Happy official first day of fall! It’s a great day of the year because it is time for good movies (other than Contagion and Drive) to finally hit the theaters. After a rather lackluster summer, I’m armed and ready to hit my local cineplex as often as I can. These are my picks for the movies I will be seeing this fall.
Tag: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Trailer Fix: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I go to upstate NY for the weekend and the red band trailer for the feel bad movie of Christmas – David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo leaks on the internet. The fast-paced, quick cuts of scenes from the movie set to Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” give us a real taste of what Rooney Mara brings to the role of Lisbeth Salander. So far, the movie looks worthwhile and change the the many doubters’ minds.
Update: I suspected the leaked trailer may be removed and it was. Here is the official trailer minus the nudity and blood. (It is still awesome.)
Vodpod videos no longer available.As someone who is not crazy about the books, I can get behind a new Hollywood movie adaptation. Considering how often books like Jane Eyre and every Jane Austen novel ever are re-adapted, we should expect a series as popular as Stieg Larsson’s to be re-imagined over and over again.
I’m eager to see what David Fincher will bring to series. If successful, the film’s depend completely on him to make this a memorable trilogy. More exciting is how Rooney Mara morphs from the high class vibe she consistently gives off into Lisbeth Salander, a character who is arguably on of the most iconic to come out of literature in quite some time.
So what are your thoughts on the teaser trailer and this adaptation of The Girl with Dragon Tattoo in general? Are you excited for the Stieg Larsson books to get a Finchian (yes, it is a verb now) touch?
A Quote For the Day
This quote comes courtesy of Rooney Mara, who is currently filming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in Sweden. Since it was announced that Mara would play hacker Lisbeth Salander, Mara has been silent. Only a few paparazzi shotsof Mara on set have been circulating around the Internet.
Her quote to Entertainment Weekly throws fans of the Millennium Trilogy a bone. Here she makes fun of director David Fincher’s notorious finicky reputation. (The opening scene of The Social Network took a reported 100 plus takes to shoot.)
“It’s -9 degrees Celsius. 37 takes down, only about 42 more to go. Every time he says, ‘Okay, last one,’ I fall for it. Every. Single. Time. If only I could get this damn shrug right, then maybe I could go inside and my nipple ring would have time to thaw out…”
I laughed out loud when I read this. While I may not be ecstatic about this adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mara is slowly winning me over.
Who is Rooney Mara?
I am not that interested in David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. But that didn’t stop me from Googling who Rooney Mara is after hearing that she has been cast as Lisbeth Salander. I had not heard of the 24 year old American actress until now and this is a huge career break for Mara.
Here is what my brief Google search taught me.
1. Mara is appearing in David Fincher’s upcoming movie The Social Network. I guess Fincher saw something he liked.
2. Her sister is actress Kate Mara. You might recognize her from Brokeback Mountain; she had a supporting role as Heath Ledger’s daughter.
3. Her uncle is John Mara, co-owner the New York Giants. Her great-grandfather is Art Rooney Sr., founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
4. The only television show or movie that I have seen that features Rooney Mara is E.R.. I remember the two episodes she appeared in but I don’t remember Mara. Maybe that is because this happened:
5. I found exactly one solo interview with Mara on YouTube. She comes across as wonderfully awkward. Here it is:
So I guess Fincher did exactly what he wanted to do. He cast an unknown in a role that depends completely on casting. Mara, without a doubt, is going to be compared to Noomi Rapace who originated the role.
Now that I’ve Read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
These past two weeks I’ve been completely invested in catching up on the book series that everyone is talking about – Stieg Larsson’s The Millennium Trilogy. I have now read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire. And I feel as though I am missing something. Aren’t these books were supposed to be good?
Countless people told me that the books were fantastic and the way that they have been endlessly praised made me more than eager to read them. While I did enjoy the premise and was completely sucked into the books, I repeatedly found myself wanting to throw the books against a wall. I was frustrated by the overall misogynist plot elements and the base characters. The plot teetered between boring and predictable to irritating and predictable.
I can not see how Mikael Blomkvist, the book’s journalist protagonist, had any redeemable qualities and is a lothario. And is Lisbeth Salander really the book’s most redeeming character? I find that troubling. Even more so, the relationship that develops between Blomkvist and Salander was cringe-worthy.
So break it down for me. Am I completely off base with these books? What am I missing?
And for the record, I didn’t hate the movie. In fact, I don’t know how David Fincher can top it.
@Cinefille 