotions at the core of every life. “It touches on questions we ask ourselves over the course of a lifetime,” says Marshall. “And it’s rare that one movie will elicit so many different, personal points of view. Someone in their 60s or 70s will look at the movie one way, while someone who’s 20 is going to see it another way.”

Fincher’s own experience of loss infused his fascination with the story. “My father died five years ago, and I remember the experience of being there when he breathed his last breath,” he reflects. “It was an incredibly profound one. When you lose someone who helped form you in a lot of ways, who is your ‘true north,’ you lose the barometer of your life. You’re no longer trying to please someone, or you’re no longer reacting against something. In many ways, you’re truly alone.”

Making the movie would be an ambitious jump, posing dramatic as well as technical challenges. “How do you deftly and succinctly create the experience of a life, with all its dips and peaks, from grave to cradle, within a single film?” muses Kennedy. “In Eric’s script, each moment accrues emotions that resonate with you later on. Cheating that sensibility would diminish the experience, so we knew from the beginning that it would take time to project the experience of a whole life.”

For Pitt, the only way to play the character was all the way through, at every age, which posed one of the film’s most daunting challenges. “Brad was only interested in playing the part if he could play the character through the totality of his life,” Fincher explains. 

Pitt’s draw was also in the journey Benjamin takes. “Many actors weigh a part based on what their character gets to do,” says Fincher. “Well, Benjamin doesn’t ‘do’ a lot, per se, but, man, he goes through an enormous amount. Brad was the perfect person. It’s the kind of role that would be passive in lesser hands.

“Benjamin is like a cue ball and all the people he collides with leave marks on him,” adds Fincher. “That’s what a life is – a collection of these dents and scratches. They are what make him who he is and not anyone else.”

“I like this idea of dents,” adds Pitt. “People make an impact and leave some kind of an impression. There’s something very poetic and accepting about that. It doesn’t mean you roll over. It doesn’t mean you don’t fight for what you want. It means you accept the inevitabilities of life. People come and go. People leave, whether by choice or by death. People leave as you yourself will someday leave – it’s the inevitable. How you deal with this becomes the question.”

Pitt associates this notion with his friend and frequent collaborator. “The film explores this idea that I know to be true of Fincher – the belief that we are responsible for our own lives,” the actor says. “We’re responsible for our successes and failures and there’s no one else to blame or take credit for them. Fate certainly has a say, but at the end of the day, its shape is ours.”

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“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” opens on Jan. 8, 2009.