Some movies are lucky enough to become a huge hit with great potential for a sequel, only for those plans to get scrapped for one reason or another. On the other hand, some movies are released with the intention of building an entire franchise, only to be met with poor box office returns, a negative reception from critics and audiences, or other circumstances that ultimately crush those dreams. Either scenario happens more often than Hollywood would like to admit, as you can see from the plentiful examples we have collected here. 

Alex Rider

Younger fans of the James Bond movies got to see what a version of 007 from their demographic would be like with author Anthony Horowitz’s “Alex Rider” series. Unfortunately, the 2006 adaptation of the first novel, Stormbreaker — starring Alex Pettyfer — was also the last of the teen spy’s big screen adventures after it earned a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score and disastrously low domestic earnings, according to Box Office Mojo.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Unmatched box office expectations and dismal critical reception for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as well as Andrew Garfield being “let go” for his last-minute absence at a Sony event in Brazil (according to The Guardian), led to the discontinuation of the Marvel web-slinger’s second big screen franchise, which was also meant to include multiple spin-offs like a Sinister Six movie. However, there has been recent demand for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 since Garfield reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The Cat In The Hat

The Mike Myers-led The Cat in the Hat actually did make an impressive amount at the box office in 2003 and talk of a sequel was on the table. However, according to Today, Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s widow, Audrey, agreed with most critics that it was not one of the best Dr. Seuss movies and, as a result, refused to allow Hollywood to make any more live-action adaptations of her husband’s work.

Chicken Little

There was a time when many of Disney’s greatest animated movies received straight-to-home-video sequels by DisneyToon Studios and 2005’s sci-fi take on Chicken Little, starring Zach Braff, was going to get the same treatment. That was until John Lasseter took over Walt Disney Animation in 2006 and, according to story artist Tod Carter’s interview with Animated Views, canceled all of DisneyToon’s intended follow-ups, ultimately bringing the sky down on Chicken Little 2.

The Chronicles Of Narnia

How an entire alternate dimension exists in a wardrobe is not as big a mystery as why we never saw more Chronicles of Narnia movies past the adaptations of the first three books in the fantasy series. In 2011, Walden Media lost the rights to author C.S. Lewis’ novels, which were passed on to Sony, whose planned Silver Chair movie got lost in development hell.

Dark Universe

Star and producer Tom Cruise’s 2017 update of The Mummy was actually one of several attempts to build an MCU-style revival of Universal’s classic monster movies called The Dark Universe. Yet, after it tanked, the studio went back to the drawing board, and it does not appear to have given up on the concept completely with ongoing projects like Ryan Gosling’s Wolfman reboot and Radio Silence’s secret monster movie.

Divergent

Some YA novel-inspired movie series die after the first or second installment, but the Divergent franchise was one movie shy of completion before the second and third films’ diminishing box office returns prompted the idea of finishing the franchise as a TV special that never happened. In 2021, producer Neil Burger told the ReelBlend podcast that he has little faith in a fourth film, which would have told the second half of the final book in Veronica Roth’s trilogy, Allegiant. 

Ender's Game

Ender’s Game is the first in a beloved coming-of-age sci-fi novel series that was brought to the big screen in 2013, but saw a bitter end following a box office performance that was not so out-of-this-world. According to The Guardian, protests of the film in response to author Orson Scott Card’s homophobic opinions may have sealed its downfall.

Eragon

Fans of Christopher Paolini’s best-selling, four-part fantasy series (The Inheritance Cycle) agreed with most critics that the 2006 adaptation of the first book, Eragon, was a derivative mess. Following the poor reception and underwhelming domestic box office, all planned sequels were scrapped, but Variety reported in 2022 that a Disney+ TV series reboot is in development. 

Fantastic Four (2015)

Tim Story’s Fantastic Four movies from the early 2000s were not widely beloved by any stretch, but they look like Avengers: Endgame compared to the critical and commercial reception of Josh Trank’s 2015 reboot. Forbes reported in November of that year that a follow-up to the behind-the-scenes-drama-ridden comic book movie set for summer 2017 was taken off of Fox’s release schedule, paving the way for Marvel Studios’ upcoming Fantastic Four movie from director Matt Shakman.

Forrest Gump

Director Robert Zemeckis’ Best Picture Oscar winner from 1994 stands just fine on its own, but we almost saw more of Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. In 2008, Eric Roth told SlashFilm that he submitted a screenplay for Gump &. Co. — based on author Winston Groom’s sequel novel — the night before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, which convinced him, Zemeckis, and Hanks that the material was no longer relevant.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

While proud of his 2011 version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, according to EW, director David Fincher still thinks of it as a “swing and a miss,” given its underwhelming earnings killed plans for two sequels. Sony’s next English-language Lisbeth Salander movie was a 2018 adaptation of David Lagercrantz’s The Girl in the Spider’s Web, but at least the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy could be fully realized for Swedish cinema. 

Green Lantern

Before finding a comic book movie sweet spot with 2016’s Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds starred in one of the biggest critical and commercial failures in DC movie history, Green Lantern. Sinestro actor Mark Strong later revealed he was bummed to learn his villainous turn in the post-credits sequence would amount to nothing when Warner Bros. scrapped plans for a trilogy, as ScreenRant recalls.

Hairspray

The beloved 2007 adaptation of Hairspray, the stage musical based on John Waters’ 1988 comedy, was successful enough to warrant a sequel, but, as director Adam Shankman revealed to the U.K. Press Association in 2010, New Line Cinema pulled the plug on Hairspray 2: White Lipstick. Years later, Waters revealed to Variety (via X) that he had written another sequel for HBO that was not picked up either.

His Dark Materials

Before the popular fantasy novel trilogy, His Dark Materials became a hit HBO show, it almost became a film trilogy before New Line Cinema canceled its plans after The Golden Compass’ 2007 release. When speaking to the Evening Standard (via The Guardian), star Sam Elliot blamed the Catholic Church’s criticism of author Philip Pullman's anti-religious stance, while the film’s 42% RT score and underwhelming domestic earnings could have also contributed.

John Carter

While now regarded as one of Taylor Kitsch’s best movies, 2012’s underrated adventure, John Carter, was a failure with critics and audiences at the time, leading to the planned trilogy’s failure to launch. As Collider reported, director Andrew Stanton later revealed his sequels to the adaptation of A Princess of Mars would be called Gods of Mars and Warlord of Mars.

Journey To The Center Of The Earth

Despite Dwayne Johnson’s reputation for giving franchises a boost, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island — his 2012 sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth — was not quite the success he hoped for. As the actor personally confirmed in 2018 on X (then still called Twitter), he had no active plans for a follow-up, which would have taken inspiration from another Jules Verne novel called, From the Earth to the Moon.

Jumper

One of the most famous (or infamous) Hayden Christensen movies outside of Star Wars turned out to be a lesson in not jumping ahead of yourself. As SyFy recalls, Jumper was conceived as a trilogy. However, after not quite making the money it hoped for and getting torn apart by critics, the 2008 sci-fi thriller was forced to stand alone.

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword

Guy Ritchie’s attempt at a fantasy epic was meant to be the first installment in a shared universe of adventures taking place in Camelot. Unfortunately, as THR recalls, the Charlie Hunnam-led King Arthur Legend of the Sword was one of the biggest bombs of the 2017 summer, both critically and commercially.

The Last Airbender

Because it is often cited as M. Night Shyamalan’s worst movie (let alone an all-time stinker), there are likely quite a few moviegoers relieved that his plans to follow up The Last Airbender — as he described to MTV News — never came to be. Fans of Nickelodeon’s original animated series who are still curious to see the story retold to completion in live-action will get the chance when Netflix’s upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender reboot premieres.

Percy Jackson And The Olympians

There were five books in Rick Riordan’s fantasy novel series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, when the first adaptation — 2010’s The Lightning Thief — hit theaters. However, only two movies were made in total, due to even more diminishing returns, critically and commercially, with 2013’s Sea of Monsters. Thankfully, it appears that Disney+’s upcoming Percy Jackson TV show will be more faithful to the now seven books of source material.

Power Rangers

Dean Israelite shared with EW that Saban had a six-movie arc in mind before he was officially brought on to helm the 2017 Power Rangers reboot. Forbes would report later that the chance of those five sequels was highly unlikely. However, that does not mean we have seen the last of these young, costumed defenders of justice… just not this version of them.  

Sahara

Director Breck Eisner shared in 2005 that he felt good about his chances to helm a Sahara sequel, which was already in active development at the time. Unfortunately, the Matthew McConaughey-led action flick suffered underwhelming box office returns and, according to Den of Geek, author Clive Cussler’s lawsuit against Paramount for using a script without his approval, which has since kept Dirk Pitt from having more big-screen adventures.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events

According to Variety, Paramount and Nickelodeon Films hoped author Lemony Snicket’s (née Daniel Handler) popular YA saga, A Series of Unfortunate Events, could be their answer to Harry Potter. However, no follow-ups to the 2004 film — based on the first three books — ever materialized. Eventually, the Baudelaires’ 13-volume story was adapted into a Netflix original series, which proved to be a more fitting translation of the source material anyway.

Valerian

The French comic that inspired popular sci-fi movies like Star Wars finally came to the big screen with 2017’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Unfortunately, director Luc Besson’s passion project did not break even at the box office making his hope for a sequel seem like a lost cause at this point. 

City Of Ember

Director Gil Kenan’s 2008 adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember — the first in a series of YA dystopian novels — was met with mixed reviews, but was also a box office disaster. Thus, the chance for a sequel — which stars Saoirse Ronan and Tim Robbins told iO9 they would open to return for — went out like a light.

Prince Of Persia

As ScreenRant recalls, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time actually became the all-time highest-grossing video game movie in 2010 with more than $336 million worldwide. However, the earnings were unmatched by the $200 million budget and additional marketing costs. That, as well as poor reviews and criticisms of white-washing, sunk Disney’s original plans for Jake Gyllenhaal (who learned a lot from working on the adventure film) to lead a Pirates of the Caribbean-style franchise.

I Am Number Four

Alex Pettyfer’s second attempt at leading a YA adaptation after Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker was the sci-fi adventure, I Am Number Four, which made only $55 million domestically on a budget between $50-60 million. It was also not well received by critics or audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Thus, as screenwriter Marti Noxon told Collider (via Contact Music), plans to adapt the book’s sequel, The Power of Six, were shelved.

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World

It is surprising enough that Gladiator is getting a sequel, but to learn that there was talk of turning another Russell Crowe-led period epic into a franchise from ScreenRant is equally amusing. The Oscar-nominated Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World did not make quite enough money in 2003 to warrant a follow-up. But, according to Deadline, a prequel has been in the works since 2021.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2010s)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise continued on the big screen with 2023’s animated Mutant Mayhem, but there was hope to see it continue in live-action in the 2010s. Producer Andrew Ford explained to Collider that the underperformance of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows killed chances for more of the Michael Bay-produced series.

When reviewing these stories, two important lessons come to mind: sometimes, it pays to start things off thinking small and some good things are best left alone.

David Fincher is a director I know decently well, but I decided to watch all of his filmography – and I'm genuinely shocked about which movie became my favorite. I am young. It's not that big of a deal, but that means I haven't gotten the chance to view every fantastic movie a director has made. However, in my never-ending quest to become more knowledgeable in the world of film, I have been going on personal journeys to watch certain directors' entire filmographies to understand their art, and Fincher was up next on that list.

I started with Wes Anderson's movies, then moved on to Christopher Nolan's films (with my favorite still being Interstellar). However, I had never given David Fincher a shot. 

I had seen a few of his movies before this marathon. Se7en, Fight Club, and Gone Girl were the three I remembered viewing decently well, the last of which I saw in theaters. I also have seen The Social Network, but it was so long ago I didn't even remember most of it. 

So, I decided to not only rewatch the ones I'm familiar with but check out the others as well. My favorite actually surprised me – and I have to talk about it. 

Gone Girl Used To Be My Favorite – Specifically For Rosamund Pike's Acting

As mentioned in the introduction, Gone Girl was hands down my favorite Fincher film before I watched all of these. Granted, I had never gotten the chance to read the original novel the movie is based on before I watched it, but I was enamored by the film the moment it started. 

The story is extremely intriguing, but I'll be honest – I was there for Rosamund Pike's acting. Gone Girl is hands down one of Pike's best movies. She fully dedicates herself to the role, and her performance is iconic. While she's evil in I Care A Lot, there's no denying how menacing and amazing Amy is. 

But after watching all of these movies, it's not my favorite anymore. It's good, don't get me wrong, but Fincher's other films have officially taken over. 

Alien 3 Was A Decent First Attempt At Directing But It's Not My Favorite

Look, I love horror movies. I like sci-fi horror movies, too. While I enjoy a more psychological story in horror, I can dig sci-fi horror in the right circumstances – and with plenty of popcorn. But Alien 3 was…not it. 

I love the first Alien and its sequel, but Alien 3 was just off. Maybe it was because it was Fincher's first time directing a full-length feature, and it certainly had its growing pains. It could be a better story, and the acting isn't my favorite, but the visual effects were good. I'll give it that. 

It’s not Fincher’s best, and that is further proven when you consider how it wasn't even his film in the beginning, he took over as the director – he even opened up about what went wrong.

Panic Room, Mank, And The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Are Fine But I Don't Need to Watch Them Again

Honestly, these three movies rank low on the list. 

One of them was nominated for Best Picture (Mank), and even then, I still felt surprisingly uninterested while watching Panic Room, Mank, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They all had terrific casts and well-thought-out stories, but they didn't grab me like other Fincher films. 

I don't know what it was that didn't capture me. It's not that I don't like slower films, because Gone Girl was one of my favorites, and that movie is slow but in a thrilling way. I think these three just moved a bit too slow, and they didn't have the payoff I was looking for. 

These three didn't sit well with me - maybe I'll rewatch these films down the line and enjoy them, but who knows? For now, they sit at the bottom.

Zodiac And The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button Were Surprisingly Intriguing, But Not My All-Time Favorites

I had never seen Zodiac or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, most likely because they came out when I was a child, barely ten. But they were super good. 

