The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

[GeneChing]

I signed a release for our cover to appear in this film. I hope that it made the final cut.

Film: I trained in martial arts 5 times a week
Mar 19 2010 By Graham Young
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

THE Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is making waves in cinemas.

Although it only opened on 114 screens nationwide, it had the fourth highest average gross per screen in the UK last week behind Alice In Wonderland (533 screens) Shutter Island (416) and Green Zone (419).

After opening at Cineworld Broad Street in Birmingham last week, it is expanding into Dudley Showcase from today.

The film is a thriller steeped in intrigue and mystery, and conspiracy theories also surround the death of Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson.

He died in 2004 leaving three unpublished novels, which became the best-selling Millennium Trilogy.

Noomi Rapace stars in the film adaptation of the first book as Lisbeth Salander, a punky loner with a criminal past and a brilliant mind, who makes a living hacking computers.

Directed by Niels Arden Oplev and co-starring Michael Nyqvist as investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, the action-packed drama sees a twist of fate bring Mikael and Lisbeth together in this dark and shady tale.

Noomi was initially deemed unsuitable for the role, so here she reveals what made her so determined to play The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and what she went through to become her.

Were you a fan of Stieg Larsson’s books?

“Yes, I actually read the books before I even knew they were going to do a film, and I liked it very much, especially Lisbeth. I felt some kind of connection with her from the very beginning. I like that she’s such a survivor. She’s a fighting spirit, she never feels sorry for herself, she always finds a way to act, instead of just being stuck in the middle of emotions. She’s trying to create the life she wants to live and I like that very much.

“Nobody recognises me because I don’t look like her, but I think what I have in common with her is I’ve been on my own in life. I moved from my parents when I was 15 and I always knew that it’s up to me to create the life that I want to live and to follow my dreams.”

Is it true you were turned down for the part at first?

“I think Niels saw a picture of me and he thought I was too feminine or too cute. But he wanted to meet me anyway and then he changed his mind, because I think he felt that I knew something about Lisbeth, like I had some some kind of energy that he felt, that was the same as Lisbeth’s.”

What did you do to become her?

“It was pretty hard sometimes. I was preparing for seven months before the shooting. I wanted to transform. I wanted to be more like a boy. I wanted to be a bit more skinny, a bit more masculine, I wanted to get rid of my female body.

“I was training martial arts like Taekwondo for four or five days a week with a crazy Serbian guy. I was on a certain diet because I wanted to lose some weight and I took my motorcycle driving licence and I cut my hair and pierced myself, so it was a lot of preparation.

“The tattoo was like a kid’s tattoo that we put on everyday with water. But it was extremely important that the tattoo said something about Lisbeth’s past. We were working a couple of months to find the right expression and energy in the tattoo.”

Did you feel pressure because of the books’ popularity?

“I had to ignore the pressure and everybody’s expectations because it was crazy. It felt like some kind of suicide mission to go into this, to be the one who’s going to give life to Lisbeth. So when the film was released I expected everyone to hate me and I didn’t think I could walk on the streets.

“It was extremely important for me to humanise her because in the book she’s a bit cartoonish, she can be a bit unreal sometimes, she can do things that aren’t really credible, so I wanted every scene to be real Lisbeth.”

Would you now like to make English speaking films?

“Yeah, absolutely. I’m actually reading an English script now.”

[doug maverick]

this movie is being remade.and david fincher may direct the english version.

[GeneChing]

Maybe Portman could do it. Maybe. It would really stretch her acting skills. But it's going to take a helluva lot of guts to match Rapace. She knocks Lizbeth out of the ballpark with her performance.

I saw this film last week. It's tense, gritty and remarkably engrossing. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone because there's some graphic rape and revenge. Almost every female character is abused. Nevertheless, I was so engaged in the story that I kept forgetting to look for our magazine and then when it was over, I was thinking I might have missed it while reading the Swedish subtitles.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Reviews
by Joan Lister | Mar 20, 2010

Based on Stieg Larsson’s bestseller, Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has become an international box-office sensation. The dark thriller-horror mystery stars European Film Award nominee Noomi Rapace as a computer hacker who helps a journalist (Michael Nyqvist) in his attempt to solve the decades-old disappearance of a young Swedish heiress.

