Ratings: IMDB ― 7.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes ― 86%, ME ― 91%
Mikael Blomkvist: I guess I must have alarmed you, turning up like that.
Lisbeth Salander: [charges taser] If you touch me I'll more than alarm you.
Mikael Blomkvist: That won't be necessary. Your report. Very detailed. But for me, it wasn't very entertaining.
Lisbeth Salander: It wasn't meant to be.
Mikael Blomkvist: When I write about people I try to entertain the reader.
Lisbeth Salander: Wennerstrom wasn't entertained much.
Mikael Blomkvist: Your boss, Armansky, he tells me you only do jobs that interest you. So I suppose I should be flattered. You gonna sit down? He also says that you're the one he goes to when the job is sensitive.
[Lisbeth sits down]
Mikael Blomkvist: That's the word he used. Sensitive. I'm gonna use illegal. Because that's what it was when you hacked into my computer. I'm not gonna do anything about that. I could, but I won't. What I'm gonna do is tell you a story and if it entertains you maybe you'll decide to help me research further. And if not, I'll do the washing up and you'll never see me again. Here, you should eat that.
[pushes sandwich to Lisbeth]
Lisbeth Salander: What kind of research?
Mikael Blomkvist: Lisbeth. Oh, can I call you Lisbeth? I want you to help me catch a killer of women.
Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander
Trivia (From IMDB):
When the casting process started, the role of Lisbeth Salander was originally offered to Natalie Portman but she declined due to exhaustion. Scarlett Johansson was also considered but David Fincher considered her too sexy. Jennifer Lawrence was considered too, but she was rejected because she was too tall. Finally, Rooney Mara was cast.
Daniel Craig gained weight for his role as Mikael Blomqvist to remind himself and the audience that he was portraying a journalist, not James Bond, and wanted to appear as normal as possible.
The film was released on December 20; exactly where the novel begins in chapter one.
While filming a scene in a diner, the cast and crew were surprised to find out that Ellen Nyqvist, daughter of Michael Nyqvist, the first actor to play Mikael Blomkvist, was working there as a waitress while attending school. Upon finding out, they wrote in a few extra lines for her, allowing her to interact with her father's successor, Daniel Craig.
Stellan Skarsgård remarked that this was the first time in 20 years that he was able to sleep in his own bed while shooting a movie, since it was filmed in his hometown of Stockholm.
Many Swedish critics questioned the choice to have many of the characters talk in "Swedish-accent". Most criticism was pointed to Rooney Mara's accent that many critics heard as Russian or Dutch and not Swedish at all. Daniel Craig admitted in an interview that he thought this was stupid and therefore used his real voice.
The movie was shot in Sweden during one of the coldest winters in over 20 years.
Two of the movie's taglines: "Evil shall with evil be expelled" and "What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw" are Swedish proverbs. Stellan Skarsgård, himself a Swede, told them to David Fincher during filming. Fincher liked them and thought they fit the story and setting well, so he made them taglines for the movie.
Daniel Craig originally turned down the role of Mikael Blomkvist due to possible conflicts with the next James Bond film Skyfall (2012). After production of the film was suspended Craig's schedule freed up and he retook the role.
Noomi Rapace's performance as Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) was so well received, a campaign to have her reprise the role in the English language version gained wide attention in the media, championed by film critic Roger Ebert, among others. Ultimately Rapace declined to reprise the role, saying that after playing the character for three years (during the filming of the original trilogy), she couldn't play the role again in the same stories.
In the Americas, the film's DVD was made to look like a "pirate" disc.
The two main characters of the film, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) don't appear on-screen together until 76 minutes into the film.
After discussions about how to best devise an original score for the movie, David Fincher consulted composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, ultimately deciding that dissonance and tinkling bells (no orchestra) should provide the motif/ambiance for the stark coldness of the Swedish landscape.
According to David Fincher the opening title sequence of the movie is a "sort of primordial sort of tar and ooze of the subconscious... sort of her nightmare."
In 2008, Kathleen Kennedy, one of the producers of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), after giving some details of the plot asked David Fincher to read Stieg Larsson's book. Fincher responded by saying 'Kat, nobody is going to make this movie. You're just setting us up to be miserable again'. So he didn't read it.
In the director's audio commentary David Fincher discussed how a merkin was utilized for actress Rooney Mara, after she suggested to him that the character she portrayed in the movie was a natural red head in the book and actually dyed her hair black. Consequently, the merkin she wore was made in the color red.
Tim Miller, designer of the arresting opening titles, was asked to come up with some thoughts about what Lisbeth's nightmares would consist of. He came up with about 50 ideas which were whittled down to 25. Miller was then given 8 weeks to realize them.
The film opened at number three at the US box office, behind Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). Ghost Protocol featured Michael Nyqvist, and Game of Shadows featured Noomi Rapace, who respectively played Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009).
David Fincher's physical requirement for actresses intended to play Lisbeth: approximately 5'5 tall, age median of 25.
When Lisbeth first visits Plague, Plague is wearing a black shirt with a white logo on it; the logo represents the band Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor is the founder of Nine Inch Nails and wrote the score for this film with Atticus Ross as well as the score for director David Fincher previous film The Social Network (2010), for which Reznor and Ross won "Best Original Score" at the 2011 Academy Awards.
Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen, Brad Pitt and George Clooney were considered for the lead male role.
David Fincher met with Daniel Craig about taking the male lead on the set of Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011). Craig was wearing an all-in-one motion capture body stocking at the time, one of the factors that convinced him that he didn't stand a chance in landing the part.
Robin Wright was David Fincher's first choice to play Erika Berger.
Rooney Mara has said that after making the transition into the Lisbeth Salander character, she hated performing the scenes involving her alter ego, Irene Nesser.
