The house that Benjamin Button re-built is on the market for $3,200,000.

Two years ago, the grand pile at 2707 Coliseum Street in New Orleans's Garden District was a rickety heap hidden away on a leafy block, just around the corner from Lafayette Cemetery. Then the director David Fincher, out scouting locations for his upcoming film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and near the point of building something from scratch to suit his needs, spotted the house's gables through a row of crape myrtle trees. The gothic-arched windows were half-shuttered, and the house itself was literally topsy-turvy: a classic Louisiana cottage (circa 1830), raised onto an 1890s Colonial Revival, with a front porch and precarious-looking balcony that were badly in need of shoring up and a fresh coat of white paint. For Fincher, it was perfect -- just the place to leave a bearded baby on the doorstep. (The tale of Benjamin Button -- inspired by Mark Twain's toss-off about how the gods had gotten it all backwards, with the toughest part of life coming at the end and the cushiest at the beginning -- follows a baby of threescore and ten," born with "dim, faded eyes," a need for a walking cane and a taste for cigars who then proceeds to age in reverse.)

No one was at home that day when Fincher came calling, but the location team soon tracked down the owner: 87-year-old Mary Nell Porter Nolan, a 1930's "Maid of Cotton," who was once asked to make a screen test for Paramount Pictures -- the studio Fincher just happened to be working with. Miss Porter demurred on that screen test. But this time, after consulting with her children and grandchildren, the matriarch agreed (for a hefty fee, of course) to lend her home to Hollywood.

During filming, the manse, kept within the same family since 1875, was given a much-needed facelift, and now the 7,800 square foot space gleams, with six bedrooms, six bathrooms, central air, music room, library, reception hall, "and much more," according to the Sotheby's listing. Of course, the fact that Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt have idled in those rooms will be the biggest draw for some. "It's huge added value for sure, but we want to be subtle about it," real estate agent Dorian Bennett says. "It's a great house by itself."

And prospective buyers will have plenty of time to close a deal and move in well before the film's December 19 release date. --VANCE MUSE

(Photo via dbsir.com)

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