The director of the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo may have his doubts about the upcoming American remake, but what do movie-goers think? We looked at social media conversation to see how fans feel about the Hollywoodification of this massively popular crime novel.
The movie adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, made more than £2 million at the box office in the UK. While the novel’s cult-like popularity no doubt had a role in its success, other factors helped make this film a box office hit: intricate criminal plots, government conspiracies, Soviet defectors, computer hackers, the fight for justice against the worst forms of violence against women – there’s almost something for everyone’s tastes here.
But two elements immediately stand out:
- First, the peculiarity of Larsson’s main character, Lisbeth Salander, an anticonformist computer genius and extremely skilled researcher for whom any labelling attempt fails.
- Secondly, the Swedish setting constitutes a charming and irreplaceable part of the story (with the exception of the fictional Hedestad, the novel takes place in real Swedish towns), and the peculiar Nordic settings – often isolated, foggy towns in the countryside, or summer cabins – have a powerful fascination even for non-Swedish readers.
The three Swedish film adaptations are exceptionally good – the only problem is: they’re in Swedish.
For many this would be a positive factor, providing added authenticity to the movies. But other, non-Swedish speakers, may lazily roll their eyes at the thought of reading subtitles. This is where Hollywood comes in – always on the prowl to capture a slice of the massive American market.
In 2010, David Fincher started directing a Hollywood adaptation of the book, for release in December 2011. Given the cult status of Larsson’s trilogy, the announcement of a US remake was bound to generate controversy.
We used our Skyttle Search tools to study online conversation around the Hollywood remake. Our analysis of social media and web conversation reveals two intriguing points:
1. Casting of the main character (Lisbeth Salander) is crucial to the outcome of the movie:
One of the top terms used in conversations about the film is “perfect”, used in relation to the casting of Lisbeth Salander.
A closer look at specific references reveals numerous posts calling for the “perfect” Lisbeth:
2. People are huge fans of Swedish Noomi Rapace
With such huge positive buzz for Noomi Rapace, the actress playing Lisbeth in the original Swedish movies, movie-goers are doubtful that anything good will come out of the American actress (Rooney Mara):
Elsewhere on the web, things aren’t looking good for the American remake:
- There is a Facebook group called “I am against an American remake of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo“, whose description reads: “Like this page, if you agree that an American remake of ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ is an utterly unnecessary exercise. The Swedish version of the film (and sequels) is exquisite as-is, without tainting the storyline even further. Just let it be, Hollywood. Have some culture and read some subtitles for once in your life.”
- Niels Arden Oplev, the director of the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, expressed his frustration with the US PR machine trying to push Noomi Rapace out of the limelight: “Noomi has captured this part and it should always be all her. That’s her legacy in a way I can’t see anyone competing with. I hope she gets nominated for an Oscar”. (guardian.co.uk)
- Soren Staermose, the Swedish film producer, added: “We did a lot of different casting but we were finally convinced with Noomi. The wrong casting could have ruined it. She is incredible.” (google.com)
What do you think? Are Hollywood remakes always destined to be inferior to the original? Would a US adaptation of Larsson’s trilogy kill the spirit of the original? Will all of this negativity really hurt box office sales?
Comments are welcome below.
I love the Swedish films as a visual representation of the trilogy, but the books are the best. There you’ll find such important and valuable details that any movie can’t show.
But I decided to read the books after I saw the last half of the first movie. I was absolutely captured by Noomi Rapace’s Lisbeth Salander.
I don’t think that the Swedish movies are perfect. They could improve the script and some other things, as the casting. In my opinion those movies are such a hit because off Noomi. I’ve never read or saw such a powerful heroine as Lisbeth. Although Mikael is also important, without the right Lisbeth Salander the story never would be the same.
At first I feel rejection for the Hollywood remake. ALL Hollywood remakes I’ve seen till now have never made it better than the original movies. They have more money, more special effects, more staff, more everything, and because of that they exagerate everything.
Rooney Mara has a great burden with this role and I won’t criticize her acting skills until I see the film, but right now just from her pictures as Lisbeth (the official ones, where she is performing) I just get a top-model-like skinny girl pretending to be bad with all her cool fancy punk outfit, make-up, hairstyle and posing. If Lisbeth Salander was real, she would feel disgusted with that fake fashion hollywoodesque representation.
I think Noomi Rapace caught us because of the natural, REAL feeling she imprinted in her performance of Lisbeth. She “became” Lisbeth, the Lisbeth that doesn’t look as she have spends 4 hours a day dressing up and stuff.
