fincher and the girl
Reading news about David Fincher's version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo makes me excited every time. I thought the book was quite good, all though I certainly had my complaints. I thought the male protagonist was rather one-dimensional and his philandering sometimes made him into a sex-addicted man child. I found the crime behind the mystery to be completely perverse and sometimes agonizing to read. But what made the book totally awesome was the way it revealed itself, the pacing, and the process of solving the mystery. The first 50 pages or so were totally boring because it was nothing more than a McGuffin to set up the real meat of the book and it was given barely an after thought in the end, more for the sake of tying up loose ends than to further the book. But when you got to that meat, man it was a crazy page turner. I still remember reading as the sun rose outside my window.
Getting a man like David Fincher to direct the film is so obvious it can't even be called a stroke of genius. If you look at his filmography and if you've ever seen his films you know how great he is with mood, with dark material, and with getting the best performances out of his actors. Se7en, Fight Club, and Panic Room? They're exactly the kind of things you show someone when they ask you if you're qualified to direct a movie like Dragon Tattoo. Plus Trent Reznor's doing the sound track, something weirdly apropos, and the teaser trailer that just came out has a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song in it with vocals by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I just love everything about the crew that's putting together this movie.
My only issue is with Stellan Skarsgard playing Martin Vanger. I have no doubt he'll be fabulous in the role but I would have preferred someone else. I really like him as an actor and after playing Martin Vanger, I don't know if I'll be able to see him the same again. It's like with Kevin Bacon. After I saw him in Sleepers it took me years to get past the whole child rapist thing. Plus I always pictured Martin Vanger as this portly shorter man. Not giant hulking Norseman Stellan Skarsgard.
Anyway, at least I can rest assured that with this film in Fincher's hands the movie isn't going to descend into an indulgent gory bordernline torture porn fiasco. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. I'd hate for something that deals with the kind of issues Dragon Tattoo does to be reduced to all of that the way the Hostel or Saw films have and were. This should be a different kind of movie, more thriller than horror. And if anyone can do it, David Fincher can.
Edit: Here is the actual trailer. It's cut VERY choppy. It's intense but I felt like I was going to get a seizure.
Getting a man like David Fincher to direct the film is so obvious it can't even be called a stroke of genius. If you look at his filmography and if you've ever seen his films you know how great he is with mood, with dark material, and with getting the best performances out of his actors. Se7en, Fight Club, and Panic Room? They're exactly the kind of things you show someone when they ask you if you're qualified to direct a movie like Dragon Tattoo. Plus Trent Reznor's doing the sound track, something weirdly apropos, and the teaser trailer that just came out has a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song in it with vocals by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I just love everything about the crew that's putting together this movie.
My only issue is with Stellan Skarsgard playing Martin Vanger. I have no doubt he'll be fabulous in the role but I would have preferred someone else. I really like him as an actor and after playing Martin Vanger, I don't know if I'll be able to see him the same again. It's like with Kevin Bacon. After I saw him in Sleepers it took me years to get past the whole child rapist thing. Plus I always pictured Martin Vanger as this portly shorter man. Not giant hulking Norseman Stellan Skarsgard.
Anyway, at least I can rest assured that with this film in Fincher's hands the movie isn't going to descend into an indulgent gory bordernline torture porn fiasco. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. I'd hate for something that deals with the kind of issues Dragon Tattoo does to be reduced to all of that the way the Hostel or Saw films have and were. This should be a different kind of movie, more thriller than horror. And if anyone can do it, David Fincher can.
Edit: Here is the actual trailer. It's cut VERY choppy. It's intense but I felt like I was going to get a seizure.