The Girl Who Will Play Lisbeth Salander Is…
…Rooney Mara.
David Fincher has finally chosen the lead actress for his adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Mara, 25, will star opposite Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, Robin Wright as Millenium‘s editor Erika Berger, Stellan Skarsgard as Martin Vanger, with Max von Sydow in talks for Henrik Vanger.
A few weeks ago, Fincher had whittled down his choices to these four actresses, three of whom are foreigners. Fincher went with the sole American, presumably because he worked with her in his upcoming The Social Network. I don’t know anything about Mara’s acting so I won’t judge but will admit I was kinda rooting for one of the others since the filmmakers are apparently still setting it in Sweden. Then again, Mara has as much chance as the others of being believable since they’re not Scandinavian, either.
For more info, click here.
Lisbeth fans, what do you think? (UPDATE: Here are first photos of Mara in character.)
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aw! She looks too conventionally pretty…but I will not judge a book by its movie! Let’s hope she does a fantastic job…
Hard to say if this is a good thing or a bad choice. I will say that I like the other picture you originally posted of her. Quite frankly, I am still wrapping my head around the idea that it will be an American version of the story, but still done in Sweden, but in English instead of English subtitles.
To be totally fair I’ve no clue about her acting having never heard of her. But I won’t be seeing the movie anyway. I saw the Swedish version with Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and Michael Nyqvist. They were both outstanding and the film was a really great adaptation of a terrific book and I’ve no idea why Hollywood has to bother with a remake – it’s not that hard to watch a movie with subtitles.
I agree with you. However, we have to take into account the brain-dead, non-creative (U.S.) studio execs mentality. You know the ones where nothing original is given a chance whatsoever and only successful foreign films are lined up for development. That in itself wouldn’t be a totally bad scheme, yet then they muck around with the stories they acquire to make them of the milk toast variety for (hopeful) mass consumption.
But, I’m not bitter…
Has an American adaption of a foreign film ever improved upon the original? I can’t think of any right now.
You are, of course, correct Elyse. Christopher Nolan re-did the 1997 Norwegian thriller, Insomnia, as a U.S. film (released in 2002). It was pretty good, but by no means an improvement on the original film. Thanks, PCN.
Thinking about this some more, I think one could argue that Seven Samurai‘s western remake (The Magnificent Seven) reached a similar level of success and acclaim among its admirers. But, I don’t think anybody could say the U.S. remake surpassed the Kurosawa’s classic. In researching some of this, I found out some think Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED achieved that honor (I definitely don’t) compared to the original, INFERNAL AFFAIRS. And, that Billy Wilder’s SOME LIKE IT HOT was actually a remake of the German film, Fanfares of Love (1951). This thread is now officially becoming disturbing…
Thanks, Elyse.
Your knowledge of cinema is astounding. I agree The Departed was definitely not better than Infernal Afffairs. Seven Samurai was quite good but I never saw Magnificent Seven (don’t like Westerns) so I can’t compare. Didn’t even know about Fanfares.
Paulette—Fingers crossed over here, too.
EIREGO—To confuse you further, I read that the actors will be speaking English but with a Swedish accent.
Bernadette—I’ve seen the Swedish versions of Tattoo and Girl Who Played with Fire and thought Noomi Rapace was AMAZING. Mara has gigantic shoes to fill.
This could the career making film for this young actress… or, the scene where the police wave us by this train wreck and say, “Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.” Thanks, PCN.
This isn’t really related but your “Move along…” line reminded me of Obi-Wan Kenobi doing the Jedi mind trick on those stormtroopers outside Mos Eisley: “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. Move along.” I’ve tried using that trick on people but haven’t been as successful.
Goodness, she looks quite different in this photo compared to the other ~ which I guess is a great sign that she’ll look the part when makeup and wardrobe are done with her. So they are going to speak English with Swedish accents? For me, if their accents are excellent, I’ll probably be ok with it. If not, it will grate. {Now I have visions of the Muppet Swedish chef dancing in my head.}