August 16, 2010 21:28
It’s hard for me to say how I feel about this casting. When I first heard about it, my initial thought was, “Who’s that and how could she be better suited for the role than Jena Malone?” However, after talking to Arleigh, I realized that I actually do know Rooney Mara. She was the lead in another remake, this year’s Nightmare on Elm Street. In that movie, Mara was a likable presence but she was no Lisbeth. Then again, woman like Lisbeth Salander — independent women who refuse to be solely defined as either a good virgin or a bad whore — don’t appear in slasher films. What is important is that Mara has proven she can carry a film. She hasn’t proven that she can carry The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Then again, considering just how iconic a figure as Lisbeth has become (both in the original novel and in the original film) it’s probably for the best that director David Fincher went with an unknown. Rooney appears to be a talented young actress but she’s got a very difficult job ahead of her.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Rooney also has a small role in Fincher’s upcoming film, The Social Network (which is going to suck, by the way). It’s possible that Fincher saw something in Rooney that she hasn’t been allowed to show the rest of the world. Me, I’m just happy that if there is going to be an American version of Lisbeth Salander, at least she’s going to be played by an Irish-American. At heart, Lisbeth is as Irish as a Swede can get.
(Though again, the ideal Irish-American to play Lisbeth would have been and still is Jena Malone.)
As I’ve stated before, I have mixed feelings about the remake of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. (And yes, it is a remake regardless of what they’re saying over at Awardsdaily.com.) On the one hand, the entire literary Millenium Trilogy (of which The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was the 1st part) is one of the best recent works of pop cultural fiction. Lisbeth Salander is destined to be an iconic noir figure. On a personal note, even though she’s ultimately just a fictional character, she is a fictional character who has provided a great deal of strength and hope to abuse survivors (such as myself). When we read about her and her refusal to allow herself to be victimized or to be dependent on even as well-meaning a man as Mikael Blomkvist, the book’s nominal hero, Lisbeth Salander becomes the vehicle for our own wish-fulfillment fantasies. She is a character who transcends the page to become a role model in real life as well. In many ways, she is the 21st century version of Scarlett O’Hara. Scarlett gave hope to aging Southern belles. Lisbeth gives hope to bipolar neurotics like me. And much as everyone couldn’t wait to see Scarlett on-screen, a lot of us couldn’t wait to see Lisbeth on-screen.
And that is the biggest hurdle that director David Fincher and Rooney Mara are going to face with this much-hyped remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. We’ve already seen Libseth onscreen and, in our mind’s eye, she’s not Rooney Mara. Instead, she’s Noomi Rapace. Both Fincher and Mara have a difficult task ahead of them. Not only do they have to meet the expectations of the people who have read the original novel, they have to exceed the expectations of the people who have seen the original Swedish film.
And that, to me, is the issue that is being avoided, the proverbial Elephant in the room. For all the wannabe, internet-based film critics who are currently gleefully devouring any crumbs of information concerning Fincher’s production, nobody has yet to answer the question as to why this film needs to be made at all? (Beyond the obvious fact that there’s money to be made…)
I found it interesting that, at the end of the EW article concerning Mara’s casting, it is mentioned that the film is set to begin filming in Sweden. Why exactly? Hasn’t a film about a girl with a dragon tattoo who helps a smug journalist investigate a disappearance in Sweden already been made? It would seem that the “American version” has little to offer beyond offering up a fantasy Sweden where everyone speaks English and those viewing the film are freed from having to try to read subtitles and rattle their jumbo tubs of popcorn at the same time. Or are we just sending David Fincher over to Sweden because we think we’ve got a thing or two to teach the nation that gave us Ingmar Bergman?
It’s easy to find a lot of people trying to convince themselves that this film is a guaranteed classic. (“I’m so happy they cast Robin Wright!” they exclaim. “I usually hate remakes but with David Fincher aboard, I’m looking forward to this,” another one will say. And, of course, my favorite: “This movie is not a remake!”) But nobody seems to be willing to address just why exactly we would need a new Lisbeth Salander when she’s already been created to perfection by Noomi Rapace.
