I didn’t read the hugely popular book by Stieg Larsson but I did see the original Swedish film version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and liked it very much, especially the star making performance of Noomi Rapace as “The Girl” Lisbeth Salander. I was also a bit trepidatious when they announced an American remake to be directed by David Fincher…it didn’t seem necessary and the casting of relative unknown Rooney Mara as “The Girl” seemed likely to set her up to be unfavorably compared to Ms Rapace’s brilliant performance. Well, the jury is still out on how Ms Mara fills those shoes, but the first trailer for the remake has hit cinemas in Europe and a shaky, bootlegged copy of the trailer is making the rounds of the Intertubes. I will say, the trailer LOOKS good; Mr. Fincher always makes visually fascinating films, but it also looks like they shot the film in the exact same locations they shot the first one. And, it’s always a pleasure to see Daniel Craig doing the leading man thing and he IS a bit prettier to look at than the original actor, Michael Nyqvist. You’ll also note, you barely see Lisbeth/Rooney in this trailer…I’m guessing they’ll gradually reveal her in upcoming trailers before the film opens at Christmas.
But, the most striking think about the trailer, other than the editing and camera work, is the song used in it. Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails is doing the music for the film, (he collaborated with Mr. Fincher on The Social Network and won an Oscar for Best Original Score last year) and the song is pretty amazing. It’s a remake of a Led Zeppelin classic, Immigrant Song featuring Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s lead vocalist Karen O. and while normally I don’t go for anything too “hardcore” in music, I’m loving this song which is a perfect fit for the dark themes in the film.
As for those dark themes, I’m wondering how dark this Americanization is going to get…there are some very graphically violent sex scenes in the book and original film that were very frankly portrayed in the Swedish version. It’ll be interesting to see if the studio and the MPAA will allow Mr. Fincher’s version to be as graphic and disturbing.