I liked these a million times more than many of Fincher's other films. Zodiac was one of my favorites, especially since I'm a true crime lover who probably spends too much time watching actual crime shows and movies. I've done so much research on the Zodiac Killer that watching a film dedicated to that subject matter was exactly what I needed, and Fincher delivered on that and more. 

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button caught my attention in a similar way, coming from someone who isn't that big of a romantic drama person. The story of someone aging in reverse is fascinating, and both Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett brought excellent performances. 

I didn't expect much, but I really enjoyed both of these.

Fight Club and Se7en Will Forever Remain Classics

Fight Club and Se7en were two other movies I had seen before this marathon, and they stood out as iconic entries. There's just something about the late 1990s Fincher that makes me smile. 

Fight Club has so many cool behind-the-scenes facts that make this film so enjoyable, and the story still captivates me now; I learn something new every time I watch it. Also, the pairing of Edward Norton and Brad Pitt is actually legendary.

The same is true with Se7en, one of the best horror movies of all time. There are plenty of incredible behind-the-scenes facts about the movie, and don't even get me started on the cast – Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and Gwyneth Paltrow, all in the same film and rocking it in so many ways. And that twist at the end -- there's nothing like it out there. Nothing that will rock your core as much.

There's so much to love about these two movies. But one movie reigns supreme – one I didn't expect to like as much now as an adult.

However, The Social Network Actually Became My Favorite Out Of All Of Them

I didn't expect to walk out of this marathon loving The Social Network, but here we are. 

I saw this movie for the first time years ago, back in my first year of high school. I thought it was fascinating to watch because it talked about Facebook, but I never thought I'd see it again because I didn't have a vested interest at the time.

But now, I appreciate it even more. Not only is the music superb, the cinematography on point, and The Social Network cast some of the best out there (all of whom have gone on to have some pretty awesome careers), but the story makes even more sense now. 

In a world where social media has taken over our lives, this movie means more now than anything. It documented the beginning of the information era we live in, and it captured the beginning of how social media would change our world, for better or worse. 

It's more relevant than ever, and it's something that everyone needs to watch. Its nomination for Best Picture was well-deserved. 

And Now I'm Eager To See What The Killer Will Bring To The Table

With all this in mind, I'm eager to see what David Fincher's next film, The Killer, will bring when it becomes available to those with a Netflix subscription.

From the trailers I've watched and the reactions I've seen, it feels like an amalgamation of several of Fincher's past works combined into one epic movie, which is something I'm always down to see. Now, if November 10 would come sooner, that would be great. 

David Fincher has undoubtedly cemented himself in today's film society as a director who will live on forever with his exciting and creative movies that speak to the mind and dazzle the eye most of the time. I didn't quite understand his way of directing until now, after viewing all of his films, and I surprisingly became a huge fan. 

I will be hopping on this Fincher train – and I hope there's no stopping after The Killer comes out on the 2023 movie schedule because I need more. 

Oscar winners, coming-of-age dramas, and international thrillers have all drawn from the well of incredible books and turned them into unforgettable cinematic experiences. 

As part of CinemaBlend’s ongoing partnership with Plex, where you can find multiple movies based on books streaming for free, we’ve put together a list of 11 movies that fall into that category. From critically acclaimed international films to moving coming-of-age dramas to thrillers that push the viewer to the limit, there’s a little something for everyone on this list.

One for the Money (2012)

Released in 2012, Julie Anne Robinson’s One for the Money is based on Janet Evanovich’s novel of the same name and follows inexperienced bounty hunter Stephanie Plum (Katherine Heigl) as she starts a new chapter in her life. There’s just one problem: Stephanie’s first bounty is her high school boyfriend who is wanted for the murder of a drug dealer.

Just like the source material, which kick-started a book franchise nearly 20 years earlier, One for the Money blends elements from the action, comedy, and romance genres to create a story with all kinds of twists and turns.

Stream One for the Money on Plex.

Horns (2013) 

Directed by Alexandre Aja, the filmmaker behind creature features like Piranha 3D and Crawl (as well as other horror films High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes remake), Horns is a dark fantasy horror comedy about a young man named Ignatius Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) who somehow sprouts horns that give him great powers. 

Based on Joe Hill’s novel of the same name, the movie follows “Ig” as he attempts to come to terms with his girlfriend’s murder, tries to clear his name, and makes use of his horns that give him the ability to make people let go of their deepest and darkest secrets. Fans of religious satire, horror, and the fantastical should take note.

Stream Horns on Plex.

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014)

In 2014, Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller teamed up once again to unleash Sin City: A Dame to Kill For upon the world. Based on Miller’s Sin City graphic novel series, this anthology film dives back into the seedy underworld of the titular metropolis and its various inhabitants. 

Over the course of five interwoven short stories, Miller and Rodriguez explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of the bustling metropolis and its dangerous outskirts, a journey that includes returning characters from the first Sin City movie like Marv (Mickey Rourke), Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba), and John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), as well as some not-so-familiar faces.

Stream Sin City: A Dame To Kill For on Plex.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower (2012)

One of the rare book-to-screen adaptations in which the author of the book goes on to adapt the screenplay and direct the movie, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming-of-age drama about a young teenager finding his place in the world. The film centers on Charlie Kelmeckis (Logan Lerman), a shy, clinically depressed, and awkward freshman as he becomes friends with step-siblings Sam Button (Emma Watson) and Patrick Stewart (Ezra Miller), which forever changes his life.

At times hilarious, other times harrowing, this highly relatable drama captures the ups, downs, and awkward in-between moments of the high school experience. It’s unflinching, raw, and a transformative experience.

Stream The Perks of Being a Wallflower on Plex.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Several of James Ellroy’s books have been turned into movies and TV shows over the years, with the most notable being the 1997 Academy Award-winning crime noir drama, L.A. Confidential. This 1997 adaptation, which was directed by Curtis Hanson, follows a trio of LAPD detectives (Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kevin Spacey) as they attempt to solve a brutal murder in a coffee shop, an investigation that could uncover a world of corruption in the “City of Angels.”

Kim Bassinger, in an Oscar-winning performance, Danny DeVito, James Cromwell, and David Strathairn round out the cast in this modern classic about revenge, corruption, murder, and all kinds of scandal.

Stream L.A. Confidential on Plex.

Battle Royale (2000) 

Kinji Fukasaku’s 2000 adaptation of Koushun Takami’s novel, Battle Royale, is an exciting and incredibly violent story set in a near-future dystopian society in which teenagers are forced to fight in massive deathmatches orchestrated by the Japanese government.

Often considered one of the most violent and controversial movies of the 21st century, Fukasaku’s blood-soaked thriller follows a group of 42 teenagers as they are taken to a remote island and given three days to bring that number down to one. Imagine The Hunger Games but without the pageantry or optimism.

Stream Battle Royale on Plex.

Requiem For A Dream (2000)

In 2000, Darren Aronofsky turned Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream, a depressing and grueling 1976 novel, into one of the most unsettling films in recent memory. The film follows four New Yorkers (Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans) as they attempt to battle their respective addictions and make a better life for themselves. Only, there’s no hope of these dreams coming true for these ill-fated souls.

A mesmerizing and transfixing – albeit brutally depressing – downward spiral, this tour de force remains one of the most iconic movies of the early 21st century, but also one of its most difficult.

Stream Requiem for a Dream on Plex.

The Road (2009)

Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road was given the book-to-screen adaptation treatment with John Hillcoat’s 2009 post-apocalyptic thriller of the same name. This dark and unyielding drama follows a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they traverse the ash-covered American landscape in hopes of finding a warmer and more hospitable place to survive years after an unspecified catastrophic event.

Much like the source material, the movie is tense, terse, and unnerving, yet at times strikingly beautiful and heartfelt. 

Stream The Road on Plex.

A Walk To Remember (2002)

Based on Nicholas Sparks’ coming-of-age romantic drama of the same name, Adam Shankman’s A Walk to Remember follows rebellious high school senior Landon Carter (Shane West), as he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore), the daughter of a local preacher. Despite their differences, the pair fall for one another, but their relationship is soon faced with the ultimate test.

With scenes that’ll make you laugh, and others that will break your heart, A Walk to Remember is quite an emotional experience.

Stream A Walk to Remember on Plex.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Not to be confused with David Fincher’s 2011 film of the same name, Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a crime thriller based on Stieg Larsson’s 2005 novel about a journalist (Michael Nyqvist) who teams up with a hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) to solve a decades-long missing persons case.

With a plot with too many twists and turns to count, a wealthy family with all kinds of secrets, and masterful portrayals by the two leads, this thrilling mystery film has it all.

Stream The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Plex.

The Reader (2009)

Based on Bernhard Schlink’s novel, Der Vorleser, Stephen Daldry’s The Reader tells the story of German lawyer Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) as he defends a woman facing war crimes stemming from her role at a Nazi concentration camp. The delicate case is further complicated by the fact that the woman, Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) had an affair with the lawyer when he was a teenager (David Kross).

Winslet would end up winning an Oscar for her performance in the movie which also received several other nominations including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Stream The Reader on Plex.

Each of these movies, and countless other films, TV shows, and documentaries, are streaming for free on Plex right now. Why not give one, two, or all 11 of these titles a spin.

One of the most famous and talented families working in the industry today is that of the Swedish-born Skarsgårds — including Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgård, his brother and horror movie star Bill Skarsgård, and their father, Stellan Skarsgård. In addition to his long and storied career, the acclaimed patriarch of this Hollywood dynasty has also become the first in his family to become a part of the Star Wars universe as a member of the Andor cast on Disney+. 

In honor of this stellar achievement, we have compiled a showcase of our choices for the best Stellan Skarsgård movies and TV shows, with where you can find them on streaming below — and his aforementioned new Star Wars TV show is where we shall start.

Andor (2022-Present)

A young loner (Diego Luna) discovers that he can put his rebellious characteristics to good use by joining a secret, slowly developing war against the oppressive governmental system ruling over a galaxy far, far away.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård TV shows: The actor plays Luthen Rael, who recruits Luna’s title character into the Resistance, on Andor — a thrilling, critically acclaimed series prequel to the events of the film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, from 2016.

Stream Andor on Disney+.

His Pirates Of The Caribbean Movies (2006-2007)

After Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) has helped break the curse upon his old ship, he enlists the help of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) to break a curse upon himself and, later, engage in battle for the future of piracy itself.

Why they are some of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: For one of his earliest collaborations with Disney, he joined the cast of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies — which many might agree are some of the best pirate movies ever made — as Will Turner’s cursed father, “Bootstrap” Bill Turner, in the second installment (subtitled Dead Man’s Chest) and would also reprise the role in the third film, At World’s End.

Stream the Pirates of the Caribbean movies on Disney+.

Rent/buy Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest digitally on Amazon.
Buy Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Rent/buy Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End digitally on Amazon.
Buy Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End on Blu-ray on Amazon.

His Marvel Movies (2011-2022)

The lives of an esteemed theoretical physicist (Skarsgård) and his colleagues (Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings) are changed forever when they become acquainted with a young man (Chris Hemsworth) who claims to be a celestial being banished from his otherworldly home to Earth and may be the planet’s only hope against an impending attack if he can reclaim his powers.

Why they are some of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: Years later, he would join another franchise owned by Disney by appearing in one of the earliest installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, Thor, as Dr. Erik Selvig — whom he would reprise again in 2012’s The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World the following year, Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, and Thor: Love and Thunder for a brief cameo in 2022.

Stream the Marvel Movies on Disney+.

Rent/buy the Thor movies digitally on Amazon.
Rent/buy The Avengers digitally on Amazon.
Rent/buy Avengers: Age of Ultron digitally on Amazon.

Rent/buy Thor: Love and Thunder digitally on Amazon.
Buy Thor: Love and Thunder on Blu-ray on Amazon.

Cinderella (2015)

Following a chance meeting with a charming prince (Richard Madden), a kindhearted young woman (Lily James) unjustly treated by her stepmother (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett) and stepsisters, is given the opportunity to find true love and escape her unfair life by attending a royal ball, with help from her fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter).

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: The talent also stepped into the world of one of Disney’s most iconic and beloved animated classics by starring as the Grand Duke in director Kenneth Branagh’s genuinely enchanting live-action reimagining of Cinderella in 2015.

Rent/buy Cinderella digitally on Amazon.
Buy Cinderella on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon. 

The Mamma Mia! Movies (2008-2018)

On the eve of her wedding day, a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) invites three men (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgård) who could be her real father and, years later, learns more about the earlier years of her late mother (Meryl Streep) as she prepares for the reopening of the hotel she once ran. 

Why they are some of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: Another time Skarsgård appeared in one of Lily James’ movies was when he reprised his role as Bill Anderson (and played his twin brother, Kurt) in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again — the sequel to the 2008 cinematic adaptation of the hit stage musical featuring songs by legendary disco group, Abba.

Stream Mamma Mia! on Starz.
Rent/buy Mamma Mia! digitally on Amazon.

Rent/buy Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again digitally on Amazon.
Buy the Mamma Mia! movies on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

The Hunt For Red October (1990)

During the height of the Cold War, a CIA analyst (Alec Baldwin) tries to prove that a Soviet Union submarine captain (Academy Award winner Sean Connery) is planning to defect.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: One of his first major English-language film roles was Russian Captain Viktor Tupolev in director John McTiernan’s adaptation of Tom Clancy’s novel, The Hunt for Red October — the first of the Jack Ryan movies and the only to star Baldwin as the iconic action hero character.

Stream The Hunt For Red October on Netflix.
Rent/buy The Hunt For Red October digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Hunt For Red October on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Eager to exploit the extraordinary mathematical talents of a young, aimless custodian (Matt Damon), an M.I.T. professor (Skarsgård) forces him to seek inspiration from a disillusioned therapist (Robin Williams, in an Oscar-winning performance).

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: Inciting the plot of director Gus Van Sant’s inspirational coming-of-age story, Good Will Hunting — which earned Damon and Ben Affleck Oscars for Best Original Screenplay — is Skarsgard’s character, Prof. Lambeau, and his discovery of the reluctant title character’s genius.

