Chuck Palahniuk time while working for Freightliner. After initially publishing it as a short story (which became chapter 6 of the novel) in the 1995 compilation, "Pursuit of Happiness", Palahniuk expanded it into a full novel, which, contrary to his expectations, the publisher was willing to publish. While the original hardcover edition of the book received positive reviews and some awards, it had a short shelf life. Initially, Palahniuk struggled to find a literary agent and went without one until after the publication of "Fight Club". After he began receiving attention from 20th Century Fox, Palahniuk was signed by actor and literary
Brad Pitt as Jeffrey Goines in Terry Gilliam's 1995 science-fiction film "12 Monkeys". The movie received predominantly positive reviews, with Pitt praised in particular. Janet Maslin of the "New York Times" called "Twelve Monkeys" "fierce and disturbing" and remarked on Pitt's "startlingly frenzied performance", concluding that he "electrifies Jeffrey with a weird magnetism that becomes important later in the film." He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film and received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The following year he had a role in the legal drama "Sleepers" (1996), based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's novel