Ben Affleck postponed directing Live By Night (2016) in order to work on this film with David Fincher, even stating, "He's the only director I've met who can do everybody else's job better than they could." On-set one day, Affleck changed the lens setting on a camera an almost indiscernible amount, betting a crew member that Fincher wouldn't notice. Affleck lost the bet as Fincher brought up, "Why does the camera look a little dim?"

Ben Affleck's weight fluctuates in the film with him being of fairly average build, to being muscular, as a result of being cast as Batman in Бэтмен против Супермена: На заре справедливости (2016).

David Fincher explained that one of the reasons he cast thirty-five-year-old Rosamund Pike as Amy, was that she was of unclear age in her appearance, and could pass for an older or younger woman. Rosamund's revelation that she was an only child also proved to be a very appealing aspect for Amy's character in Fincher's opinion.

Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights from Gillian Flynn in June 2012, and decided to produce under her new production label "Pacific Standard" as she would to be able to play the role of Amy. However, after her initial meeting with David Fincher on his vision of the film, Witherspoon withdrew from contention, realizing that she wasn't the right person to play the female lead.

Ben Affleck would constantly sing '80s songs in between takes. Impressed, Tyler Perry decided to start a game that ended up lasting the entire duration of filming. Perry would start to sing the most random song he could think of to see if Affleck would start singing along. According to Perry, Affleck knew all of the words to every single song Perry threw at him, including Broadway showtunes and songs by Barbra Streisand.

For her performance, Rosamund Pike drew inspiration from Nicole Kidman's performance in Умереть во имя (1995), and Sharon Stone's in Основной инстинкт (1992). She also studied Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr., for her body language and aloof mood.

When it comes to casting roles, David Fincher typically goes on the internet to look through pictures of actors to help him find the right type of actor for a role. When casting the role of Nick Dunne, Fincher spotted photos of Ben Affleck and noticed a particular smile Affleck had on dozens of pictures. According to Fincher, it captured a particular emotion in a scene of Nick Dunne smiling that showed the essence of the character. Soon afterward, Fincher cast Ben Affleck in the role.

David Fincher's musical brief to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross was based upon a visit he paid to a spa wherein the music meant to relax him he perceived as creepy and made him feel uncomfortable. This gave him the idea to set the music as though it is passive and relaxing, but actually instills a sense of dread.

Originally, Nick was supposed to wear a Yankees cap in one scene. But Ben Affleck, a die-hard Red Sox fan, refused to wear it. Ultimately, he and David Fincher compromised, and he wears a Mets cap.

"The Bar" restaurant in the movie is now a real restaurant exactly where it was filmed in downtown Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

This was the first time Ben Affleck had done full frontal nudity on-screen. Affleck said he agreed to do it because David Fincher told him that he wanted it to be like a European movie, "warts and all", that there could be no vanity from the cast members, as he wanted to portray the characters just as in real-life.

Production of the film had to be shut down for four days, due to Ben Affleck's refusal to follow David Fincher's vision, and wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene where Affleck's character, Nick, is at an airport. The Bostonian actor said to Fincher, "David, I love you, I would do anything for you. But I will not wear a Yankees hat." Eventually, the two settled for Ben's character to wear a Mets cap. Fincher jokingly describes Affleck's actions of this as "entirely unprofessional" in the DVD's audio commentary.

Ben Affleck was concerned about the nine year age difference between him and Carrie Coon, considering that their characters are supposed to be twins, and opted that he should play Nick as being thirty years old.

The character of Tanner Bolt was initially written as an "Alec Baldwin type."

The whole play with the pens of different colors was Gillian Flynn's visual solution to the translation to screen of Amy's diary.

With Rosamund Pike getting nominated for Best Actress for this film, this marks the fourth consecutive film that David Fincher has directed Oscar-nominated performances (Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson for Загадочная история Бенджамина Баттона (2008); Jesse Eisenberg for Социальная сеть (2010); and Rooney Mara for Девушка с татуировкой дракона (2011)).