Stream Good Will Hunting on HBO Max.
Rent/buy Good Will Hunting digitally on Amazon.
Buy Good Will Hunting on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

Amistad (1997)

Following a violent revolt on a Spanish slave ship, a group of American abolitionist lawyers work to prove that the African men aboard were captured illegally and, therefore, deserve to be set free.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: Also in 1997, director Steven Spielberg cast him in Amistad — another powerful, Oscar-nominated drama — as New York-based abolitionist Lewis Tappan.

Stream Amistad on Paramount+.
Rent/buy Amistad digitally on Amazon.
Buy Amistad on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

Chernobyl (2019)

At a nuclear power plant in the northern Ukraine, employees face deadly circumstances to prevent the spread of disaster in the midst of a colossal explosion in 1986.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård TV shows: More than two decades after Amistad, Stellan Skarsgård appeared in another acclaimed historical drama — this time an HBO original miniseries from creator Craig Malin — called Chernobyl, in which he plays Boris Scherbina, who served as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union at the time of the devastating historical event dramatized here.

Stream Chernobyl on HBO Max.
Buy Chernobyl digitally on Amazon.
Buy Chernobyl on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

Ronin (1998)

A former spy turned freelancer (Robert De Niro) puts together a team of outcast specialists like himself to find and retrieve a suitcase desired by rival Irish and Russian gangs.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: Playing one of DeNiro’s outcast cohorts — namely German computer specialist and former KGB associate Gregor — was Stellan Skarsgård in Ronin, which is a classic, international crime drama in the style of a heist thriller from director John Frankenheimer and screenwriter David Mamet.

Stream Ronin on Tubi.
Stream Ronin on Freevee through Amazon.

Rent/buy Ronin digitally on Amazon.
Buy Ronin on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

A journalist (Daniel Craig) enlists the help of an anti-social, but highly skilled, hacker (Oscar nominee Rooney Mara) to investigate the decades-long disappearance of a wealthy industrialist’s niece. 

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: In one of the few English-language films on his resume that is also set in his home nation of Sweden, Skarsgård plays Martin — the brother of the missing Harriet Vanger — in director David Fincher’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is based on the gripping, bestselling novel by Stieg Larsson.

Stream The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on Hulu.
Rent/buy The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon. 

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I And Vol. II (2013)

After discovering a woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) badly beaten in an alley, a man (Skarsgård) takes her to his home, where she recounts all of the events that led her to diagnose herself as a sex addict.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: For his sixth (technically sixth and seventh) collaboration with writer and director Lars von Trier, Skarsgård appeared in the prolific and polarizing filmmaker’s raunchy, two-part drama, Nymphomaniac, as a man who enjoys reexamining the main characters’ sexual escapades as fishing metaphors.  

Stream Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and Vol. I on Hulu.
Stream Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and Vol. on Amazon Prime.
Buy Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and Vol. II on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon. 

Dune (2021)

In the distant future, a prince (Timothée Chalamet) haunted by horrifying premonitions and his family find themselves embroiled in a violent struggle for ownership over the most valuable resource in their galaxy.

Why it is one of the best Stellan Skarsgård movies: Currently, the actor is shooting his reprisal of the role of the ruthlessly oppressive Vladimir Harkonnen in the second half of Dune — director Denis Villeneuve’s visually stunning, star-studded, and multi-Oscar-winning adaptation of author Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi epic.

Stream Dune on HBO Max.
Buy Dune digitally on Amazon.
Buy Dune on Blu-ray on Amazon. 

If you are a fan of the Skarsgård brothers and are curious to see where their talents stem from, all you really need is to see the Stellan Skarsgård movies and TV shows above.

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Netflix has been on a roll in 2020 with a great number of thrilling action movies and that continued with the July release of The Old Guard. Starring Charlize Theron, Kiki Layne, and a number of other talented actors, the adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name electrified viewers with the engaging and powerful story of a tight-knit group of immortal soldiers who are forced to turn the tables of those who betrayed their trust.

But after watching The Old Guard, there are probably a lot of people out there who are looking for similar titles that contain some or all of the elements from this exciting action revenge thriller. So since none of us will be going to a movie theater for quite some time, here's a list of great movies to watch after watching one of Netflix's best offerings of 2020. There are some givens on this list but there are also a few hidden gems that will hopefully get some attention years and even decades after their release.

Widows - Max Go

Director Steve McQueen's 2018 female-led crime-noir thriller Widows tells the story of four Chicago women who must come together and pull off a $5 million heist to repay the debts of their deceased husbands before they too suffer a similar fate. Led by Viola Davis, who will is set to appear in The Old Guard director Gina Prince-Bythewood's next offering, the cast also includes Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Carrie Coon in a scene-stealing performance.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: If the strong female cast wasn't enough for fans of The Old Guard, then this movie's intricate plot of murder, theft, and redemption should do the trick. Steve McQueen's masterful approach to the Widows' transition from grief to action is something to be seen. On top of that there is some great action which is made even better by impressive camera work.

Stream it on Max Go here.

Highlander - Amazon

The 1986 fantasy film Highlander tells the story of Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), an ancient immortal swordsman who must take on the villainous Kurgan (Clancy Brown), another immortal that aims to kill MacLeod and gain the power to enslave the human race. And remember, there can only be one…

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Immortals, swordplay, ancient warriors living in modern times, and other elements from Highlander make it a perfect movie to watch after getting all jacked up with the happenings of The Old Guard. The movie can be cheesy at times (it is from the '80s after all), but its story showcasing the eternal battle of good versus evil is still great nearly 35 years later. Also, the movie features a random but amazing opening scene involving the Fabulous Freebirds in all their glory.

Stream it on Amazon here.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Starz

Based on Swedish author Steig Larsson's novel of the same name, David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who turns to computer hacker and investigator Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) to uncover the mystery of the disappearance of a young girl some 40 years earlier.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Fans of The Old Guard who enjoyed the movie's more investigative and fact-finding sections will really enjoy this 2011 English-language adaptation of the best-selling movie and film franchise. Both films contain a tightly-weaved narrative that leave viewers guessing at every turn, which is what makes both more than just normal action thrillers.

Stream it on Starz here.

The Town - Netflix

Ben Affleck pulled double-duty in the 2010 bank robber thriller The Town, which remains one of the best moves to featured the city of Boston. Following in the life of a group of Southies and successful thieves, the movie details how quickly things can change when a job doesn't go according to plan.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Fans of The Old Guard and its central group of immortal soldiers will enjoy The Town for its depiction of a tight group of friends and criminals who think they're immortal. The action, tense moments, and undying bond of the core group are more than enough to hold fans over until we find out if The Old Guard 2 will materialize.

Stream it on Netflix here.

6 Underground - Netflix

Michael Bay's 2019 action thriller 6 Underground follows an elite squad of mercenaries who have faked their deaths in order to go off the grid and take care of the business world governments refuse to carry out. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Ben Hardy, and several others, the Netflix original film boasted insane streaming numbers despite a lukewarm response from critics.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: The concept of a group of highly-trained and perceived dead soldiers coming together to carry out some pretty impressive high-stakes jobs should be right up the alley for fans of The Old Guard. In addition to the close group and premise, fans will also like Michael Bay's approach the action movie, even if it has been done by the director many times over the course of his long career.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Watchmen - HBO Max

Based on Alan Moore's landmark graphic novel of the same name, Zack Snyder's 2009 Watchmen is set in an alternate America in the middle of the 1980s where superheroes are the norm. Picking up with the death of the masked leader of the Watchmen, the movie follows the rest of the team as they try to uncover the why and how of the mysterious death, but end up uncovering a more sinister plot.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: On the surface, both Watchmen and The Old Guard are adaptations of popular graphic novels. Besides that, both movies dive into conspiracies by unknown parties looking to toy and decimate their respective groups. Both movies also serve as character studies of the individual members, their motivations, and their troubled pasts.

Stream it on HBO Max here.

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc - HBO Max

Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc remains not only one of the best silent movies of all time, but also one of the landmark moments for cinema as a whole. Based on the court records of the French heroine's trial and execution in the 15th Century.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Much like The Old Guard, The Passion of Joan of Arc centers around a strong female warrior who remains true to her convictions even if that means death in an extremely painful manner. Similar to the treatment of Andy, aka Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron), Joan (Renée Jeanne Falconetti) is feared by those in power for what she represents and pays the ultimate price.

Stream it on HBO Max here.

The Punisher - Showtime

Based on the acclaimed Marvel Comics series of the same name, the 2004 violent action movie The Punisher follows Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) as he sets out on a path of vengeance following the brutal murder of his family. Armed with an arsenal of weapons and a thirst for revenge, Castle stops at nothing to see the man responsible for the hit pay for his actions.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Fans of The Old Guard and its extremely visceral depictions of violence will be right at home with this gem of a Marvel movie. And unlike those films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Punisher has an R-rating, which gives the movie plenty of room for explosive action and extreme violence. And the story of betrayal and ultimate revenge is also worth noting.

Stream it on Showtime here.

The Matrix - Peacock

After being contacted by the very people he has been searching for, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is invited to join Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) in the long-fought battle for humanity both inside and outside the Matrix.

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Fans of the "fish out of water" element to Nile Freeman's (Kiki Layne) story in The Old Guard will appreciate watching Neo transform from a competent computer hacker trapped in the Matrix to the most promising hope for humanity yet. And plus, the movie still has some of the best action set pieces more than 20 years after its theatrical release.

Stream it on Peacock here.

Extraction - Netflix

Before The Old Guard came out, Extraction was the Netflix movie no one could stop talking about or stop watching as the movie broke all sorts of records for the streaming service. The movie follows Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), a former SASR operative turned mercenary who is sent out to rescue an international crime lord's son. But that's just the beginning…

Why The Old Guard Fans Will Like It: Fans of graphic novels, violence, and stories of redemption will be right at home with Extraction as this short and not-so-sweet action movie has it all. It would serve as a nice second entry in a double-feature alongside The Old Guard for those who have the time.

Stream it on Netflix here.

That should be more than enough to to hold fans of The Old Guard over for quite some time, but if there is something that I missed make sure to sound off in the comments section. There is no such thing as too many violent and entertaining action movies.

Franchises come and go, but some go much quicker than studios may have planned. Some are one and done, others have been waiting for a third installment for a decade or longer. In certain cases, hope is being kept alive by fans who want more adventures, even if there are fewer than what it would take to bring the franchise back in earnest.

What I'm saying is, there are a lot of reasons some franchises never got the full trilogy that was planned. Here are some fantastic examples below, though in a few of these cases, it's a lot more obvious than others why we never saw more movies.

Tron

With the help of a smooth visuals and a Daft Punk soundtrack, Tron: Legacy has gathered a cult following over the last decade. Unfortunately, the return of the Tron franchise failed to impress at the box office, and as such, plans for Tron 3 were scrapped. We do know from director Joseph Kosinski there was an outline for the third movie, and it would've taken place in both the digital and real worlds, with characters of all types jumping between. Kosinski recently said that Disney still has interest in keeping Tron alive, so maybe fans should keep pushing if they want to see this.

Hellboy (2004)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army set the stage for what could've been a huge third installment in the Hellboy franchise. The title character was going to be a dad, he left the B.P.R.D. and was likely well on his way to being the harbinger of the apocalypse. Unfortunately, the same thing happened to Hellboy 3 that has happened to a number of Guillermo del Toro projects: it was set aside and never returned to. Now we have a Hellboy reboot that did not do well, and while Ron Perlman is willing, I'm not sure even he can make this third installment ever happen.

Prometheus

Ok, so technically there's been way more than three Alien movies, but the plan with Prometeheus was to deliver a prequel trilogy that told the story of what led to Alien. While Alien: Covenant is still relatively a new movie at the time of writing, its box office performance compared to Prometheus' has cast some doubt that Ridley Scott's third movie in this trilogy will happen. There has been talk about how this movie would bridge the gap to the original movie, but for now, we have yet to see any meaningful progress in its development.

28 Days Later

28 Days Later was a riveting and revolutionary zombie movie, and while 28 Weeks Later wasn't quite the cinematic classic, it still held its own as a serviceable horror. The crown jewel of this franchise is seeing how the world improves/deteriorates in the wake of this insane situation, which is why there are still folks clamoring for 28 Months Later. Alex Garland has gone on record in saying that while there is a plan, it would probably never happen, which is a bummer. I'll personally continue to hold out hope though, because quality horror franchises are hard to come by, and I think that sooner or later, this project will come up in Hollywood again.

Kill Bill

While people may continue to discuss whether Kill Bill is one or two movies, there's others still wondering if the fated third movie will ever happen. Quentin Tarantino teased "it is definitely in the cards" in late 2019, and with over a decade and a half since the second movie, that little girl should be well old enough to track down The Bride for some revenge. I'm also just genuinely curious as to what Beatrix Kiddo is up to, and would love to see a movie delving into her life nowadays.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

This one hurt because there was so much potential and star-power packed into 2011's Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig give a solid performance, and David Fincher's vision made it seem like sequels were a no-brainer. And yet, critical acclaim, five Academy Award nominations and one win wasn't enough to get Sony on board for more sequels. Was it underperformance at the box office? Daniel Craig being tied to James Bond and wanting more money? Obviously the source material wasn't a problem because it got another reboot. This one hurt, and it's still hard to explain exactly why.

John Carter

Disney had grand plans for Taylor Kitsch and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series, as John Carter could've been the beginning of not only a trilogy, but an 11 installment blockbuster film franchise. Unfortunately, the first movie flopped and lost Disney a whole heap of money by the time it was all said and done. Critics were lukewarm on the movie as well, which made the prospect of a sequel ever happening slim to none even in the weeks following its release.