David Fincher will supposedly handle the inevitable American remake. Natalie Portman, Kristen Stewart, and Keira Knightley have been rumored as possibilities for the English-language hacker.

Below are a few snippets from several reviews by US-based critics:

"Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev faithfully and intelligently transfers the first volume of Stieg Larsson’s hugely popular detective trilogy to the screen. … [T]he key to the film’s effectiveness is the casting of Rapace, who, while not mapping quite exactly to the book’s physical descriptions, is riveting." Andy Klein in The Christian Science Monitor.

"The Lisbeth you know from the books … has already been found. Her name is Noomi Rapace and she owns the part. If I were Portman, Knightley or Stewart, I’d be shaking in my boots. Actually, this Lisbeth could scare Jason Bourne." Mary Pols in Time.

"According to recent industry news, David Fincher is already considering directing a remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo … But it’s hard to say what the director of Seven and Zodiac could bring to a film that’s already as dark, moody, and vice-focused as Seven, and as intricately procedural as Zodiac. Niels Arden Oplev’s Dragon adaptation is already a poisonous gem, in large part thanks to fearless performances and an unwaveringly graphic sensibility that doesn’t flinch at the most horrific parts of Larsson’s story." Tasha Robinson in The A.V. Club.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a potboiler but entertaining enough to rise above its flaws, which include a 152-minute run time. Those who stick it out will see an especially dark murder mystery that presents Swedish society as corrupt and profoundly antagonistic to women." Walter Addiego in the San Francisco Chronicle.

" It’s the rare 2 1/2 -hour film that doesn’t make you look at your watch once. "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is such a film. It isn’t so much the pacing. … Rather, like a good book, the plot is so engrossing, the characters so rich and complex, the mood of gloom mixed with glimmers of hope so all-encompassing that the thought of its actually ending never occurs to you." Michael O’Sullivan in the Washington Post.

So I'm now informed that our magazine appears in the sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'm told that in the second film the police visits Lisbeth Salander's apartment, which Miriam Wu has rented. Miriam Wu is very much into kung fu (and similar sports) and on her kitchen table is our magazine, which one of the police officers looks through. So I'm waiting on the sequel.

[SimonM]

I'm actually reading the book right now.

[GeneChing]

I've just seen The Girl Who Played with Fire and have The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'll link them here to their reviews. Fire does feature our mag prominently!

[Design Sifu]

Daniel Craig has closed his deal to play journalist Mikael Blomkvist in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a deal which factors in options for two sequels based on The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest.

[Lucas]

ill probably need to wait. i started watching this on netflix but all the subtitling is cut in half at the bottom of the screen. sooooo annoying

[MasterKiller]

I watched it. It wasn't bad.

[Hebrew Hammer]

Thought it was one of the best films of the year...loved the lizbeth character...foreign films have such better dialogue, plot, character development than 99% of American films...amazingly not one bit of CGI.

[doug maverick]

Originally Posted by Hebrew Hammer

Thought it was one of the best films of the year...loved the lizbeth character...foreign films have such better dialogue, plot, character development than 99% of American films...amazingly not one bit of CGI.

i wouldnt say not one bit...you'd be surprised, cgi is used in about 85% of the worlds movies these days, most times its so small its unnoticeable and this film did have some cgi, the visual effects was done by a company called filmgate, which is a CG effects company.


daniel craig has just been cast in the american version.

[GeneChing]

Noomi "finished" with Salander
(UKPA) – 7 hours ago

Noomi Rapace has declared she is "finished" with Lisbeth Salander.

The Swedish actress is so done with the character she portrayed for the big-screen adaptations of Stieg Larsson's Millennium novels that she wouldn't even consider working with acclaimed director David Fincher and leading man Daniel Craig for the Hollywood remake.

"With the remake, I've been very clear on that point from the beginning; it doesn't matter who is going to direct, it doesn't matter who is going to play Mikael Blomkvist, I'm finished," she told Total Film.

Noomi reckons the Oscar-nominated filmmaker can do the books justice.

