The Pitch: After doing time in prison, a reformed skinhead (Edward Norton) returns home to find that his little brother (Edward Norton) has become a neo-Nazi in his absence.
The Big Picture: "[Norton] is so buff in this movie," marvels Fairuza Balk (The Craft), who plays Norton's girlriend, of her costar's transformation. "It was amazing because you wouldn't think of him and his stature as being able to pull that off, but he did." In quasidocumentary fashion, the film intercuts flashbacks of the neo-Nazi days of Norton's character with his efforts to dissuade his brother from fascist ideals. "How this film differs from, say, Romper Stomper is that it shows how [shinheads] get these beliefs," says Balk, who, like Norton, hung out with former and current white supremacists for research. Did Furlong have the stomach to meet any real-life skinheads? "No, but I did look up a skinhead site on the Internet," says the 21-year-old actor. "American History X drained me. You totally needed a shower afterward, 'cause it's just a sick world, sick people." Almost as hairy was the power struggle in the editing room between first-time director Tony Kaye and New Line execs, who, after test screenings, wanted changes in the film. Beginning in June, the director took out simple yet elegant ads in Variety and The Hollywood Teporter containing quotes such as CONFORMITY IS THE JAILER OF FREEDOM AND THE ENEMY OF GROWTH. - JOHN F. KENNEDY. Finally agreeing to let Kaye make his cut, New Line president of production Michael De Luca nevertheless took out an ad stating I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM. I DO NOT LIKE THEM, SAM-I-AM. - DR. SEUSS. "I've actually got a call in to [De Luca] to find out what that meant," says Kaye. So whose version of the film will audiences see? "You're either gonna see my film, which will be "A Tony Kaye film," and if my name is not on it, it won't be my cut. I'm very uncompromising about this," says the director, who claims he has ponied up more than $1 million of his won cash for the film. "They're all gonna have a bit of a shock when they see what I've done with it. It's vastly different from what anyone expects." (New Line, November)