National Treasure

There has been talk of National Treasure 3 for over a decade, and yet, we still have no movie. The latest news is that the next installment is still on track, though I can certainly understand anyone's skepticism given all the past updates on this Nicolas Cage family thriller. The good news this time is that there's also a television show in development for Disney+, which could mean Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney are both invested enough to bring the next movie to theaters sooner rather than later.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been a successful franchise for decades, but apparently that success can only go so far. While the original film franchise managed to make it to a third movie, the updated reboot was not so lucky. Audiences responded poorly to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows, and ultimately Paramount decided it was best to try for another reboot rather than go for a third movie. I can certainly respect that, especially given how weird and poorly received the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III was.

Di you have other great franchises that were robbed of the three films they deserved? As always, the comments are open for your ideas and suggestions, so post there and be sure to stick with CinemaBlend for all the latest news happening in the world of television and movies.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is joining a slew of other TV projects based on books, not too long after the news that Percy Jackson is getting one. There is just one little thing. Fans of Stieg Larsson's novels might have a problem with it. First things first, though, where is this show happening, and why may fans be upset?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on its way back to the screen, and it will not be the silver one this time around. Variety reports that Amazon is developing a series based on the books and movies’ central protagonist: Lisbeth Salander. Instead of being based on the books or films, this series will go in a different direction.

Amazon’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series will follow Lisbeth Salander, but in an entirely new setting, surrounded by new characters, and featured in a new story. The project is apparently in its infancy as neither a writer nor a lead actress has been located. Time will tell who becomes the third actress to step into the role.

Of course, diehard fans of the books and the movie adaptations may be miffed by the TV show featuring no pre-ordained canon. It sounds like the plan is for the series to distance itself, striking out on its own with a total shakeup. Will this Lisbeth Salander still have her signature goth style? Stay tuned.

Stieg Larsson’s novels are once again getting the TV treatment after first giving rise to the Swedish-language movies starring Noomi Rapace as the heroine, Lisbeth Salander. Word of a TV show at Amazon comes after two English-language films, each starring a different actress in the central role. Rooney Mara played Salander in the first movie, which came out in 2011.

Directed by David Fincher, Rooney Mara earned an Oscar nomination for her performance. Despite her success, Mara was not chosen to continue on in the part when The Girl in the Spider’s Web came about years later. It was released in 2018 with The Crown’s Claire Foy taking over as Lisbeth Salander.

Fast forward two years to 2020, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is making yet another comeback. News of the new TV show comes after Noomi Rapace starred in the second season of Amazon’s Jack Ryan. It is also worth noting that Rapace’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is currently available to stream on Prime Video.

It would seem that Amazon has a lot going on in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo department. On that note, Amazon is arguably still seeking its big watercooler show. Jack Ryan has undoubtedly been a success as the streamer awaits the arrival of its Lord of the Rings TV series. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo entering the TV fray could see any number of results.

The books have gotten two English-language films that have seemingly not done well enough to earn an immediate sequel or follow-up. Of course, Stieg Larsson’s novel series could go the way of the John Krasinski-led Jack Ryan, finding success in television form that it was not able to find in its latest film outing to-date.

The original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. While you wait to see how things turn out with this new TV show, check out the ones already coming to fruition as this summer’s premieres.

For my money, David Fincher's phenomenal The Social Network stands as one of the finest films of the last decade. An all-around excellently crafted movie, built by taunt direction, electrifying writing, exceptional performances, and a sharp presentation, it's one of the most ingeniously-made movies in the past ten years, and it's a shining example of what happens when a bunch of talented people come together at the top of their game and make an absolutely extraordinary achievement. The movie has earned a wealth of acclaim and several accolades. Deservedly so. It's a masterpiece, and it can be hard to find many movies on that level. Nevertheless, if you're looking for another movie in that vein, we have a few streaming-friendly movies to recommend — particularly if you have recently rewatched The Social Network after Fincher's movie was brought back to Netflix earlier this month.

Steve Jobs - Netflix

What It's About: Follows Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before three key phases in his life and career between 1984 and 1998.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: Once again telling the story of a brilliant-but-troubled technical pioneer as he balances the implosion of his personal life while on the verge of changing the world as we know it, Steve Jobs shares not merely the same screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, as The Social Network, but many similar thematics as well. While Steve Jobs doesn't reach the same heights as The Social Network, it's certainly compelling in its own right, thanks in large part to dynamic performances from our starry ensemble, including Michael Fassbender in the title role. Adopting an unconventional narrative approach, as well as several theatrical moments, Steve Jobs is a striking, engrossing character study of another towering modern technology figure.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Glengarry Glen Ross - HBO Go

What It's About: Glengarry Glen Ross follows two days for four desperate real estate salesmen and the growing frustration and turmoil that ensues when a corporate spokesperson claims all but two salesmen will be fired within a week.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: If you loved The Social Network for its whip-smart dialogue and its constantly quotable one-liners, Glengarry Glen Ross will certainly satisfy. Bolstered by an excellent ensemble, including Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Alec Baldwin, and more, and adapted by David Mamet from his 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, it's a cutting, engrossing tale of the humanity (and the lack thereof) found and loss in a competitive corporate structure. It's a sharp, sneering cinematic translator, bringing as many sparks as the play itself. It proves to be a compelling morality play that's heavily engrossing.

Stream It On HBO Go here.

Moneyball - Starz

What It's About: Moneyball follows the 2002 baseball season for the Oakland Athletics and how General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and assistant GM Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) built a team of undervalued players using analytics and an unorthodox scouting method.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: Released just a year after The Social Network hit theaters, it's not fair to say that Moneyball was directly influenced by the Best Picture-nominated film, but it does share some of its DNA. It's co-written by Aaron Sorkin, alongside Steven Zaillian and Stan Chervin, and it sees a pair of down-on-their-luck individuals use the tools of the internet to their advantage and make their own unlikely empire. Since it's a sports drama, the outcome is notably more uplifting than The Social Network's dourly ambiguous final notes, but this true story is similarly well-crafted.

Stream It On Starz here.

The Big Short - Tubi

What It's About: An inside look from various Wall Street figures at how the United States housing bubble lead to the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: A stylish, fast-paced, irreverent look at our recent history, one that uses an unconventional narrative and several fourth wall breaks to communicate its angry, urgent social commentary, The Big Short is a timely dramedy that also explores controversial figures who speak 50 words a minute and discuss something that has changed the lives of thousands of Americans. Yet, through its fresh, entertaining approach, Adam McKay's Oscar-winning film bristles with life, providing an absorbing and ultimately devastating look at this not-too-distant financial failure. Providing a complicated matter in a smart, digestible, invigorating package, it makes it an easy recommendation for fans of The Social Network.

Stream It On Tubi here.

Ingrid Goes West - Hulu

What It's About: A woman moves to L.A. to befriend her new social media idol – by any means necessary.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: If you see The Social Network as a cautionary tale-of-sorts about the long-term dangers of making friends (and enemies) on (or through) the Internet, then you should definitely make a point to check out 2017's under-seen dark comedy, Ingrid Goes West. Starring Aubrey Plaza, in the finest performance of her career to date, as Ingrid, a mentally-unstable young woman who is obsessed with an Instagram star and makes it her mission to become her BFF, this movie is unflinching and often uncomfortable in its brutal commentary, yet through its dark laughs and engrossing characters, Ingrid Goes West proves to be one of the sharpest, most timely social satires made about our social media era.

Stream It On Hulu here.

Molly's Game - Netflix

What It's About: Follows Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), a former Olympian who finds herself at the head of an underground poker empire — as well as the head of an ongoing FBI investigation.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: After years of serving as a screenwriter and showrunner, Aaron Sorkin finally found himself in the director's chair with Molly's Game, another tale based on a true figure who finds herself in the midst of greatness as she hopes to prove herself in a competitive and dangerous field. While Sorkin's inexperience as a director prevents Molly's Game from having the same whiz and flash as David Fincher or Danny Boyle, Sorkin's assured, dependable directorial debut is elevated by his continuously sharp dialogue and his strong ensemble, notably with Jessica Chastain in the lead. This role finds her at the top of her game.

Stream It On Netflix here.

Fight Club - HBO Go

What It's About: Two men, bored with their lives, build an underground fist-fighting club that turns into an anti-capitalist revolution.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: While more testosterone-driven than his later films, Fight Club is unmistakably David Fincher's work — as all his movies are undoubtedly from his lens. Similar to how Social Network follows men building an online forum that'll change millions of lives, Fight Club, based on Chuck Palahniuk's novel, follows jaded guys who want to find their sense of purpose — even if that means beating the crap out of each other. The angsty, pulpy cult classic earned its status among cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike. It's not hard to see why. Driven by strong performances from Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter, Fight Club became a defining film for a new century.

Stream It On HBO Go here.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Starz

What It's About: An English-language adaptation of Swedish author Stieg Larsson's best-selling novel of the same name.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: Among the bleakest, most nihilistic works from David Fincher to date, which is certainly saying something, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo served as the acclaimed director's follow-up to The Social Network. While it doesn't reach the same dramatic heights, it's most certainly the work of one of our finest working filmmakers, Particularly with its mesmerizing, star-making performance from Rooney Mara, this exceptional adaptation of Stieg Larsson's beloved novel is certainly another accomplished feat for Fincher, and it's a film that his fans shouldn't miss.

Stream It On Starz here.

Ex Machina - Netflix

What It's About: A low-level programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) is given the opportunity of a lifetime when he's invited by his mysterious CEO (Oscar Isaac) to administer the Turing Test onto an advanced humanoid robot (Alicia Vikander), a machine that grows more intelligent with each passing day.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: Among the most astonishing directorial debuts of the past decade, Ex Machina found author-turned-screenwriter Alex Garland producing a sleek, stylish, accomplished, and unsettling study at the division fostered between humanity and artificial intelligence in a fresh, original tale. Elevated by its exceptional cast, notably from its exceptional performances from Isaac and Vikander, Ex Machina presents an eerie and uncompromising vision of our not-too-distant future, one that's bolstered by sharp dialogue, top-notch visual effects, and exceptional production design. It's one of the most absorbing, impressive filmmaking debuts in recent memory.

Stream It On Netflix here.

Charlie Wilson's War - Starz

What It's About: Tells the story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) and CIA operative Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who made the efforts that eventually led to Operation Cyclone.

Why The Social Network Fans Will Like It: While it doesn't stand out as much as a few other Aaron Sorkin-penned pictures, Charlie Wilson's War is a fine film in its own right, notably with likable performances from Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and, most notably, the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is a witty, entertaining look at political history, one that is given a vibrancy through Sorkin's screenplay, which constantly crackles —particularly through these stars. If you're looking for another enjoyable, well-made both written by Sorkin, you'll most certainly find a charming film in Charlie Wilson's War.

Stream It On Starz here.

These are just a few of the quality movies available to stream on various services. If you're looking for a few other movies worth seeing in the same vein as The Social Network that aren't available to stream, I would also recommend Network and Citizen Kane, which were major influences for Sorkin. You should also check out Catch Me If You Can, The Wolf of Wall Street, Michael Clayton, and Whiplash, to name a few, if you haven't already. What's your favorite movie of the ones listed above? What movies do you recommend to someone if they loved The Social Network? Let us know in the comments.

We’re currently in the longest wait in between David Fincher movies in the filmmaker’s prestigious career. How’s that for some excellent suspense? When Gone Girl hit theaters back in 2014, the chilling thriller based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel (and adapted from her own screenplay) chilled our bones to their very cores. The Oscar-nominated thriller pulled out a career-defining performance from Rosamund Pike as the mysteriously disappeared wife to Ben Affleck’s Nick Dunne and featured memorable appearances from Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and Carrie Coon.

At least fans have had the likes of Netflix’s Mindhunter to mull us over while we wait for David Fincher’s next movie Mank coming later this year – which is actually a biographical drama about the making of Citizen Kane starring Gary Oldman, Lily Collins and Amanda Seyfried by the way . But, if you’re itching for more films with a likeness to Gone Girl, there are plenty of masterful thrills to stream across a ton of your favorite platforms. I think you’ll enjoy checking out these titles if you’ve tired out Gone Girl rewatches:

Dark Places - Netflix

What It’s About: Charlize Theron stars as Libby Day, a woman haunted by the tragedy of her parents being murdered when she was just eight years old. For almost 30 years she has been convinced that her brother (Corey Stoll) has been at fault as he continues to serve his prison sentence until Nicholas Hoult’s underground detective and his “True Crime” club challenges what really happened that night.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: 2015’s Dark Places is the perfect next step from Gone Girl because it’s also based on a book by Gillian Flynn therefore giving the plot just as much richness as David Fincher’s even if the filmmaker is not behind the camera.

Stream it on Netflix here.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - STARZ

What It’s About: This psychological slow burn thrill ride centers on Daniel Craig’s journalist Mikael Blomkvist who is investigating the disappearance of a woman who has been missing for 40 years. He decides to pair up with Rooney Mara’s clever computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to uncover the person behind the mystery.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is another film directed by David Fincher – in fact it’s the movie he made just before Gone Girl. The two movies undoubtedly have a likeness to each other especially since they’re both Fincher’s visions of popular bestselling crime thriller novels.

Stream it on STARZ here.

The Prestige - Cinemax

What It’s About: The Prestige centers on two competing magicians played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman back in the 19th century. It’s a gritty and mysterious story about how their rivalry to pull off the perfect magic trick for their audiences transforms into each of them crossing the line in this intense psychological thriller also starring Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie Michael Caine, Piper Perabo and Rebecca Hall.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: Christopher Nolan is well-known for an expertly executed twist, but not enough for 2006’s The Prestige. The movie pulls off a clever and shocking twist that will remind you of the Gone Girl experience.

Stream it on Cinemax here.

A Simple Favor - Amazon Prime, Hulu

What It’s About: A Simple Favor is Paul Feig’s dip into crime thrillers with a splash of comedy shaken in. It follows Anna Kendrick’s blogger mommy Stephanie Smothers, who forms an unlikely friendship with Blake Lively’s secretive Emily Nelson. Emily asks Stephanie if she can watch her young son and then disappears without warning even to her husband (Henry Golding).

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: The 2018 thriller is a twisty fun take on the elements found in Gone Girl that has Anna Kendrick add her quirkiness alongside Blake Lively’s sultriness. It has an engaging story you won’t see coming either.

