Seven garnered middling test audience results and was not predicted to perform well due to its violent and mature content. Principal photography took place in Los Angeles between December 1994 and March 1995, on a $33–$34 million budget. Despite their efforts, Fincher, eager to prove himself after a career setback, read Walker's original script, sent to him by mistake, and committed to directing the project on the condition that the ending remained intact. Studio executives were opposed to the script's bleak conclusion, insisting on a more mainstream and optimistic outcome. His script was optioned by an Italian film company but, following financial difficulties, the rights were sold to New Line Cinema. Walker, an aspiring writer, based Seven on his experiences of moving from a suburban setting to New York City during a period of rising crime and drug addiction in the late 1980s. Set in an unnamed, crime-ridden city, Seven 's narrative follows disenchanted, near-retirement detective William Somerset (Freeman) and his newly transferred partner David Mills (Pitt) as they endeavor to thwart a serial killer from executing a series of murders based on the seven deadly sins. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and John C. Seven (stylized as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker.