After The Social Network (2010), this was the second consecutive film for which Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall won the Academy Award for Best Editing.
Shot in a period of 160 days. By contrast, Fight Club (1999), also directed by David Fincher and shot by Jeff Cronenweth took only 132 days. Cronenweth stated in several interviews that the large amount of time was mainly due to the lack of night time in Sweden - on-location sets required pre-lighting days ahead before shooting.
The security office is actually the office building of Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE), the company which created the Battlefield computer games.
Max von Sydow, a genuine Swede, was the original choice to play Henrik Vanger, but had to bow out and was replaced by Christopher Plummer. Had Sydow been cast opposite Stellan Skarsgård's Martin, this film would have featured two actors who have played the role of Father Lankaster Merrin in the "Exorcist" movies.
In September 2011, a trailer for The Muppets (2011) was released that was a spoof of the teaser trailer of this movie.
For the opening, David Fincher had the idea of doing a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". He really wanted a female singer to provide the vocals so sound editor Ren Klyce gave him and composer Trent Reznor the email address of his friend, Karen O.
The film received two Golden Globe nominations on December 15, 2011, six days before the film's release date. Rooney Mara was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were nominated for Best Original Score.
The original soundtrack album by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is one of the biggest for a film, consists of 3 CDs, 13 tracks each, a total of 39 tracks (just for comparison - a lot of TV show soundtrack for entire seasons are shorter than that). Trent and Atticus made a lot of music, and some of the music that appears on the album isn't even on the film (example: track 32: "Oraculum"). Trent Reznor called it "some of the most beautiful and disturbing music of our careers. The result is a sprawling three-hour opus". They released it on Reznor's independent label "The Null Corporation".
Carey Mulligan, Ellen Page, Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman, Mia Wasikowska, Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Thirlby, Emily Browning, Eva Green, Scarlett Johansson, Sophie Lowe, Sarah Snook, Léa Seydoux, Emma Watson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Katie Jarvis were among the actresses considered for the lead role. (Some actresses turned down the role; others were rejected by filmmakers and the studio.) Ultimately, Rooney Mara won the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander.
Jeff Cronenweth is formerly an understudy of the legendary Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Nykvist was famously known for his use of soft-lighting photography; Cronenweth stated that he shot a bulk of the film with soft-lighting as homage to him.
David Dencik was also in the 2009 Swedish version, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), but played another part.
When Lisbeth talks to a security guard halfway through the film about the murder of a woman, he tells her that the husband was investigated first, as it's always the husband that is the first suspect. David Fincher's next film would be Gone Girl (2014), a film about a man being suspected of the disappearance and possible murder of his wife.
Steven Zaillian took over 6 months to write the screenplay.
This is David Fincher's sixth collaboration with Angus Wall, who previously won the Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar with his work in Fincher's The Social Network (2010).
As the Swedish landscape plays such an important part in the novel, production designer Donald Graham Burt spent a month traveling around the country.
The full musical score was released on December 9, 2011. Seven days prior to the official release, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross released a 6-track sampler of the score online for free. The download was also accompanied by a free 8-minute trailer for the film available via iTunes.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Jeff Cronenweth replaced original cinematographer Fredrik Bäckar after eight weeks.
In a carpark scene two members of the Södertälje based rock band "Orange club" appear for a few seconds. Guitarist Fredrik Börjesson and base player Joel Wallin. They are both uncredited.
The novel was originally titled "The Men who Hate Women".
One of two 2011's film releases with Christopher Plummer and Goran Visnjic in the cast, the other film being Beginners (2010). Beginners was filmed in 2010 but released in 2011.
Although Christopher Plummer plays the younger brother of Per Myrberg, he is actually four years older than him. Moreover, Myrberg is only 17 years older than his on-screen daughter, Geraldine James.
There are two people in this film that are also in Game Of Thrones. Tony Way (Plague) plays Ser Dontos Hollard in GoT, and Donald Sumpter (Detective Morell) plays Maester Luwin in GoT.
Cameo ―
Peter Haber: Spokesperson for Wennerström in a brief news clip. Haber played Martin Vanger in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009).
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Spoilers ―
Most of the bruising seen on Rooney Mara's body when she takes a shower is in fact real, the physicality of shooting the rape scene the day before resulted in countless bruises on the actress' wrists, neck and torso.
Yorick van Wageningen was so disturbed after shooting the rape scene with Rooney Mara that he spent a whole day locked in his hotel room, crying.
In one of the more harrowing scenes in the film, Martin Vanger has Mikael Blomkvist bound and he switches the music on. The music playing is the song 'Orinoco Flow' by Enya. This choice came about after discussion on the scene when Daniel Craig flicked through his iPod and called out the first song he found, which was initially met with a lot of laughter.
In Lisbeth's revenge rape scene, Yorick van Wageningen was not actually without clothes as it appears. He was wearing flesh-colored trunks which were then digitally removed. Van Wagingen was willing to perform the scene in the nude, to even up for the previous rape scene when Rooney Mara was stripped, but, after consulting most of the cast and crew, David Fincher decided that no one actually wanted to see this abusive man naked.
In the script, Martin Vanger was to tear off a sheet of cellophane to wrap around Blomkvist's face, but the action proved to be too awkward for the actors. David Fincher ordered the prop department run to the nearest store to obtain plastic grocer bags instead.
David Fincher contributed the idea that Martin should have an old video camera and reel-to-reel tape player in his dungeon to suggest how long he had been kidnapping and murdering people in that room, and also to suggest that Martin was used to things never changing in his secret life.
In the scene where Blomkvist has been shot and Lisbeth sews up his wound with dental floss, the blood flowing down Daniel Craig's face is CGI to allow for multiple takes.
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