Stream it on Amazon Prime or Hulu.

Gone Baby Gone - STARZ

What It’s About: Ben Affleck’s directorial debut is 2007’s Gone Baby Gone starring his brother Casey Affleck along with Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Amy Ryan. The movie takes place in Boston (because of course) and centers on two detectives investigating the disappearance of a child. It goes on an exciting and suspenseful turn when Affleck’s character goes rogue to solve the case.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: Sure there’s “gone” in the title and Ben Affleck is involved in both Gone Baby Gone and Gone Girl but that’s not the only reason it’s a great pick. The film shows, perhaps, why Affleck signed on to Gone Girl – he’s clearly into the genre and watching his first film is an impressive addition to crime dramas.

Stream it on STARZ here.

Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile - Netflix

What It’s About: Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile is about the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy through the lens of his longtime girlfriend Liz Kendall who was in a relationship with him for years without the awareness of his deadly crimes. Zac Efron plays the “charming” killer how many women described him to be and Lily Collins is Liz.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: This Netflix release will appease fans of Gone Girl because it’s scarier in some ways – it’s true. True crime is something that David Fincher was trying to portray in his 2014 movie and Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil And Vile uses actual events to twist the genre in new ways.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Destroyer - Hulu

What It’s About: Destroyer is a 2018 movie that fell under the radar for many of us. The crime drama directed by The Invitation director Karyn Kusama is an intense film that follows an unrecognizable Nicole Kidman as a police detective with a tale of vengeance. LAPD detective Erin Bell goes after the gang, years after investigating them undercover to tragic results. Kidman earned a Golden Globe nomination for the role in the movie also featuring Sebastian Stan, Toby Kebbell and Tatiana Maslany.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: Chilling storyline? Check. Badass female lead. Check. Elements of crime and investigation? Check, check and check. Destroyer is a great alternative to those looking for something like Gone Girl.

Stream it on Hulu here.

Prisoners - HBO

What It’s About: Denis Villeneuve’s first American film that would later propel him into other projects like Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 and the upcoming adaptation of Dune is 2013’s Prisoners. It’s another must-see crime drama, but this time it centers on Hugh Jackman’s Keller Dover when his daughter and her friend goes missing and he takes it into his own hands as Jake Gyllenhaal’s Detective Loki also pursues leads such as Paul Dano’s Alex Jones.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: Although David Fincher makes different decisions, Denis Villenueve is a matched filmmaker with an inspired style to his work and Prisoners is a fascinating and brutal approach to the genre.

Stream it on HBO here.

Widows - Cinemax

What It’s About: Steve McQueen’s Widows is a gritty take on an ‘80s television series of the same name. It’s about the wives of criminals who die during their last job and they are left to pick up the pieces. The “widows” are made up of Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo and they are suddenly haunted by Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya’s characters who have come to collect. The women decide to stage criminal activity of their own to pay up.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: This is another instance of an incredible filmmaker moving to crime drama to amazing results. Steve McQueen made this right after 12 Years A Slave won best picture and Gone Girl novelist/screenwriter Gillian Flynn co-wrote Widows with McQueen.

Stream it on Cinemax here.

Fight Club - HBO

What It’s About: First rule of Fight Club is no one talks about it, so I’m technically obligated not to tell you about it but I’ll make an exception here. Brad Pitt is in his prime in his absolute classic role as Tyler with Edward Norton who form an underground fist fight club together until it evolves into a much bigger monster and grows out of control.

Why Gone Girl Fans Will Like It: If you somehow came across Gone Girl before Fight Club, it’s David Fincher’s second movie and his most famous to date. It’s always fun to look back at the film that kind of started it all for him and this is it.

Stream it on HBO here.

And as a small bonus, check out the six-episode mini documentary series The Murder of Laci Peterson available on Hulu here. Since it came out back in 2017, viewers have noticed quite a few comparisons between the cases leading some to believe it’s the source of inspiration for the original novel (it’s not though). Otherwise happy streaming! Enjoy this thrilling selection of movies you’ll enjoy if you’re a fan of Gone Girl.

The 2011 feature The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was intended to launch a film series based off the Millennium book series, which was created by Stieg Larsson and is now being written by David Lagercrantz. Had things gone according to plan, the next movie up would have been The Girl Who Played with Fire, but due to behind-the-scenes delays, that sequel was cancelled. Now the Millennium film series is picking back up again with The Girl in the Spider's Web, and it was announced today that Logan's Stephen Merchant and Black Widows' Synnøve Macody Lund have joined the adaptation's cast.

Rather than completely reboot the Millennium film series, The Girl in the Spider's Web will continue where The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo left off, albeit with a brand new cast. Stephen Merchant and Synnøve Macody Lund are the latest actors to be added to the group, though Variety didn't learn any details about who they will play. The Girl in the Spider's Web's cast also includes Claire Foy taking over from Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, Sverrir Gudanson succeeding Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomqvist, Sylvia Hoeks as Camilla Salander, Lakeith Stansfield as Alona Casales, Claes Bang as the main villain and Cameron Britton as one of Lisbeth's "close associates."

Primarily known for his comedic works like The Office (the original one) and Extras, Stephen Merchant delved into drama last year when he played Caliban in Logan, Hugh Jackman's final outing as Wolverine. 2017 also saw him appearing in Table 19, and additionally, he was supposed to cameo in Beauty and the Beast, but his appearance was deleted. Merchant's other upcoming projects include Sherlock Gnomes and Fighting with My Family, the latter of which he also directed. As for Synnøve Macody Lund (who was originally a film critic and journalist), she's primarily known for her work on Nordic productions like the TV shows Black Widows and Acquitted, as well as the movie Haunted, so The Girl in the Spider's Web will introduce her to a lot of American moviegoers.

Directed by Don't Breathe's Fede Álvarez and written by Steven Knight, The Girl in the Spider's Web will follow Lisbeth Slander and Mikael Blomqvist as they get caught up in a web (get it?) of spies, cyber criminals (known collectively as The Spider Society) and corrupt government officials. Pretty standard really, given the adventures these two have had before on the printed page.

The Girl in the Spider's Web will be released in theaters on November 9 (putting it in competition with The Grinch that opening weekend), so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news about the project. You can also look through our 2018 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out later this year.

The follow up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on the way, but it's going to need a whole new cast, and now they've found somebody to replace Daniel Craig in his key role. Craig had previously played the role of Mikael Blomquist in the English language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but when The Girl in the Spider's Web debuts that part will reportedly be played by Borg/McEnroe's Sverrir Gudnason.

Sverrir Gudnason has mostly been making films in his native Sweden since beginning his career in the late 1990s. However, he recently came onto the scene in America playing tennis great Bjorn Borg opposite Shia Lebeouf in the tennis drama Borg/McEnroe. According to Variety, Gudnason will star opposite Claire Foy in the other major role for The Girl in the Spider's Web, that of Lisbeth Salander. Foy takes over her role from Rooney Mara.

David Fincher's Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was one of those movies that was reasonably successful, but not enough so to automatically greenlight a sequel. The follow-ups languished in development hell, always as a possibility, but never really moving forward. That changed recently when the decision was made to jump forward and base the next film on the first book not written by original author Stieg Larsson. In addition to not filming versions of Larsson's other books, it was decided to recast the characters. As such, the new film seems to be acting as a reboot as much as it is a sequel. Rooney Mara has gone on record to say she's disappointed she wasn't asked back to reprise her role as Lisbeth Salander. It's unlikely Daniel Craig feels the same way.

The Girl in the Spider's Web is being directed by Fede Alvarez who recently helmed the impressive Don't Breathe as well as the remake of The Evil Dead. The sequel is set for release in October of 2018 which means the movie is probably looking to head into production soon. Now that they've cast that missing key role, we'd expect to see this one go before the cameras soon.

While Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy was incredibly popular around the time of the last movie, that heat has certainly cooled over the years. It will be interesting to see if audiences are still interested in the adventures of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomquist. It's possible that enough time has passed that fans are ready to be excited again, it's also possible that people have sort of forgotten about this particular series.

The Girl in the Spider's Web will hit screens October 5, 2018. Check out everything we know about the new movie in order to stay up to date.

After a seven-year absence from the silver screen, Lisbeth Salander will return in all of her punk glory next year in The Girl in the Spider's Web. However, the franchise is making a big jump -- moving away from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo actress Rooney Mara's portrayal in the 2011 film and replacing her with The Crown's Claire Foy. As it turns out, the break wasn't entirely mutual, as Mara reportedly wanted to come back and take another shot at Ms. Salander. The actress opened up ahead of the release of her new film, Una, and said:

Though the film received a warm welcome from critics when it debuted back in 2011, David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo wasn't necessarily a commercial smash. As a result, Sony put the franchise on ice for several years, ultimately deciding to move forward with The Girl in the Spider's Web -- which is not a direct sequel to Dragon Tattoo. Don't Breathe's Fede Alvarez was brought in to replace the Zodiac director behind the camera, and now it very much feels like Sony is more or less starting from scratch, despite Rooney Mara telling Yahoo Movies she would have returned.

Of course, it's also worth mentioning that Rooney Mara doesn't hold ownership over the role (which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nod in 2012). She inherited the part of Lisbeth Salander from Prometheus star Noomi Rapace, who portrayed the character in three Swedish-language films inspired by the Millennium trilogy. With Claire Foy about to step in for Mara, there's a case one can make that the role of Salander is almost becoming James Bond-esque.

Despite her desire to return to the role of Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara also recognizes the fact working on The Girl in the Spider's Web wouldn't be the same experience as Dragon Tattoo. She also explained:

With David Fincher no longer attached to the franchise as its director, and the fact that the source material was not even written by the late Stieg Larsson, a palpable sense of distance has been created between Mara and the property. Though she apparently would love to return to play the tech-savvy heroine to round out the originally-planned trilogy, many of the original elements wouldn't fall into place.

Fede Alvarez's The Girl in the Spider's Web will debut in theaters next year on October 19, 2018. Looking beyond the next installment in the Millennium series, take a look at our 2018 movie premiere guide for more information on everything else that's going to debut next year, and check out Rooney Mara in Una, which opens on October 6.

The news that the follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is on the way is likely great news to fans of the first film. However, the fact that the sequel will have an all-new cast has folks wondering who could step into the boots of Lizbeth Salander. According to a new report, there are two big names being floated around as possible replacements for Rooney Mara. One is Natalie Portman and the other is Scarlett Johansson.

It appears that Scarlett Johannson and Natalie Portman are "among the names" being considered for the role, so it would appear that there are several actresses currently being looked at, with these two likely floating to the top due to their existing star power. The rest of the names might be names we know but they could just as easily not be.

It will be interesting to see what sort of a direction they go with the role. Rooney Mara was far from a household name when she was cast as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was a breakout role for the young actress. However, it's possible the new version, being helmed by Fede Alvarez who is officially on board as director, will be looking to cast the male and female leads with more established names.

Scarlett Johansson was actually in the running to play Lisbeth Salander the last time around but lost the role to Rooney Mara. According to Variety, the main reason for her interest was a desire to work for director David Fincher, so it's possible she'll be less interested in playing the role now, unless she's a big Fede Alverez fan. Of course, she's probably a Fede Alvarez fan. Who isn't?

Natalie Portman, on the other hand, is entirely new to the discussion as far as we know. With her most recent role being in the biopic Jackie she may not be the first actress you'd think of to play a role like this, but she certainly has the range and the ability. In its own way, The Girl in the Spider's Web could end up being something dark and sinister, like Black Swan, but with less ballet dancing and more computer hacking.

With a release date of the fall of 2018 already set for the new movie a casting decision probably isn't too far away. In addition to the role of Lisbeth Salander, they'll also need to cast a new Mikael Blomkvist. The part was played by Daniel Craig but he also will not be back for the sequel.

Steig Larsson's Millenium Trilogy was an immensely popular series of books that seemed destined for the screen. Unfortunately, the series stalled after the first Hollywood adaptation. However, the characters look to be on their way back to the big screen now that a director has been hired for the next film. Following the news that Don't Breathe director Fede Alvarez was in talks to helm the movie, it now appears that a deal has been reached.

The status of any sequels to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hasn't been very clear for quite some time. The American version of the film starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara failed to find an audience at the box office and didn't put up the numbers the studio was expecting, especially considering the popularity of the novels at the time. While talk of filming the follow-ups, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest never really died off, they also never really went anywhere. Now, it appears they're moving forward with the plan of making the next sequel based on the first book written after the original author's death. David Lagercrantz has taken over the trilogy and written The Girl in the Spider's Web.

Fede Alvarez has been cutting his teeth on straight horror of late, being responsible for the recent remake of Evil Dead as well as the popular Don't Breathe. Alvarez confirmed to Coming Soon that The Girl with the Spider's Web will be his next film, ahead of an anticipated sequel to Don't Breathe.

Now that the movie has a director, we have to wonder if the film has a cast. While the two lead roles, of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, have been portrayed on screen, it was back in 2011 and considering that film didn't do as expected, it's possible that the reason that Sony is leapfrogging a couple of stories is to give the franchise some breathing room and start from scratch. Rooney Mara has expressed interest in returning to play Salander on multiple occasions, so she'll be there if they want her, though even Mara seems to know that's unlikely. Daniel Craig seems less likely, there were apparently some concerns regarding money with the original film. If they could get both actors back there could be some hope of making The Girl with the Spider's Web a true sequel, but if not it's very likely they'll call this a reboot of the franchise and start over.

Would you like to see a true sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or is now a good time to start fresh? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Five years ago, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was supposed to be the next big literary adaptation on the block. With a hot best-selling series of novels to draw from, and stars like Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara in the leads, Sony was hoping director David Fincher's version of the Swedish hit would set the world on fire, thus leading to an easy greenlight for the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire. Judging how we've just gotten word that the series may be resurrected, with Don't Breathe director Fede Alvarez in talks for the directing position, it seems like the sequel is less than a fire and more of an ember, waiting to catch.

