'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 'Forest Gump' screenwriter Eric Roth, 'Fight Club' director David Fincher and Brad Pitt.

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."

Early in the film’s preparations, Fincher's meetings with Kennedy and Marshall often turned highly personal. "We'd start talking about the story," Fincher remembers, "and fifteen minutes later we’re all talking about people that we’ve loved who have died, and people that we loved who didn’t pay attention to us, or people we chased or who chased us. The film is interesting in that way; it had this effect on all of us."

Now Fincher speaks in detail about the film that received 13 Oscar nominations this year.

After Hurricane Katrina, did you ever doubt that you could shoot this film in New Orleans?

We didn't start shooting before Katrina. We were planning on it, then Katrina happened, and we went to New Orleans to see if we could get what we needed. I was shocked. So, it was kind of an amazing place to be, and an amazing experience to be around these people who were so happy to have us there. I don't think people saw our production as local business and employment; I think they saw it as a chance to think about something other than a tragedy.

How did you decide to use Katrina as a framing device in the film?

We just decided because we were shooting in New Orleans and Katrina had happened. We were either going to do a movie that took place before or after, and as we talked about it, we scouted a lot of the hospitals where people were left to their own devices, and thought that might be an interesting place to play the framing story.

What made you want to make a movie so different from your previous films?

I look forward to doing things I haven’t done before. I’m contrary by nature. When somebody says to me: ‘Here’s the script. It all takes place in one house; you wouldn’t be interested in that,’ that’s where I go: ‘Wait a minute. I might actually be interested.’ This was something that somebody gave to me and said: ‘It’s a great story.’ I read it, and it made me cry, and I recognised so many of the people in the movie. I thought it would be a nice movie to make.

What spoke to you about the script?

I guess it is a love story on a certain level, but I liked the fact it wasn’t what I call ‘the ballad of co-dependency’. It’s not two people saying: ‘You make me whole. I can’t live without you.’ They can live without one another. They choose to be together even though, in the end, it’s a very tough thing to do. There isn’t a ‘happily ever after’.

This film seems like a U-turn for you since you're known for darker fare.

I don’t think it's a U-turn. When you make thrillers, it’s a kind of narrative engineering, and this movie has less narrative engineering. In the same way, Benjamin Button’s life is designed to be a little more aimless. It doesn’t have the signposting. It doesn’t have the ticking clock — well, it has a different kind of ticking clock. It has a clock that’s going to tick a lot slower. It’s going to take a lot of years to get to the end.

Benjamin has a colourful life.

I kind of think that it’s pretty mundane. If you look at his experience of the Second World War, it’s one firefight over 45 minutes. The important thing was that his war experience gave him a different understanding of death than he had growing up. That was the important part. The important part was that he saw unnatural death inflicted on people.

Was it nice to get on set immediately after 'Zodiac' and make another movie?

It was extremely exhausting, actually. We had to pace ourselves because it was almost the exact same crew going from one movie to the next. The idea of making movies back-to-back was never something I was interested in, but just as the chips fell, this is the way it ended up doing it. I won’t be shooting a movie when another movie is coming to the theatre.

How do you feel about all of the awards and accolades your film has received?

It’s a great thing to make movies. Awards are just icing on the cake.

You’re together again with Brad Pitt. Is there a special reason you wanted to reunite with him on this?

I think probably on the face of it, it’s probably a ridiculous notion to cast Brad Pitt as the ‘Everyman’. I felt like there are real benefits to having not a caricature — because I don’t feel like Benjamin, in his old incarnation, is a caricature of Brad — but there are certain things you do when you’re projecting what somebody’s going to look like 40 years from where he is now. You have to take certain physical characteristics and exaggerate them a little bit. And there’s a real benefit to having somebody whom you can’t walk 50 feet in the civilized world without seeing a photograph of him. That gives you certain advantages. People are so familiar with his face that you could work with that and people would go: ‘Is that…?’

If you take the shot of him on the motorcycle, it felt like you were playing with movie-star iconography.

Yeah. We tip our hat. There are wardrobe changes that are very Steve McQueen. There are wardrobe changes that are very Marlon Brando. From the ‘50s into the ‘60s, some Paul Newman stuff.

What are the qualities in Brad and Cate Blanchett that make them movie stars?

They’re movie stars not because they show up on the cover of a lot of magazines, but because they have an innate understanding of movie acting and the audience invests in them. Cate’s an actor, first and foremost. Brad’s an actor, first and foremost. But there are things those two bring to it that are bigger and more magic. You could have other people do what they do, but I don’t think they would generate the same kind of interest. I think all movie stars, more than anything, want truth. They want to come in and serve the text.