Teaser trailer for David Fincher's version of Stieg Larsson's 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'
Starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Plummer, Joely Richardson and Robin Wright, directed by David Fincher, screenplay by Steven Zaillian, opening December 21st in the U.S.
Yes, the one with the lesbian kiss, unlike the fake bootleg of last week.
In case you missed it, it's at 0:31.
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I was going to write about the film a week ago but I'm now glad that I was patient and waited.
It's time to get to the heart of the nagging question hanging over this upcoming film, once you've FINALLY accepted the idea that it was inevitable that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would be remade for American/English-speaking audiences worldwide.
I know a LOT of holdouts who don't like the idea of the remake one little bit, largely because they're concerned -rightly so in their eyes- that remaking a film/series that Noomi Rapace was positively mesmerizing in as Lisbeth Salander, is insulting to her personally, and the general notion of its uniquely Swedish aspects and pride of place.
I completely understand that line of argument(s) and am not completely unsympathetic to it, but,
a.) the reality is that the second part of show biz is, of course, bu$ine$$, and,
b.) there simply were NOT and are NOT enough people around -like me- who went to see the original films in Swedish directed by, respectively, Niels Arden Oplev and Daniel Alfredson, and,
c.) Director David Fincher has allayed at least some of those concerns by filming a lot in Sweden, starting last September in Stockholm.
He was quoted as saying in Svenska Dagbladet, SvD, that he wants to "find an atmosphere reminiscent of 'Chinatown.'"
I loved the originals, but they were not Gone With The Wind or Casablanca, consequently, I'm not going to be ridiculous about this remake, though I will say that I hope it's ten times better than any recent American remake of any of a number of good French films turned-out.
Talk about something to cry about...
SVT had this video of journalist Mikael Blomqvist (Daniel Craig) at the train station in Sollefteå last week; may be the least interesting video ever posted here!
Check-out this interesting video by Oskar at discjunkietv who was up in Uppsala a few months ago when the cast and crew were doing a 1960's flashback sequence involving a parade thru downtown. He was very determined to get an eye on what was doing.
Hanging out at the David Fincher set in Uppsala
See Oskar's YouTubeChannel at http://www.youtube.com/user/discjunkietv
and his website at http://www.discjunkie.se/
Once you're past that temporary roadblock about the philosophical question of the remake, you confront the large double-edged sword hanging above this production and how it's received by theater-goers, something a well-read person like you no doubt already realizes and understands, is the question of 25-year old Rooney Mara's performance on screen.
(Or as a female friend of mine with lots of style has emailed me from Sverige, "WTF's the deal with that hairdo she's wearing?)
It's the consensus opinion of everyone on both sides of the Atlantic that I trust who had already seen the Swedish language versions of the trilogy that this David Fincher adaption will succeed or falter based almost entirely on Mara's performance as Lisbeth Salander, regardless of how great everyone and everything else in the film may be, including the menacing music.
Anything too heavy-handed will detract from a story that was serious and stark in tone.
Anything too heavy-handed will detract from a story that was serious and stark in tone.
As I mentioned in several emails to friends around the country trying to persuade them to seek out the first film in the series in early 2009, Oplev's Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"), which is known here as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I loved the scary trailer.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -Swedish release with Danish subtitles, 2009
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -U.S. release with English subtitles, 2010
Here's the latest news from SVT on Monday about director David Fincher's first public words about the film while appearing last Friday at the Swedish Film Institute, SFI, answering questions from Roger Wilson.
It's well-worth reading.
http://blogg.svt.se/film/2011/05/fincher-rapport-och-dragon-tattoo-trailer/
It's well-worth reading.
http://blogg.svt.se/film/2011/05/fincher-rapport-och-dragon-tattoo-trailer/
By the way, speaking of the film remake, has any current actor you can think of ever transformed more successfully from almost always playing articulate and thoughtful film characters you rooted for, to consistently playing evil, malevolent bad-asses quite like Christopher Plummer, who here in the remale, will play someone both curious and afraid about the answer to a mystery? (And Joely's Richardson's....)
Ever since Plummer's performance as Chang in Star Trek VI twenty years ago, he's really gone over to the dark side and played one oleaginous and creepy character after another
And been completely believable.
Auf Wiedersehen, Captain von Trapp!
Ironically, Swedish actor Mikael Nyqvist, someone whom I first came to appreciate in 2004's Oscar-nominated Så som i himmelen (As It Is in Heaven), a film that I previously mentioned here on July 2, 2009 in a post titled ABBA Geniuses At It Again: Story Of A Heart, featuring Helen Sjöholm, Words & Music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus
and who was so excellent in the three Swedish-language versions of the Millennium trilogy as hard-working reporter Mikael Blomkvist, will now be playing a villain opposite Tom Cruise in the next Mission Impossible release, which is nummer fyra -number four- Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, coming out December 16th
That post of mine also mentioned Gabriella's Song, the great song from the film, and two versions of it as sung by two super-talented singers, Helen Sjöholm in the film and Molly Sandén on the popular SVT singing TV show, Så ska det låta, back when Molly was sixteen -three years ago!
As some of you know, that film, with Nyqvist cast as a man of the world who unexpectedly finds love in a small Swedish town -his childhood hometown- while trying to get away from it all, is one that Swedish women of every age group absolutely love to death.
As some of you know, that film, with Nyqvist cast as a man of the world who unexpectedly finds love in a small Swedish town -his childhood hometown- while trying to get away from it all, is one that Swedish women of every age group absolutely love to death.
They positively start tearing-up when they hear the first few bars of it...
Really.
As it is in Heaven (Så Som I Himmelen) - Gabriellas Sång
Molly Sandén - Gabriellas Sång (on SVT's 'Så ska det låta,' 2008)
For more information, also check out:
http://www.stieglarsson.com/ and for more details on the upcoming film, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/