Variety ran the exclusive that named Alvarez as the candidate for the job, although those of you hoping the second entry in Stieg Larson's Millennium series would be hitting the big screen are going to be somewhat disappointed. Apparently, much like Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series before it, Sony is skipping over two of the books in the series and adapting the latest book, The Girl in the Spider's Web. Written by David Lagercrantz, the book involves Mikael Blomqvist's reporting of a brilliant computer scientist who's under threat... by an organization Lisbeth Salander is working with in order to find someone from her past.

This news couldn't have come at a more appropriate time, as Rooney Mara had recently gone on record as stating that she had given up hope on ever performing as Lisbeth Salander again. While she's certainly open to reprising her role from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, there's no word on whether Sony will be offering her the role again, or if they'll be looking to start with a fresh cast in the roles of both the titular girl and her compatriot, Mikael. Though if we were to place a bet on whether Mara, or her fellow Dragon co-star Daniel Craig would be the first to return, then our money's on Mara.

As far as series continuity is concerned, the original plan to produce The Girl Who Played With Fire had the film departing severely from the version of events that the novel depicted. With that project now probably scrapped, or at least put on hold in favor of The Girl in the Spider's Web, the focus on the here and now is clearly the focus of Sony's efforts to resurrect the Millennium series of films. Nowhere is that more present than in the possible hiring of Fede Alvarez, who delivered the studio a sleeper horror hit with August's Don't Breathe.

Seeing as his directing chops show the ability to handle both tension and the horror of humanity's hidden evils, Alvarez is a pretty fitting hire to direct The Girl in the Spider's Web. Though everyone said the same thing about David Fincher when he was hired to kick off the series with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and we all remember how well that worked out. We'll see if The Girl in the Spider's Web takes off faster than The Girl Who Played With Fire ever did, as we'll be keeping our ears open for updates and reporting back to you as soon as the develop.

2011's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was certainly not a bomb by any stretch of the imagination. However, considering all of the hype that surrounded the American film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's red-hot literary phenomenon, its end result was more tepid than anything else. This has lead to the ever-dragging path to any possible chance of the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire, being adapted, and that film's potential star, Rooney Mara, is eager to get back into the world of Lisbeth Salander. However, even she knows that it's probably not happening, and she's officially given up hope that it will.

ScreenDaily caught up with the Academy Award nominated actor, who currently has a couple of films buzzing after their Toronto International Film Festival debut. While Mara's career has only grown and flourished since her stint in David Fincher's care, she's still pretty down about the chances of re-teaming for Lisbeth's further adventures. In fact, Rooney Mara was pretty point blank with her feelings, as she said the following when asked if she'd return for The Girl Who Played With Fire:

In the years since The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo's somewhat underwhelming release, Rooney Mara certainly hasn't been hurting for awesome opportunities. With triumphs like Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Her and her most recent award nominated performance in Carol, as well as the occasional miss such as last year's flop Pan, Mara's resume is an extremely diverse animal. However, we're not surprised that her role as the vengeful hacker-turned-sleuth Lisbeth Salander still has some sort of hold on her. It only takes another look at the trailer that entranced the internet five years ago to see why.

Are we disappointed that The Girl Who Played With Fire isn't coming any time soon? To be perfectly honest, it's been so long since we've seen the first film that we're not entirely sure. What does disappoint us is the fact that Rooney Mara has lost hope in a project she actually looks forward to. Still, with the work she's turned in through the years between now and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, we're certainly not disappointed in what we've seen of her.

You'll be able to see quite a bit of Rooney Mara, as she has Una, The Secret Scripture and Lion all awaiting release in the coming months.

Earlier this month, a surprising report made the rounds regarding the Dragon Tattoo franchise. With David Fincher’s 2011 adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel being considered a disappointment, the story suggested that the series is going in a different direction moving forward, with Alicia Vikander potentially replacing Rooney Mara in the lead role of Lisbeth Salander. But while that’s the narrative that’s spreading around, things don’t quite seem to be set in stone.

Yesterday morning, I attended a Los Angeles press event for the upcoming Todd Haynes drama Carol, and it was while talking with Rooney Mara that I took the opportunity to ask about her future as the aforementioned goth-styled introverted computer genius. Noting the news about The Girl In The Spider’s Web moving forward, I asked if she had been approached by the studio about reprising Lisbeth Salander. It turns out that she really doesn’t know much about it all, but fully expects to play the part again if a new film is made. She explained,

You can watch Rooney Mara's response in the video below:

Unlike the original "Millennium trilogy" of novels, The Girl In The Spider's Web is the only book in the series not to be written by Steig Larsson - as the author died back in 2004 (all three original stories were published posthumously). The story brings back both Lisbeth Salander as well as Mikael Blomkvist, who was played by Daniel Craig in David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo adaptation. At this time, it doesn’t look like the actor best known as James Bond will be reprising the role.

Personally, I think that the idea of replacing Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander is ridiculous – especially considering she’s seems very willing to do it (and is under contract). She was absolutely the best part of the film, fully embodying the character and melting into the role, and the clear proof of that is the fact that she was rewarded with an Academy Award nomination. It’s understandable when a director doesn’t return for a sequel, but to replace the lead actress in this case would be a mistake (even if the replacement is someone as talented as Alicia Vikander).

What do you think about this? Would you like to see Rooney Mara return as Lisbeth Salander, or should the roll be passed along for The Girl In The Spider’s Web? Hit the comments below with your thoughts.

It’s now been 4 years since David Fincher’s re-imagining of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. The film was met with generally favorable reviews, but its $232.6 million return from a $90 million budget meant that the intended sequels soon took a step backwards. However, Rooney Mara is still very much interested in playing the character of Lisbeth Salander again, though she admits that she’s had to quell her expectations that the films will actually happen.

I spoke to Rooney Mara today about her role as Tiger Lily in Pan. I was intrigued to find out about the future of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, especially since there had been speculation earlier this summer that the second and third books could be merged together to make a single film. Mara admitted that she hadn’t actually heard this particular rumor regarding the future of the films, though she insisted that she’d love the opportunity to play the computer hacker again. Mara said:

After the release of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, writer Steve Zallian originally had a whack at the follow-up, but then Se7en’s Andrew Kevin Walker was hired to re-write the script. Since then though there has pretty much just been silence.

That was until earlier this year, when it was teased that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’s sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest, might be merged together. But it was also suggested that legendary director David Fincher would be kicked to the curb in order to make way for a more populist, less expensive filmmaker.

Obviously, any film that loses David Fincher is immediately at a disadvantage. But the more you think about it, it would actually make sense for the studio to come to this decision, as his darker tone doesn’t usually chime with mainstream audiences. If Fincher does actually drop out of the potential Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films, it will be interesting to see if Rooney Mara continued.

Mara’s career hit a new level after she starred in The Social Network, and after leading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opposite Daniel Craig, she was propelled even higher up the Hollywood star system. David Fincher directed both of those films.

The relatively low box office return means that Columbia and MGM were always likely to make different creative decisions in order to try and appeal to as wide a demographic as possible. But since so much time has passed now, it’s looking more and more unlikely that the films are actually going to get made at all.

Despite being based on a massively popular series of novels, David Fincher’s 2011 adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo underperformed. It still made $232 million worldwide, but expectations were through the roof. Since then, there’s been a great deal of talk about whether or not we’ll see the rest of the novels on screen, but now it looks like Sony has a plan in place.

Hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander will be back on the page later this year, with author David Lagercrantz picking up the mantel of the Millennium series in the wake of Larsson’s death with The Girl in the Spider’s Web. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this new chapter figures into Sony’s strategy for the franchise. The current idea is to combine the second and third books—The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest—into a single film, with Spider’s Web rounding out the cinematic trilogy. As far as this goes, however, there is some dissention in the ranks.

Fincher’s film had a $90 million budget, and the current plan is to make the next two films, including the condensed middle chapter, both without him and for significantly less money. Amy Pascal, the former head of Sony who negotiated the rights to Larsson’s books, and who is a producer on the project, is not a fan of this approach. A big part of her reluctance is the fact that combining the two books nullifies the Steve Zaillian script they already have for Fire, which reportedly cost seven figures.

Another hurdle is whether or not Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, the stars of the first film, will be back. Mara plays the tattooed, pierced, black-wearing computer savant Lisbeth, who helps Craig’s Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist searching for a woman who has been missing for 40 years. Craig is busy holding up another franchise with James Bond, among other projects (he also reportedly wants a raise), and Mara said, as recently as February, that she doesn’t expect to be back.

Even if the American versions never get off the ground again, there are the Swedish adaptations of Larsson’s three books for fans. There are a great many folks out there who prefer them to Fincher’s film (though this is one of the instances where I actually like the remake more), but they’re largely responsible for showing the world outside of Sweden what Noomi Rapace is capable of.

Whether or not The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo franchise continues is going to be interesting to watch. They can certainly make solid crime thriller for less than $90 million, but without Fincher, and combining two long novels (both hover around 800 pages) into one movie, it feels like there is going to be something missing. I’m not the biggest fan of the books (this is a case where I think the movies are better than the books), but Fincher brought such a slick cool and put his own stamp on the material, it’s hard to imagine anything else being more than a pale imitation. But maybe I’m being pessimistic.

Did you see the poster for Eli Roth’s new movie that got banned in Italy? It’s unclear exactly why the Italians considered it so far over the line, but then again, movie posters are banned for a wide variety of reasons that aren’t exactly clear.

From including too much nipple to manipulating stuffed animals into getting busy to scary the living hell out of children, there are a lot of things movie posters can do to catch the ire of the Motion Picture Association of America. So, let’s take a fond look back. Let’s look at the 10 greatest banned movie posters of all-time.

Warning: The MPAA would have you believe all of this content is NSFW. If you’re at work, view at your own risk…

#10) Teeth

I get why the MPAA thought children would be confused and uncomfortable with this anatomically bizarre Teeth poster, but the great thing about it is how clearly it lets fans know whether or not they can handle the movie. If you can look at that poster and think, "Yeah, I want to go on this journey", then you’re going to have a great time. If you look at it and can’t stop thinking about how terrifying those vaginal teeth are, then it’s best to stay away.

#9) The People Vs Larry Flynt

If nothing else, this poster should make everyone fall in love with Woody Harrelson. That dude goes for it. There’s almost no situation you could put him in where he would be unwilling to put it all on the line for the character. He’s awesome in The People vs Larry Flynt, and he’s damn good in this poster as a scantily clad anti-hero who spends his days wrapped in the American flag and getting up close and personal with mystery vaginas.

#8) Sin City 2

It was a little bit silly to ban this poster, especially considering the fix was just to turn down the volume on the see-through nipple action a little bit, but that’s just where we’re at in America. Regardless, I think we can all admit what’s happening here, nipple or not, is pretty hot. Something tells me that’s exactly what the marketing team was going for. Well, that and perhaps a little bit of controversy. Nothing gathers a crowd quicker than the phrase "excessive nudity".

#7) Zack And Miri Make A Porno

The great thing about this poster is how safe for work it is. In fact, I’ll come right and say it was BS this got banned. Anyone who shouldn’t know what’s going on in this poster, isn’t going to know what’s going on, and anyone who can figure out what’s happening is old enough to not be scarred by the implication of oral sex. Besides, there’s exactly the right level of head here in which a casual glance might not even register what’s going on. I love it. And that pun WAS intended.

#6) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I love the complicated use of letters/ numbers and shading in order to keep this poster from being WAY over the line, but in all honesty, there’s no way this ever would have made it in the United States. We’re not even comfortable with the hint of Eva Green’s nipples in Sin City 2. Hint of nipple rings? No way. Absolutely not, lest we wind up with a line of ten-year-old boys at every theater in the country pretending to not look, while obsessively walking past the poster over and over again.

#5) Saw II

There are a ton of gross-out horror posters, and most of them don’t impress me. I’m just not a huge fan of slapping gross crap on some marketing material and trying to ruin everyone’s afternoons. This Saw 2 poster, however, has some art to it. The severed fingers are used in a clever way, and it’s not knee-jerk terrifying. It’s only gross when you examine it closely and realize the digits aren’t protruding out of the snow. They’ve been full-on chopped off, probably by Jigsaw. Or former MPAA head Jack Valenti.

#4) Shame

No one wants to look at semen. I realize there are all sorts of people into some weird shit, but I’m not even sure looking at ejaculated semen is a fetish anyone has. It’s creepy, weird, uncomfortable and in no way appropriate for children. That being said, I love the creativity here. These people probably thought, since it was under the table graphic, that they could get away with it. No dice. You can use pretty much any font you want to write Shame. Times New Roman. Even Comic Sans. But ejaculate just doesn’t work, probably since it's not a real font.

#3) Thirst

The best thing about this poster is how utterly confusing it is. Where does he end and she begin? Is she wiggling between his legs? If so, why isn’t his torso longer? Also, is he into this choking as some kind of weird sex play or is he about to die? His eyes certainly don’t look good, but that might just be an unusual O-face. Regardless, you can definitely tell this poster was made by the type of genuine weirdo who would be capable of something as cool as Stoker.

#2) Ali G Indahouse

This poster is utterly tasteless. It’s the type of thing a middle school boy would fantasize about. It’s cleverly edited in such a way that it’s not graphic, but its implication is somehow even dirtier. It’s like she’s being used for his own benefit. Thus, it’s perfect for the Ali G Movie, which is all about one douche bag’s dream of doing douche bag things. Obviously, Sasha Baron Cohen would go on to do bigger and more successful things, but thankfully, he didn’t lose his ability to offend.

#1) Rules Of Attraction

You don’t need severed fingers to cause a scene. You don’t need nipples either. Instead, as this poster proves, you only need a willingness to go shocking places others won’t. In this case, that’s done by taking some loveable stuffed animals and dropping them in as many sexually graphic positions as possible. It’s knee-jerk funny, incredibly sophomoric and completely perfect for the movie it’s advertising. That’s why this Rules Of Attraction artwork is the greatest banned movie poster ever.

It’s a great question: Why haven’t we heard news about The Girl Who Played With Fire?