"I love Fight Club and I think Seven is an amazing film. I think Fincher is one of the few directors in the world that can do something really good with it - but I'm done with her," she explained.

"I don't have this dream about Hollywood. For me, it's more important to work with people and do projects that I deeply believe in and feel like I really have to do."

Bond star Daniel will play roving journalist Mikael Blomkvist for David's English-language adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, while the coveted role of computer hacker Lisbeth has yet to be decided, with Ellen Page and Mia Wasikowska rumoured to be in the frame.

My respect for Rapace just went up yet another notch. No way - NO EFFING WAY - Ellen or Mia could do Lisbeth. I just can't see that working.

[doug maverick]

neither of those two girls are in the running...although after inception i would like to see ellen paige give it a shot. but from what i hear they are both out.

[doug maverick]

as reported yesterday by yours truly, before the news sources said it, ellen paige and every other big name is out. the final four are all unknowns

Nicole Sperling
Categories: Casting, Movie Biz, News

Our sources confirm The Daily Beast’s report that director David Fincher has narrowed casting choices for the highly coveted role of Lisbeth Salander in the Hollywood adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo down to four relatively unknown leading ladies. None of the big-name candidates, such as Carey Mulligan or Ellen Page, have moved forward either by their own choice or Fincher’s. (One source tells EW that Fincher offered the meaty part opposite Daniel Craig to Natalie Portman but she turned it down. Calls to Portman’s reps were not returned.)

The four actresses left in the running are Rooney Mara, who recently finished working for Fincher on his upcoming film The Social Network; French actress Lea Seydoux, who appeared as Isabella of Angouleme in this year’s Robin Hood, as well as last year’s Inglourious Basterds; and two Australian actresses: Sarah Snook and Sophie Lowe. Snook recently starred in Julia Leigh’s erotic fairy tale Sleeping Beauty while Lowe is a more established actresses in her home country, appearing in a number of local productions, including Blessed and Blame. Fincher had also been pursuing South African singer/rapper Yo-Landi Vi$$er from the group Die Antwoord, but the artist isn’t interested in an acting career.

Fincher is supposed to begin shooting the film in the early fall and is likely to have his decision in the next week or so. Sony Pictures has already scheduled the movie for Dec. 21, 2011.

[Hebrew Hammer]

Originally Posted by GeneChing

My respect for Rapace just went up yet another notch. No way - NO EFFING WAY - Ellen or Mia could do Lisbeth. I just can't see that working.

I second that motion! Why is it always so fun to see someone give the finger to the 'system'?

[doug maverick]

05 August 2010
Stellan Skarsgard Wants A Dragon Tattoo
He's in talks to play Martin Vanger
Source: Variety
Stellan Skarsgard Wants A Dragon Tattoo

David Fincher might still be trying to decide which young actress should nab the plum role of Lisbeth Salander opposite Daniel Craig’s Blomkvist in his Sweden-set/English-language remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it appears he’s moving a little quicker to fill the other roles, with Stellan Skarsgard in talk to play Martin Vanger.

Martin is, of course, one of the sprawling Vanger family lead by patriarch Henrik that Blomkvist and Salander investigate while trying to figure out a 40-year-old mystery about a missing girl. Deep, dark secrets are revealed and (mild spoiler alert!) Marty is one of the prime suspects.

Skarsgard, last seen in Angels & Demons, seems like the perfect choice, given his acting cred and the fact that he’s Swedish (even if that makes us worry he’ll make Daniel Craig sound like he’s just faking the accent).

"I have met Fincher, I want to work with him, and he wants to work me. I have had a concrete offer and now we are in negotiations," Skarsgard tells Variety. "The contract is for the period September to March, but I don't know yet when I am supposed to start my part of the film. Most of it is to be shot in Stockholm, but some studio work will be done in the U.S. I think there might be some location work there as well, when it becomes too dark to shoot here."

Steven Zaillian has written and is still polishing the script, and has also reportedly been asked by the producers to start work on adapting Stieg Larsson’s follow-up novel The Girl who Played With Fire.
James White

this cast is shaping up to look really good.