The film has become David Fincher's highest grossing domestic box-office film, beating prior leader Загадочная история Бенджамина Баттона (2008).

Rosamund Pike told film critic Peter Travers that, whenever David Fincher would catch her on-set about to use her cell phone, he'd take a "stern face" selfie and send it to her causing her to instantly pocket her phone.

David Fincher shot an incredible five hundred hours of material over the one-hundred-day shoot, an average of five hours per day.

During an August 2014 interview with New York Magazine, Tyler Perry said that he didn't know anything about the movie's source novel, or David Fincher, and that he wouldn't have accepted his role in the movie if he had: "I probably would have walked away from it. If I had known who David Fincher was, and his body of work, or if I'd known the book was so popular, and so many people loved it, I would have said, 'No', and my agent knew that! He didn't tell me until after I signed on, and the reason I wouldn't have done it, is because when things are that magical for people, and they become very special for people, there's a lot of pressure for it to be what they want it to be."

The character Ellen Abbott is loosely based on television host Nancy Grace.

Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, Abbie Cornish, and Julianne Hough were considered for the role of Amy Dunne. Witherspoon had already been hired as one of the film's producers.

David Fincher cast Emily Ratajkowski on recommendation by Ben Affleck. Fincher admitted that he had no idea who she was until Affleck told him to watch for her appearance in the infamous Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines music video. Fincher was impressed by her work ethic during filming because according to her: "I was ready to be a student, and he is the best teacher. He wants to do a hundred takes, and I want to do them for him."

Most of the doors and windows in daytime interior scenes were fitted with green screens and had the backgrounds added in later, due to inabilities to expose for interiors without the outdoors blowing out.

Feature film debut of Carrie Coon.

When Nick and Amy have sex in the library, they talk about Jane Austen's book "Pride & Prejudice". Rosamund Pike, who plays Amy, was one of the leads in Гордость и предубеждение (2005), playing the part of Jane Bennet.

David Fincher's third film in the IMDb top 250 (after Семь (1995) and Бойцовский клуб (1999)).

Ben Affleck and his character Nick Dunne were both born on August 15.

Regarding the casting of the title character, David Fincher said he wanted an actress with a Faye Dunaway type of persona. The director told Playboy magazine, "I wanted Faye Dunaway in Chinatown, where you think, 'This person has experienced avenues of pain that no one can articulate'. Or Faye in Network, where it's, 'You're never going to get to the bottom of this, so just stop'. It's crazy how much Rosamund reminds me of Faye."

Seth Rogen and Ryan Reynolds were considered for the part of Nick Dunne in early stages of pre-production.

Brad Pitt was considered to play Nick Dunne.

The first screenplay written by Gillian Flynn, and also marks the first film adaptation of any of Flynn's works.

Originally, David Fincher was supposed to be directing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo, but due to a complete halt in the production's development, Fincher dropped out of the project, and quickly jumped on board to helm this film instead.

The name Schieber (from the character Sharon Schieber), is Author Gillian Flynn's middle name.

Nick Dunne is always complaining that his cell phone has no signal. One of the close-ups of his cell phone show that the wireless carrier is T-Mobile, which coincidentally, at the time, had questionable indoor signal strength, due to the lack of lower operating spectrum.

Jon Hamm was seriously considered for Nick Dunne, but his schedule on Безумцы (2007) didn't allow this. Coincidentally, Ben Affleck previously directed Hamm in Город воров (2010), and Hamm was a top contender for the role of Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which went to Affleck.

The campground scene was filmed at Giant City State Park Lodge and Restaurant in southern Illinois, just southwest of Carbondale.

Although the film is based in North Carthage, Missouri, Gone Girl was filmed in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Casting of extras had taken place in the Rose Theatre of Southeast Missouri State University, also located in Cape Girardeau.

Jessica Chastain was considered for the role of Amy Dunne.

The video game that Nick was playing was Battlefield 3 (2011) for the PlayStation 3.

An earlier version of the screenplay was one hundred seventy-seven pages long. If that version of the screenplay had been the one used to shoot the film, it would have been two hours and fifty-seven minutes long.