David Fincher’s English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo seemed to kick-start a new trilogy, this one with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig in the key lead roles. Tattoo banked $233 million worldwide, which is very good (but not enough to guarantee a sequel). And the director has expressed interest in coming back for at least the second chapter in this trilogy.

So what’s the hold up?

THR is gently pointing its finger at Craig, who the trade says “want(s) a pay raise, not a cut, in the wake of Skyfall grossing $1 billion worldwide.” Makes sense, only Sony seems to sense a ceiling to the amount of money these Larsson adaptation can make and is looking to reduce costs, not increase them. As a result, Craig’s character in the movie – journalist Mikael Blomkvist – might be erased from screenwriter Steven Zaillian’s treatment of the sequel.

Of course, this is possible given the fact that Mara’s character, Lisbeth Salander, is the greater focus of Played with Fire, though Blomkvist plays an important part of the narrative, and it would be awkward if Craig suddenly were removed from the action. At the same time, Mara’s a bigger star now than she was when Dragon Tattoo opened in 2011. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance as Lisbeth, and she’s probably capable of carrying the sequel. So while Fincher’s name recently has been attached to an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best seller Gone Girl, sources say the director still wants to make Played With Fire, and this story’s far from over.

Those hoping to see a follow-up to the 2011 murder mystery The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo may eventually get their wish. But from what's being reported, it doesn't sound like it's going to happen any time in the near future. On the bright side, there is still reportedly a script in the works.

Based on Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was the adaptation of the first book in the series, and starred Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig as a journalist and a computer hacker who team up to solve a murder. Since its release in 2011, fans have been waiting for word on the adaptation of the next book. The Girl Who Played with Fire, which has Lisbeth set as a suspect to the murder of two reporters. Entertainment Weekly posted the latest update on the project, stating that a source close to the production says Steven Zaillian is still working on the script and that things won't move forward until the screenplay is finished. There's no confirmation on whether or not David Fincher will return to direct, but EW says he's still first choice and "hasn't ruled out returning."

At this point, it sounds like the schedule for production is undetermined, but fans shouldn't expect it to arrive in theaters next year, as was hoped. Still, EW's sources sound confident that the movie will eventually get made. And hopefully when the time comes, Mara and Craig will be available and on board to return.

For those fans who haven't seen it already and aren't averse to subtitles, Netflix has the Swedish adaptation of The Girl Who Played with Fire available streaming.

David Fincher’s take on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo recently arrived on DVD and Blu-ray backed by five Oscar nominations (including a Best Actress nom for Rooney Mara) and one Oscar win for film editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter. But a new headline is dogging the production, one that suggests MGM took a significant financial hit on the remake.

MGM Holdings CEO Gary Barber told investors (via Deadline) that the studio - which co-financed the production with Sony- "booked a modest loss" on Dragon, which has banked roughly $231M at the worldwide box office. "It is below our expectations," Barber explained, estimating that executives within the company "were hoping we’d do 10% more than we did."

As for the proposed sequels, Barber said that MGM – which retains the option to co-finance with Sony once again – is interested in a partnership "assuming we can achieve better economics."

The Deadline report goes on the map out MGM’s financial partnerships with other studios on projects like 21 Jump Street and The Hobbit, but we’re keeping our focus on the two Tattoo sequels. The proverbial "belt" might have to be tightened to better meet diminished expectations for adaptations of Steig Larsson’s second and third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest and The Girl Who Played with Fire. Reports at the time of Dragon's release suggested that Mara and Daniel Craig locked in for sequels, but Fincher had not, and might not be interested in the time commitment if he has to scale down his vision for financial reasons.

There’s no reason to think Sony wouldn’t move forward with Dragon Tattoo follow-ups. The film was successful enough, it seems, and the Oscar recognition only helps a studio when they are contemplating the strength of a franchise. But the remaining two films might now be as polished … which, come to think of it, might fit Larsson’s material even better.

As I’m sure you are aware, the Academy Awards were held tonight and some of the best movies of 2011 were awarded Oscars for their achievements. But the timespan between January 1st and December 31st is a long there are new movies being released every single weekend. As a result, there’s a good chance that a) you might not have seen every title that won an award tonight and/or b) you might have missed our coverage of said title. Well, you’re in luck.

I have taken it upon myself to dig through the Cinema Blend archives and pull out every review, interview, feature and editorial we published for all of the films that were declared winners this evening. Below you will find coverage ranging from an interview with Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin from The Artist to a feature in which the entire staff got together and ranked the top 25 Muppets. Get caught up with all the Oscar winners right here!

NOTE: While we here at Cinema Blend do everything we can to cover absolutely every movie out there, there were two feature films that won Oscars tonight that we sadly did not have the chance to cover. While the rest of the titles are here, sadly we were unable to review both The Iron Lady and A Separation. Enjoy the rest of the movies, though!

The Artist

The Artist Star Jean Dujardin On How Gene Kelly Inspired His Work

The Artist Director Michel Hazanavicius On The Hit Silent Film Nobody Wanted Him To Make

Review: The Artist

For Your Consideration: The Artist Is More Than Just A Simple Crowdpleaser

Hugo

Hugo Producer Graham King On 3D And Johnny Depp's Attempted Cameo

Hugo Star Asa Butterfield Reveals The Scorsese Movies He's Still Not Allowed To Watch

Scorsese's Hugo, Even Unfinished, May Be The Best Live-Action 3D Film Ever

To 3D Or Not To 3D: Buy The Right Hugo Ticket

Operation Kino Podcast #38: The Muppets And Hugo Reviewed

Review: Hugo

For Your Consideration: As A True Love Letter To Cinema, Hugo Should Be King

The Help

Exclusive Interview: The Help Director Tate Taylor

Exclusive: Chris Columbus Explains What To Expect From The Help, And How Gwen Stacy Changed His Life

Cinema Con: The Help Brings History, Humor, And Female Strength To Summer Movie Season

The Help Set Visit: Talking Accents And Heat With Emma Stone On Location In The Deep South

Talking To Viola Davis And Octavia Spencer On The Mississippi Set Of The Help

Talking To Bryce Dallas Howard And Director Tate Taylor On The Set Of The Help

Review: The Help

The Help Director Tate Taylor Talks His Golden Globe-Nominated Hit

For Your Consideration: The Help Is Heritage Not Defined By Hate

Midnight in Paris

From New York To London To Paris: Why I Wish Woody Allen Would Comment On My Town

Interview: Woody Allen Talks Europe, New York And Missing Baseball For Midnight In Paris

Review: Midnight In Paris

For Your Consideration: Midnight In Paris Is The Best Picture Nominee That Gets Nostalgia Right

The Descendants

The Descendants Director Alexander Payne On Casting Clooney And Hawaii Locations

The Descendants Breakout Star Shailene Woodley Reveals What George Clooney Has Taught Her

Judy Greer On Getting Starstruck And Fighting For A Dramatic Role In The Descendants

Toronto Film Festival Video Blog #2: Double Clooney For Ides Of March And The Descendants

Review: The Descendants

For Your Consideration: The Descendants Is The Best Picture That's Hollywood Drama At Its Best

The Muppets

Director James Bobin Talks About What Makes The Muppets So Delightful

The Muppets Are Back! So What Happens Next?

The Muppets Co-Writer Nicholas Stoller Talks About Where It All Began

Bret McKenzie Talks Pressure Of Making Muppet Movie Music

Operation Kino Podcast #38: The Muppets And Hugo Reviewed

The Top 25 Muppets In History, Ranked

Review: The Muppets

Beginners

Interview: Melanie Laurent Makes Her Big American Leap With Beginners

Review: Beginners

Rango

Rango Preview: Gore Verbinski's Animated Western Looks Weird And Suprisingly Funny

Exclusive Interview: Rango Director Gore Verbinski

Review: Rango

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

A Detailed Discussion Of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo With Screenwriter Steven Zaillian

Operation Kino Podcast #42: Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Reviewed And 2012 Trailers Discussed

8 Biggest Differences Between The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Book And Movie

The Five Most Common Misconceptions About David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Dragon Tattoo Star Rooney Mara Talks On-Set Bruises And Becoming Lisbeth Salander

Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo

Alternate Take Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo

Undefeated

Review: Undefeated

There is a lot of harsh content in David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. There are scenes of brutal violence, rape, torture, nudity and everything else that the MPAA tries to shield from us on a daily basis. Somewhat surprisingly, though, the ratings board never even threatened to slap the movie with the dreaded NC-17, which would have forced the director to make cuts and edits that weren't part of his original vision. But while things worked out great here in the United States, the folks over in India aren't seeing the movie in the same light and now they won't be seeing the movie at all.

Though the film was originally going to be released in the country this month, it was delayed until February when the India's Central Board of Film Certification (also known as the Censor Board - and that's not me being glib) decided that the movie contained too much nudity - five scenes to be exact. Now, according to Variety, distribution has been cancelled entirely because David Fincher refuses to cut the film. A spokesperson for Columbia Pictures in India said, "The Censor Board has adjudged the film unsuitable for public viewing in its unaltered form and, while we are committed to maintaining and protecting the vision of the director, we will, as always, respect the guidelines set by the board." The trade says that normally nude scenes are simply blurred out, but the Censor Board specifically asked that scenes be cut out.

This is artistic integrity at its best. David Fincher made The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo the way that he meant it to be seen and it's great to hear that the studio has his back. It's a shame that the people of India won't be able to see the movie, but perhaps they will find access to it another way.

There's a lot of David Fincher news going around this morning, including the fact that he was just nominated for a Directors Guild award for his work on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But we've always got our eye on the future, so we're more concerned about Sony's plans to go forward with the Dragon Tattoo sequel this year, even though Fincher may not be on board. To go over Fincher's options and the fact that he might make his 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie instead, Sean O'Connell and Katey Rich jumped on gchat and talked it out. Katey wonders how this is the same Fincher who made Fight Club, Sean has some out-of-the-box suggestions to direct the next two Dragon Tattoo movies, and both of them just want to see where the stories go from here. Check out the conversation below.

KATEY: So Sean, we've both read this Playlist article that speculates David Fincher probably won't do the Dragon Tattoo sequels. And I think you and I were both hoping he would stick with them, am I right?

?SEAN?: Well, I'm honestly split, Katey. I mean, I wasn't thrilled that he took on Dragon Tattoo in the first place, but now that he has launched the trilogy, I think he should have right of first refusal on the sequels.

?KATEY?: I would imagine he does, but from the sounds of it he squabbled so much with the studio and Scott Rudin that he might not want to. And while I think Fincher working under duress is no good, I was intrigued by what he might do with the expanded story-- and I really thought he was interested in it too.

?SEAN?: Here's my stance. I always want to see David Fincher tackling original, creative and challenging projects. Even though Benjamin Button didn't connect with as many viewers as I'd hoped, I still think what he risked with that story was fascinating. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like Fincher's that interested in originality even if he doesn't tackle the next two Stieg Larsson adaptations. I mean, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea doesn't really light my fire.

?KATEY?: Yeah, that's my thing exactly. He's swapping in a franchise for a remake of a cheesy old Hollywood movie-- how is this the David Fincher we know? Do we think he's just doing 20,000 Leagues for the technology stuff?

?SEAN?: No, Fincher's not Cameron. He doesn't get geeked by the latest tech toys. As you heard him say during the Tattoo interviews, it's ALL about character, and so there has to be a theme in the original Leagues text that he's sinking his teeth into. Back to the Larsson trilogy, though. Do you think it's imperative that they keep the same voice, a la Peter Jackson and his LOTR trilogy. Or can the text benefit from fresh eyes, like the Harry Potter franchise?

?KATEY?: I think the Harry Potter example is more apt, especially since the second two books are so different from the first. I would love to have seen Fincher's tone and vision of this world continue, but if they keep Mara, that's probably the most important thing. For the second two you really need someone with more of an interest in government and politics, and I'm not sure Fincher is that guy. But, who is? Do you have any suggestions of replacements?

?SEAN?: Yes. And they are both women. Hand the keys over to Lynne Ramsay. She deserves a boost after We Need To Talk About Kevin. And this is a chance to work on a "franchise" without selling out. Or, find Mary Harron. I'm not sure what she last worked on, but her American Psycho proved she can adapt a difficult text and go to very dark paces (when needed). How about you? Any thoughts?

?KATEY?: Wow, I love that you went totally outside the box with both of those. But apparently Mary Harron's last movie debuted at Toronto to awful reviews, so I'm not sure she's your pick. I'm not sure I have specific directors in mind, but I hope they choose someone with the right influences in mind-- Dragon Tattoo is a lurid thriller, but the follow-ups need to be more in the style of All The President's Men or Network. It's all about large conspiracy and bad guys operating on a larger scale, not one creep in his sex dungeon. So while we hand the keys over to others, do you have any specific wishes for Fincher? Do any of his gestating projects excite you in particular?

?SEAN?: You know, I'll always be excited for Fincher. And the funny thing is, now that we can step back and look at his body of work with an eye on the bigger picture, he really does just choose genre pictures. Panic Room and Seven -- and even Fight Club -- are really neo-noir crime thrillers. He just brings such style and heft that we elevate him to another level. And so no matter what he does, it likely will be genius. Except for Cleopatra. He should leave that one alone.

?KATEY?: See, I was kind of curious about how he'd handle that! I don't necessarily want Fincher to stick with genre, but I do hope he avoids more projects like Benjamin Button, which just seemed really ill-suited to what he does best. Then again, so does 20,000 Leagues-- so maybe what I think Fincher is best at is pretty different from what he thinks.

?SEAN?: The more we try to figure him out, the more elusive he seems. I guess that's what I admire about him.

?KATEY?: OK Sean, I think we've officially set David Fincher straight-- since, of course, he's reading. Any final words for him or the Dragon Tattoo franchise as a whole?

?SEAN?: I wish I had something profound to say, but really, just keep making interesting movies, both Fincher and whomever has the unenviable task of filling his shoes on the Tattoo series!

?KATEY?: We're rooting for you, unknown replacement director!

