The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and such like

smilodon · August 27, 2010, 11:26:32 AM

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl who kicked the Hornets Nest trilogy of books must already be known to anyone who has walked past a Waterstones or been to Amazon.com. They are all over the best seller lists.

But the movie of the first book is out on DVD and the second releases in the cinema today. They books are excellent and the films are likewise outstanding. Rather than write a review myself (I'm lazy) I suggest you go read the mighty Roger Ebert. Make sure you catch the original Swedish films before Hollywood grab them and butcher them for a mainstream English speaking audience. (remembers La Femme Nikita and the dreadful The Assassin :sad: ). The remake of the Dragon Tattoo is already in pre-production. The remake may well turn out to be a great film but Hollywoods record on remaking existing foreign language films is not good. :sad:

Tutonic · August 27, 2010, 01:10:30 PM

Quote from: smilodon;315448Hollywoods record on remaking existing foreign language films is not good. :sad:

Taxi. 'Nuff said

TeaLeaf · August 27, 2010, 07:27:23 PM

Smilo mentioned this trilogy to me when we met up not that long ago and I bought the first book, then went out the next day and bought the next two as well to complete the trilogy. Bluray bought today, will watch tonight.

The books are absolutely excellent - thoroughly recommended.

Luminance · August 28, 2010, 02:23:40 PM

I picked up the girl with the dragon tatoo during the last LAN, and I LOVED IT, I've orderd fire and hornets nest too, they will be read as soon as I finish my Japanese Culture book.

can't wait for the movie (I will no doubt be disapointed after an excellent read, as always, but still I want to see the images and ideas the scriptwriters etc had while reading the book themselfs).

Snokio · March 06, 2011, 11:17:41 AM

cast can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568346/

Will have Daniel Craig

BrotherTobious · March 06, 2011, 11:29:02 AM

That's the remake for the usa a movie.

I have to say shouldn't be made when the original is soo amazing. Very dark and disturbing in places. But because it is subtitled it has to be rehashed by Hollywood.

Luminance · March 06, 2011, 11:50:24 AM

As an update, I think it was the best trilogy I've readen so far. Absolutely loved it, and will read again.
I have seen a part of the origional movie on ZDF and I wasn't really impressed. So I think I will actually wait for the Hollywood release.

Penfold · March 06, 2011, 08:08:30 PM

I agree. I watched the Swedish version and thought it was really superb. Bizarrely I can't remember if it was subtitled or dubbed. I think it was dubbed but either way I don't recall it being detrimental.

I'm not sure about the casting for the USA version, some of the characters seem a bit strangely cast imho.

TeaLeaf · March 06, 2011, 08:59:35 PM

Quote from: Penfold;320999I agree. I watched the Swedish version and thought it was really superb. Bizarrely I can't remember if it was subtitled or dubbed. I think it was dubbed but either way I don't recall it being detrimental.

Big shout of agreement from me too, superb. Certainly the bluray offers the choice of dub or sub-titled, I watched it both ways and seem to recall I preferred the sub-titled route for these films, the dubbed just did not sound quite right.

As Lumi said though, the books are a simply stunning trilogy and well worth the price. The fact that the manuscripts for the whole trilogy were delivered as a completed whole makes me wonder what gems we are missing Stieg Larsson's death at the age of 50. I know he was already a published author and known journalist, but the impact of this trilogy has to be one of the biggest things in the book world since someone like Grisham came onto the scene and had his run of bestseller books (and burnt out quickly thereafter).

smilodon · March 07, 2011, 08:57:09 AM

The second film is out on DVD and while it's good it's not quite as good as the first film. The third film had it's (limited) cinema run recently but I missed it and will have to wait for it to hit on Blue Ray.

Looking at the cast for the Hollywood movie I'm hopeful it won't be a disaster. There are some seriously good actors in there (Plummer, Skarsgard and Daniel Craig) and I'm a fan of the director (Fincher), who I think will at least try to use his source material well rather than go for helicopters and car chases etc. I've never heard of Rooney Mara though and she will need to carry most of the film.

TeaLeaf · March 07, 2011, 09:36:11 AM

Agreed, 2nd film not as good. Like you though I will get the 3rd on bluray when it comes out to complete the collection.

Fingers crossed for the US version, let's hope it is not a special effects film as that would ruin it.

Penfold · March 07, 2011, 09:40:39 AM

Quote from: smilodon;321020The second film is out on DVD and while it's good it's not quite as good as the first film. The third film had it's (limited) cinema run recently but I missed it and will have to wait for it to hit on Blue Ray.

Looking at the cast for the Hollywood movie I'm hopeful it won't be a disaster. There are some seriously good actors in there (Plummer, Skarsgard and Daniel Craig) and I'm a fan of the director (Fincher), who I think will at least try to use his source material well rather than go for helicopters and car chases etc. I've never heard of Rooney Mara though and she will need to carry most of the film.

Yes but I'm serioulsy struggling with Daniel Craig as Blomqvist. I just can't see him playing that tortured intellectual role but oh well we shall but see.

BrotherTobious · March 07, 2011, 09:49:59 AM

My main issues with it being remade is that it is Hollywood being lazy, stifling the talent in the original. Would love to see more original IP come out of them.

smilodon · March 08, 2011, 09:09:38 AM

Here's a couple of reasons why I think the Hollywood film might work. Also the comments might be a tiny bit spoilery so please note.

First the film is being shot in Sweden, mainly in Upsalla, where the book is largely set and where the original Swedish film was shot. That's a huge plus for the Hollywood version as it suggests they're trying to actually make a film of the book rather than just a cash in.

Second the Director David Fincher hasn't directed any Hollywood money films to date. Everything he's directed have been 'proper' films, (Fight Club, Se7en, The Game, Zodiac).

Steve Zallian the screenwriter and one of the producers has also not made anything too dreadful. He wrote the screen plays for A Class Action, Awakenings, Gangs of New York and Schindlers List. OK he also did Mission Impossible and Clear and Present Danger but neither of those films was dreadful although they were both 'Blockbuster' type films.

Scott Rudin, the main producer has also made some decent stuff, Sleepy Hollow, Zoolander, The Truman Show, No Country for Old Men, There will be Blood, Revolutionary Road and the new True Grit which has had some great reviews,

So the crew list is looking pretty good at least. Even so there isn't any need to remake this film. However seeing as it's going to happen I'm hopeful it will be a decent film and worth a watch for those of us who love the books and the original film.

RizZy · December 04, 2011, 06:40:55 PM

Having watched the original swedish film a few weeks back on doovd I happened across this earlier -

[video=youtube_share;DqQe3OrsMKI]http://youtu.be/DqQe3OrsMKI[/video]