Seriously, both Rapace and Lisbeth deserves better.
For that matter, so does Rooney Mara.
Posted by Lisa Marie Bowman
Tags: casting, David Fincher, Film, Ingmar Bergman, Jena Malone, Lisa Marie Bowman, Lisbeth Salander, Millenium Trilogy, movie, Nightmare on Elm Street, Noomi Rapace, Rooney Mara, Scarlett O'Hara, Sweden, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network
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Jena Malone…. ‘Saved’. Such a great film. After having already seen the original version, an American version for me will be perilous. Hollywood has too much history taking great things and then deciding they know how to make them ‘better’ by making them as lukewarm and mainstream as possible to appeal to everyone and thus, appeal to not as many. Guaranteed re-writes will water some of the more memorable scenes down and Lisabeth will find herself diminished as a result. Why can’t we just mail Sweden the money and let them finish the series? Would that be too much to ask? If anyone needs me, I’ll be watching ‘Let The Right One In’ a few more times.
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By Frank on August 16, 2010 at 21:38
I actually think that this remake may actually stay true to the books. While Button was a major misstep for Fincher his body of work has been one of quality work with brilliant ones. I honestly think that Fincher saw this project as something that speaks to his wheelhouse. Again, if one was to take Button out of his filmography then Fincher’s style of storytelling is almost perfect for the type of films the Millenium Trilogy ends up as.
While most remakes are subpar, I think people like to use the crutch of dumping on remakes and reboots as a way to justify not liking a film before they even see it because they think it will ruin the original. A remake doesn’t do anything but bring to the screen that particular filmmaker’s vision. His/her vision may be crap, but at times (and researching this trend throughout Hollywood’s history the ratio is higher than most would think) the remake may actually surpass the original. I’d say John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing is superior to the Howard Hawkes version. Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 and Cronenberg’s The Fly definitely surpass the original. Even those that don’t surpass the original were still well made that they’ve earned their status as masterpieces (Leone’s remakes of Kurosawa’s film come to mind and John Woo’s remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai another).
The judge is still out on whether Fincher’s remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will equal or best the original, but one thing for sure is that his film will be visually-stunning (never seen a Fincher film that wasn’t). Also, I don’t think Lisbeth in the remake will get toned down. Fincher knows that Lisbeth is the glue that holds a film that’s pretty standard together. Again, Fincher may have a style that’s not for everyone, but one thing he’s never done is make the leads in his films uninteresting.
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By Arleigh on August 16, 2010 at 21:52
That’s my fear exactly. Like I said, I think Rooney Mara was a likable presence in Nightmare on Elm Street. If they were making a movie about my senior year of high school, I’d say give her the lead. But is Rooney Mara going to be credible as a fiercely independent, emotionally damaged, and unapologetically ruthless and cynical lesbian? For that matter, is that the Lisbeth that we’re going to get in the remake or are we going to get the watered down version, a lost soul who just needs someone to love her?
I just don’t see the point (beyond the finanical aspects which, realistically, is the main of most films, good or bad).
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on August 16, 2010 at 21:48
It will all depend on who is doing the script for the remake. Sometimes a specific screenwriter being paired with a particular director will give clues as to how a remake will turn out. And after some looking around it looks like it’ll be Steve Zaillian doing the screenwriting duties. That gives me hope since Zaillian has done some very good work in the past and knows how to write a complex thriller that people can keep up with without being handheld through it. I will always give Zaillian his props for writing The Falcon and the Snowman. A very underappreciated thriller from the 80’s.
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By Arleigh on August 16, 2010 at 21:58
That may all be true but I still say its not necessary to remake it. I would have more respect for them if they just a very obvious rip-off like the Italians used to do. For instance, in the 60s, there was an Italian spy film called Operation Kid Brother. It starred Sean Connery’s younger brother. I’ve never seen the actual film and I imagine its probably not that great but still, I love them for being so shameless yet at the same time acknowleding the success of the Sean Connery James Bond movies.