One of Amy's pink pens has the outline of a stork carrying a baby pouch, likely in reference to the topic Amy is writing about in her diary.

Was edited in Adobe Premiere using off-the-shelf Mac computers.

The old federal building at 339 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Missouri was dressed as the North Carthage Police Department building.

After Amy has disappeared, Nick and the detective go to his office to follow up on his wife's first "clue". Inside his office, on the bookshelf, there are some books, two of which are Michael Chabon's "Manhood For Amateurs", non-fiction essays about being a husband, and the mistakes and surprises of being a father, and Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom", an American novel concerned with the themes of marriage.

A Mayflower truck also appeared in David Fincher's Комната страха (2002).

Besides the reference to Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice", referencing how Rosamund Pike played Jane in Гордость и предубеждение (2005), Neil Patrick Harris' character in this film is named Mr. Collings, which is very similar to Mr. Collins of the same book.

Scoot McNairy and Ben Affleck have appeared in two other movies together besides this one: Argo (2012) and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

At the volunteer center, Margo tells Nick, "You look like hammered shit." This exact same line is spoken by Drum (Tom Skerritt) in Стальные магнолии (1989).

Ben Affleck's character searching for a woman named Amy recalls the title of an early Affleck movie, В погоне за Эми (1997).

According to an episode on Jeopardy! (1984) aired October 9, 2015 a contestant known as Emily Rollman, who was an extra, apparently insulted Ben Affleck. She claimed after he ran into her during one of the takes, Ben asked her, "How was that?" She replied in sarcasm, "Well, that was okay."

When Nick Dunne drives his father back to the retirement home, "Don't Fear The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult plays on the car radio. This ubiquitous song was also featured in Хэллоуин (1978) when Annie is driving with Laurie, and a cover version of the song was used in Крик (1996) when Billy enters Sidney's bedroom through the window. The song is also used in Joe Eszterhas' unproduced screenplay "Foreplay".

When Rosamund Pike first learned that she'd been cast, she was in the Scottish Highlands filming Каникулы мечты (2014).

David Fincher's second film in a row to have the word "girl" in the title, the previous being Девушка с татуировкой дракона (2011).

When Margo is watching Ellen Abbott, she is having a dinner of bran flakes with organic milk and a glass of red wine.

This is the second David Fincher film to feature the main character having a cat. First was Mikael Blomkvist from Девушка с татуировкой дракона (2011).

Close to the beginning of the movie, when Nick arrives to the bar, he gives Margo a board game. Once she stores it in a shelf, another board games can be seen, including a backgammon and a Ouija.

Rosamund Pike and Lola Kirke starred opposite Tom Cruise in blockbuster films, Pike in Jack Reacher (2012), and Kirke in American Made (2017).

The DVDs visible on Greta's dresser when she's watching the news report are Groundhog Day (1992), Patriot Games (1992), and Protocols of Zion (2005). The other cases are difficult to discern.

Contrary to rumour, former Leeds United striker Tony Yeboah does not appear in this movie.

When Nick and Amy meet for the first time at a party, she is drinking Leffe Blonde, a Belgian Blonde Ale brewed by Abbaye de Leffe in Dinant, Belgium.

The bourbon that Nick and Margo are drinking at the Bar is Blanton's.

In order to figure out his character, Ben Affleck researched and studied several men who were accused and convicted of killing their wives. He paid particular attention to Scott Peterson.

Rosamund Pike claimed that per David Fincher's request, she and Neil Patrick Harris spent two hours on set, completely alone, rehearsing their sex scene.

Rosamund Pike gained and lost thirteen pounds three times to play the character at different times in her life. She stuffed herself with hamburgers and malts to gain the weight, and exercised with a professional boxer for as long as four hours a day and ran five miles (in forty-two minutes) to lose the weight.

In the scene where Nick pushes Amy against the wall, it was so physically intense, that Rosamund Pike almost got a concussion. She told Vanity Fair, "I think around take eighteen of getting my head bashed against the wall, I literally saw stars."