And also a very important detail to me: Lisbeth has dark brown eyes, almost black. This, and the intensity of her eyes, is highlighted many times in the novel and in the Swedish films. Why didn’t they gave Rooney Mara a pair of black contact lenses????? They pretend to bring us a blue-eyed Lisbeth?
Dear Katherine,
many thanks for posting your comment. I agree with you, obviously we will have to see themovie when it comes out to make fully reasoned judgements, but right now a lot of fans have be put off by the fact that Rooney Mara’s Salander doesn’t look “authentic” (it might be the eyes as you said , the fact she’s too “conventionally” pretty, too tall…) Noomi Rapace’s interpretation is so astonishing exactly because it’s so natural – she seems to breathe and live Salander.
I noticed someone said that Noomi should “learn English” and play Lisbeth in the American versions of the films.
If you had seen any of the behind the scenes footage.. you’d know she DOES know how to speak English…
I LOVED the swedish version. LOVED IT! I watched the movies while simutaniously reading the books. It is probably the best book to movie adaptation I have ever seen and the books themselves are masterpieces.
The american version doesn’t look too bad, I think that the immagery looks better in the swedish version as far as camera angles, setting, and lighting goes. Lisbeth looks ok, but not confident enough. The actrice looks a little off, From what I see she looks to me like a newly out femme who ‘butchered’ or ‘pulled a jenny’ (please excuse the lesbian terminology) because she looks much too naturally femmey to be the boi/soft butch that I envision Lisbeth being and she seems a lot more fragile than Noomi. and her hair is too tidy. and she’s not passive enough… too bouncy. But still, not too bad. Craig appears too darn mean to make a good Mikael, he’s so scowly. Mikael is suposed to be kind hearted, gentle, and generally easygoing in the novels and as of right now I haven’t seen that. Also in the swedish version the characters seemed to be genuine people, Mikael could have been your neighbour, and I haven’t realy gotten that feel with this version; They look like actors.
I don’t know why they felt a need to remake it but it is kind of cool to get two interpretations of the same story within such a short time frame of eachother.
It realy doesn’t look too bad, I’m just being picky, they’re my fave books after all
Also I need to watch sherlock holmes. Noomi’s in that!
this movie is done quite well. the build up of the characters along with the storyline make a enjoyable experience.There are some parts that are definitely hard to watch (SPOILER the rape scene, the mangled bodies, etc.) but this movie was astounding. The actors were phenomenal and the movie: entralling.
Believable, moving, realistic, and intriguing.
One the message boards on this topic, someone commented about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake,
“That cinematic potential, coupled with greed, producing and directing arrogance (“We can do anything better than you”) will probably lead to an overblown, overexploded version for a U.S. audience.”
Yup…that’s what I thought was going to happen too. I did have to cough “product placement” when they kept throwing the macbook up in everyone’s face in the American version…but they were surprisingly amazingly, similar. Where one departed from the other, well, it just actually made me want to read the book.
The American version felt more Americanized, a whole, whole lot more focus on money….so much more emphasis was placed on MONEY who had it, who stole it…it’s a national obsession, and a sick one. What was up with all the damn snow in the American version? I was like really? Oh it’s Sweden so there has to be tons of snow, right? How cliche. Lisbeth was made out to be some sort of lovesick teenager and the old white guy, of course so much more the hero. I much more preferred the Swedish interpretation of the characters. They were far more complex, far less Hollywood formula. In fact, Hollywood made all of the characters far less interesting, as only Hollywood can do. Everybody had to become a cliche, a stereotype…whatever. At the end when Lisbeth is pining over Blomquist, I was like WHATEVER Hollywood, WHATEVER….
What really pissed me off about the remake, (as was also pointed out above) was Hollywood didn’t remain true to the characters. Mikael was more assholic, (Why they had to change him, I don’t know. A nice guy really can’t finish first?)
Lisbeth was less empowered and more needy…”save me Mikael, save me.” Ugh…I want to vomit over this. The whole point of the triliogy is it is ABOUT the GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. She is ICONIC. This character is one that is really cool and unique- and they screwed that up…and it was critical to get that right. They kind of made it MIKAEL BLOMQUIST and, oh, yeah by the way there is this girl….um…she has a dragon tattoo, LOVES MIKAEL BLOMQUIST. And thus they really take this whole thing in a different less appealing direction. At least for me…it was still a good movie, but, it lost something in translation.
I watch the Hollywood version already,so disappointing & boring >_<Original most "BEST" ^0^
the daniel craig one?
i watch it,so boring & disappointing..>+<