In an interview in David Prior„s excellent The Curious Birth of Benjamin
Button documentary, Fincher says he was attracted to the project because he wanted to
make a movie about death since his father had recently died. He explains that being at
his father‟s deathbed was so much more profound than having a child. “You want it to be
over as quickly as possible,” says Fincher, “and yet you don‟t want it to be over.” This
led to him wanting to tell a story about “Love measured against this graph paper of
something we try so desperately to ignore.”