It is not coincidence that Nick gives Margo the game "Mastermind", which is then put on a shelf on top of the games "Emergency!", "Let's Make a Deal", and "The Game of Life".

Rosamund Pike said in a magazine article about making the movie that she including some levity during a scene where she's making pancakes that wasn't in the script, in order to convey a light-hearted friendliness to Ben Affleck. Pike said that the nature of Nick and Amy's relationship didn't allow or call for much (if any) playfulness, but she wanted to add it because it could play as either genuine and showing some basic affection between Nick and Amy, or it could be another part of Amy's warped psychology relative to everything else she says and does in the film.

Rosamund Pike used a Даша-путешественница (2000) doll to practice her sex scene with Neil Patrick Harris.

(At around one hour and fourteen minutes) At the point where the movie is exactly half finished, Nick Dunne and his twin sister Margo's conversation is summing up the story of the whole movie.

The interior of the house when Nick finds Amy has gone is the same house that was used for Паранормальное явление 2 (2010).

When Greta, Amy's neighbor at the campground, first appears she is listening to "Left Ey3" by Kreayshawn. The song is about finding out your boyfriend is cheating, then burning his house down, and/or causing harm to him, and the person with whom he is cheating.

When Officer James Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) asks Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) why she was still reading the burned diary, Rhonda responds, "it interests me". This is the same line used by Lisbeth Salander in Девушка с татуировкой дракона (2011) (another movie by David Fincher), when Lisbeth was asked by a police officer why she was digging up another murder case involving a woman.

Gillian Flynn was originally going to call this PSYCHO BITCH, but she changed her mind. They even make an allusion to that in the book.

In addition to having the same word in both titles, as well as Ben Affleck's brother Casey, there are several plot similarities between this film and Gone Baby Gone (2007), which was directed by Ben Affleck. The plots of both movies revolve around a girl who goes missing, then is believed to be dead, but is actually alive, and at the center of a complex scheme. She is returned home to an uneasy home life. Both films are based on novels, and even have very similar posters.

In the book, when Amy meets Desi at the casino, a stranger interrupts their conversation to ask if she is related to the Enloes. (In the book's acknowledgments, author Gillian Flynn thanks Detective Craig Enloe of the Overland Park Police Department for answering her "42,000 e-mails.") In the film, the line is kept but the name is changed from Enloe to Nolan--the surname of the author's spouse, Brett, and their children.

Wife killer suspect Nick (Ben Affleck) is interviewed by Sharon Schieber (Sela Ward). Ward played Helen Kimble, the murdered wife of suspected wife killer Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), in Беглец (1993).

Also contains a spoiler for Челюсти (1975): With this film being nominated at the 87th Academy Awards (87-я церемония вручения премии 'Оскар' (2015)), Neil Patrick Harris became the second Oscar host to die in a movie that was nominated during the ceremony in which they hosted. The first being Robert Shaw, who hosted the 48th Academy Awards where Jaws (1975) was nominated for four Oscars.

In How I Met Your Mother, Neil Patrick Harris played womanizing character Barney Stinson. He developed a theory of female sanity being related to their beauty: the hotter a girl is, the more accepting a man is of her craziness. He dubbed this theory the Hot/Crazy Scale. His character here is murdered by a beautiful woman that was crazy, supporting Stinson's theory.

Also contains spoilers for the novel and movie Presumed Innocent (1990): Plot similarities: The main character is accused of killing an ex-lover. In this film, it is his wife. In both films, it turns out the wife herself committed the crime, and staged the crime scene to implicate her husband. In both cases, a hammer is involved in the framing. At the end of both films, the accused decides not to divorce his wife, or press charges, realizing his own infidelity led her to do it, and that it would affect their public image. Nick also stays with Amy because she is pregnant. Rusty states he could not prosecute his wife because, "How could I deprive my children of their own mother?" The actors that played the accused husbands, Ben Affleck and Harrison Ford, have also played Jack Ryan.

Amy smashes her cheek with a hammer, to look as if she has been abused by her unfaithful husband. In Presumed Innocent (1990), the murderer used a hammer as well.