Its like with Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2. Obviously, the title was just an attempt to pretend to be a sequel to Dawn of the Dead (which, as we all know, was the first Zombi in Italy). Fulci’s producers obviously wanted to remake Zombi and exploit that film’s success but they didn’t just have Fulci make another movie called Zombi. Instead, they called it Zombi 2. With that title, they acknowledged the importance and greatness of Romero’s original while also openly exploiting it for their own financial gain.
So, in short, I’d have more respect for this enterprise if it was just called Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 2, as opposed to the current attitude which seems to be, “Who needs the original when we got David Fincher here to improve it?” If Fincher’s version of the film is a huge success and wins tons of awards, do you think he’s going to acknowledge Noomi Rapace or anyone having to do with the movie he remade? The chances of him doing that are about as great as Martin Scorsese admitting that he had to remake a Hong Kong film to finally win a directing Oscar. (Actually, Scorsese has never denied it but I’m still sure its probably not the 1st thing he wants to go on about when talking about his career. Like, “Martin Scorsese, you made countless films based solely on your own vision and you got jack nothing. How does it feel to finally win an Oscar for bringing someone else’s vision to the screen?”)
I think I’ve seen the Falcon and the Snowman or bits of it on cable. Sean Penn with a really ugly mustache, right? Steve Zailian has written some good films but he’s also spent a lot of time as a William Goldman-style, Robert Towne-style script doctor. You know. the “I rewrote two pages, give me a million dollars type.” So, his script might be good or his script might just be the downpayment on a new house.
On a sidenote, the minute anyone starts to quote William Goldman to me (either the “Nobody knows nothing” or “The trick is not minding”) I lose any and all respect for them. To think that the English director Michael Reeves did at the age of 28 after making a brilliant little horror film called The Witchfinder General yet Goldman continues to live and continues to write snooty little articles about some forgotten movie he wrote for a forgotten director and a forgotten star in a forgotten decade — well, its simply pathetic.
Uhmm…what was I talking about again? 🙂
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on August 16, 2010 at 22:22
You lost me as soon as you mentioned Reeves’ The Witchfinder General…one of the best horror films of all-time. 🙂
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By Arleigh on August 16, 2010 at 22:33
I think Rooney Mara resembles me from certain angles. So, to a strange extent, Fincher’s remake is going to be a bit of wish-fulfillment for me.
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on August 16, 2010 at 22:23
See, you’re slowly being won over to the “Wait-and-see” side of things. 🙂
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By Arleigh on August 16, 2010 at 22:34
I will always give Rooney Mara a chance because she’s an Irish girl like me. Actually, I’m only a fourth whereas Rooney is full-blooded Irish-American.
I just don’t want this film to be yet another poorly concieved operation that ends an Irish girl’s dream. Fortunately, David Fincher’s not English.
And yes, the Witchfinder General is brilliant! And that actually links back to my earlier comments about Sean Connery and James Bond because The Witchfinder General starred Ian Ogilvy who was seriously considered for the role before George Lazenby got it. Ogilvy was also considered after Connery left the role a second time though the role, of course, went to Roger Moore. And you know who was signed to step into the role just in case Roger Moore suddenly decided to refuse to make any more Bond films? David Warbeck, star of the Beyond!
So, in the end, everything links back to Lucio Fulci. Yay! 🙂
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on August 16, 2010 at 22:41
LOL, I wonder how many degrees in every talk/discussion we have will link back to Fulci. 🙂
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By Arleigh on August 16, 2010 at 22:54
I can link anything to Fulci because Fulci appeared in Zombi with Tisa Farrow who appeared in Manhattan with Meryl Streep who was in The River Wild with Kevin Bacon.
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By Lisa Marie Bowman on August 16, 2010 at 22:59