"I've never done a project based on something as well-known as this." That might sound surprising coming from a screenwriter like Steven Zaillian, whose credits this year alone include an adaptation of the bestseller Moneyball, and also wrote the screenplays for American Gangster and Schindler's List. But The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is no ordinary book adaptation, based on the Stieg Larsson novel that has sold 65 million copies worldwide, and has already been adapted into a Swedish trilogy of films. And it's not just the popularity that made Dragon Tattoo a very different beast for Zaillain. As he put it:

When I talked to Zaillian last month, I wanted to get into the details of how he wrote a fairly faithful adaptation of Larsson's book, while also changing key details and working with David Fincher, the director who has openly said he doesn't care much at all about the mystery element of the story. Zaillian, on the other hand, said the mystery definitely interested him, and "I think that's why we complement each other well." Zaillian had completed a draft of the script before Fincher signed on, but together they had "many , many conversations" to hammer things out, including a focus on stripping the dialogue down to a bare minimum. For more on how Zaillian changed the story-- including a few POTENTIAL SPOILERS-- read ahead. The interview won't make much sense to you if you haven't read the book or seen the movie anyway, so pick this up once you've seen The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in theaters everywhere now.

If you want a more detailed discussion of the different versions of the story, read our full book to movie comparison.

There's so much dialogue in the book, even just with all the Vanger family tree stuff. How do you go about finding what the heart of the story is, and how to cut around it?

I've been doing it for a long time, so I think I have a sense of that. When I'm reading a book for the first time I'm trying to see the movie as a whole, and I'm trying to cut things as I go through it for the first time. I twas tricky with the family, because it's a big family, we want enough suspects in the thing so there's a little bit of mystery of who the bad guy is. So we worked on that quite a bit.

You keep in the Nazi stuff in the family history, which I found interesting. It could be considered tertiary.

Well I knew that I wanted a scene with [Blomkvist] at the end when he had to go into this guy's house [Harald Vanger] and ask for something, so the idea of knowing enough about that character, being this reclusive Nazi, was really there in order to set up that last scene. To have him come in and see these photographs and try to have a normal conversation with this guy.

When you looked at what family stuff to keep in, was it all about what would reflect on the people we actually see in the narrative?

Yeah, but again, you can't only focus on that. You need to have enough alternative suspects, so to speak. I think we actually trimmed out quite a lot of that, but at the end of the day you keep what you need and not what you want. Cecilia, if you read the book, has a much bigger part. If you ask me it's not much of a role. She sleeps with [Blomkvist] and has fights with him, they break up, they get together. To me that was an easy lift.

He sleeps with a lot of people in the book.

Yeah, it's crazy. It just doesn't seem right. That's funny for me to say, it worked great in the book, but I didn't think it was going to work in the movie.

It's so easy to see Blomkvist as an author surrogate. And the challenge you have in the movie is it has to be an omniscient narrator point of view. Was it tough to get the story out of his point of view?

Yeah, it does shift back and forth, the point of view. And it has to be balanced. If you look at the first half of the book, because they don't meet for the first half of the book, just like the movie, I would say that there's probably 70-30 in his favor, if you counted up the pages it's probably his story, and I knew that couldn't be. I knew we had to share the story 50-50 until they met. So more of his stuff came out than hers. All of her stuff stayed. There's certainly nothing that came out.

Well you took out her mom.

I'm going to put her in the second one.It was very tricky, because there is going to be a second one and a third one, and how much of the back story to dole out. We didn't feel it was really important in this one to know anything about her mother or father or anything. There was a lot of talk about "Do we reveal anything about why she was locked up from the time she was 12?" There's that little scene in the movie where they're in bed, when she explains what happens with her father, and it's almost thrown away-- they could be talking about the weather. And that's it, we're done with that.

Obviously her guardian is so important in the beginning. Were you worried that people would feel lost, wondering why she has that guardian?

I really feel that people need to know all the information they need by the end of the story, not by the beginning. I know that sooner or later Mikael is going to say, "So, why do you have a guardian? Why are you a ward of the state?" It will get answered. And that's something that I have been conscious of, when I do this, of not putting a bunch of back story into a film before we need it. Bring it out when we need it. Everybody doesn't have to know everything about a character when we meet them, they just have to know everything when it's over.

Have you now created more of a problem for yourself in exposition for the second one?

No. I don't even think they reveal as much as we did in the first one. I don't think she ever says in the first one what happened [when she attacked her father]. So we brought that up from the second one. And then there's all kinds of flashbacks and things in the second book, getting specific. And I'm sure if we do the second one it will get more specific.

Her back story is complicated, but the Wennerstrom stuff starts the book, and you're just thinking "For God's sake, can we get out of the legal system?" But you have to keep him--

You don't have to keep him, by the way. I like keeping him, but you don't have to.

You don't think you need him as a motive for Blomkvist to go up to Hedeby?

Oh yeah, but what you don't need necessarily is the payoff to that story, all of that [with Lisbeth stealing the money]. I like that and we chose to do that. It's nice at the beginning because it puts [Blomkvist] in a kind of situation that will lead to him saying yes to taking this assignment, and it's nice to start a character off who has just been humiliated. We felt that the Wennerstorm character represented a financial villain that was worth dealing with, just like all the other villains in the story. The guardian, the killer, and here's a killer of a different kind.

When you have him introduced in the beginning and avoid getting bogged down the way I think the book does, is it just sticking to the bare minimum of details?

Yeah, I felt the same way you did reading the book, and everyone I've talked to felt that way-- "Come on, 100 pages!" It was a very easy fix. You realize all you need is to see him come out of a courtroom then have a thing on the TV saying "This is what happened" and you're done.

Why did you like the ending of Lisbeth going to the banks enough to keep it?

Because it was showing her dealing with something just like she dealt with her guardian. This idea, it's an important line where she says "What's going to happen to him?" In my mind, she's doing it for him. This guy's not going to pay, he's not going to jail. The idea was she wasn't doing all of that to fatten her bank account, she was doing it to make this guy pay for what he did to this guy that she likes.

When you meet Lisbeth in the book she's described from Dragan Armansky's point of view. She's described by a man, seen from a man's point of view. What this movie does so successfully is have her exist as an individual on her own. Is that something you think about while you're writing it, or does it just develop by having an actual person playing her?

The specific thing about Armansky, I thought that was an odd way in. I like Armansky as a character, but I didn't want any of that he's vaguely attracted to her or all that. I didn't want every character to be that way. I liked the Armansky character a whole lot, but he's certainly not the way into her story. She's the way into her story.

SPOILER FOR THE MOVIE VERSION OF GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO AHEAD

I think the smartest edit you make is the Harriet/Anita switch-- you chop out a whole digression that way. How did you come to that?

I'm always a little reluctant to talk about it because it's one of the few surprises there are for people who read the book. I felt that this character had been described by Henrik Vanger and other people as really bright, and that they could see her running the company some day. I didn't want to see that person running a sheep farm in Australia. I wanted to see her as an investment banker somewhere else. That's what she would grow up to be. She wouldn't grow up to be a cowgirl.

So it was more from a character standpoint than simplifying the end of the story?

Oh yeah. And then the idea that, I thought would be fun, and even for those people that are familiar with the book, that [Blomkvist has] actually met her before. You get to have at least one surprise.

Has it been a full year already? It feels like just yesterday I was praising the music of movies like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Social Network, and Inception. But indeed the globe has once again made a full trip around the sun, and that means it’s time for my third annual list of Best Movie Music Moments.

Much like 2010, this year was packed with not only amazing soundtracks, but also movies that knew how to use songs to perfect effect. From the synth sounds in Drive to the insanely happy tunes in The Muppets, this year in music moments made audiences feel unending joy and devastating sadness, but it all made for great times at the cinema. So strap in, get comfortable, and enjoy some of the best scenes that 2011 had to offer.

(Warning: There are some spoilers involved below. If you haven't seen one or more of the films, you might want to skip the appropriate sections until you have)

Song: "A Real Hero" by CollegeUp to this point in the movie we know Ryan Gosling’s character as the getaway driver, the stuntman and the loner, but all of those sides of the character come with a sharp edge. He approaches all of his jobs with a strict, stoic intensity that comes with pure professionalism. So when the unnamed driver is assigned the task of driving his neighbor, Irene, home from the repair shop, director Nicolas Winding Refn uses the scene to show off the lead’s softer side. Unlike most filmmakers, though, he doesn’t accomplish this by having Driver and Irene share a pleasant conversation in which they talk about their lives – instead, he lets the music set the mood and for that he has “A Real Hero” by College. As a whole, the Drive has arguably the greatest soundtrack of the year, mixing Cliff Martinez’s score with brilliant tracks by artists like Kavinsky, Desire, and The Chromatics (this was easily the hardest song on the list to choose), but College’s song just fits the movie so perfectly, as Driver shows his capacity to be both a real human being and a real hero.

Song: "We Ride, Really!" by Hans ZimmerRango is one incredibly strange movie, but that’s what makes it so delightful. From the bizarre-looking spastic lead to the plot ripped straight out of Chinatown, Gore Verbinski’s film revels in being an oddity, but also a pure western. And what would a great western be without amazing music playing while the band of heroes gallops out into the desert? Bringing that element together is composer Hans Zimmer, whose score is amazing up and down, blending both southern and western elements, but “We Ride, Really!” is by far the best track. What makes the scene so great is the self-awareness of the characters, particularly in the way that Rango addresses the owl mariachi band that has been singing about the chameleon’s fate from the start of the movie. With a loud whip crack the trumpets start blaring and the quest begins. It’s also worth noting that any movie that can include a scene in which an owl rocks out on a blue Stratocaster will always find a spot on this annual list.

Song: "Hold On" by Wilson PhillipsIt sounds cheesy, but every friendship has pieces of music that are important, and for Annie and Lillian that song is “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips, as evidenced by the fact that a CD copy of the band’s debut album is included in Annie’s bridal shower gift. Unfortunately, Helen exists. After ripping off our protagonists idea to have a French theme at the shower, Helen even goes as far as to take Lillian on her dream vacation to France, which is a truly devastating blow to Annie’s psyche. So when Helen actually hires Wilson Phillips to appear at Lillian’s wedding to sing “Hold On”, it’s a bittersweet moment, but also a hysterical one, as it comes just after Annie and Helen have made peace. What makes the choice so perfect is that it’s a song that has basically been manufactured out of pure, unadulterated 90s nostalgia, and everyone that is old enough to watch the movie knows every single lyric. I will concede that Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle did a great job of bringing the band back in 2004, but its inclusion in Bridesmaids is just as great.

Song: "New York, New York" by John Kander and Fred Ebb, performed by Carey MulliganThough we never hear explicitly what event from their shared past caused the relationship between Brandon and Sissy Sullivan to be so stressed, but its present in every interaction they have. Every day for Brandon is a struggle against his own impulses and when Sissy moves in it’s like a hurricane has landed. As a defense mechanism he treats her with hatred and derision at every turn, but he can’t help his emotions when he goes to see her perform at a local bar. The only way to describe the performance is hauntingly beautiful, as it causes Brandon to break down in tears. The song is perfect not just because of how Mulligan sings it, but because of the song choice itself. Originally performed by Liza Minnelli with a full band and being belted to the rooftops, the choice to use a piano and slowed melody not only matches the film’s atmosphere, but perfectly captures the film’s theme of isolation and reflects how director Steve McQueen shoots New York City. By the end of the scene it’s not just Brandon with a tear in his eye, but the entire movie-going audience.

Song: "Frankenstein’s Monster" by Henry JackmanIn the early goings of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class Magneto is fuelled by nothing but anger and the desire for revenge. Every waking moment is spent thinking about and hunting down Sebastian Shaw, the man who tortured him in the concentration camps during World War II. And he’s finally getting close. His sources and interrogation methods have brought him to a small bar in Argentina, which empty with the exception of the bartender and two men casually drinking and conversing at a table in the middle of the room. He then spots a photograph of Shaw on the wall that tells him exactly where the war criminal is hiding, but leaving Shaw’s cohorts unharmed isn’t part of the plan and as the action rises so does Henry Jackman’s score. It all starts with a beautiful strumming guitar, but as soon as Magneto recognizes the German beer and the violins begin to play, you know immediately that things are about to turn. Slowly but surely the score gets faster and louder as our Jewish protagonist reveals himself to the Nazis and takes his revenge. It’s a beautiful and intense scene that would be nothing without the perfect score created to go along with it.

Song: "The Show" by Lenka, performed by Kerris DorseyThere’s no denying that Billy Beane is completely obsessed with his job, and that obsession does a pretty fantastic job crumbling his social life. He doesn’t seem to have any friends outside of his job (and even they don’t like him very much) and he has an ex-wife who has already remarried. The only person in his life that he actually seems to care about is his daughter and in no place is that clearer than when Billy brings her to a guitar shop and has her sing him a little song. Really, the look on Billy’s face says everything that needs to be said. I also happen to be a big fan of music with lyrics that fit the theme and plot, and this does that without being too on-the-nose. I will admit that some people will find this song choice a little controversial, as the movie is set in 2002 while the song wasn’t written/released by Lenka until 2008, but, to tell the truth, I don’t give a shit. It’s a beautiful little song that is performed sweetly by Kerris Dorsey and is a perfect match for the scene. Stop being such a cynical asshole, shut up, and enjoy the damn song.

Song: "Life’s A Happy Song" by Bret McKenzie, performed by Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Peter LinzAt the beginning of The Muppets it seems as though things couldn’t get any better. Brothers Gary and Walter are about to take a trip out to Los Angeles with Gary’s beautiful girlfriend, Mary, and Walter is finally going to get the chance to visit Muppet Studios. So why not sing a song about it? Though every song that Bret McKenzie wrote for the movie’s soundtrack is amazing and Oscar-worthy (are you listening, Academy?) “Life’s A Happy Song” gets a spot on the list simply because it’s so damn jovial and catchy. In proper opening number fashion, the musical number immediately establishes the tone of the film as well as the relationships. Gary and Walter couldn’t be more happy together, but the film also has its poignant moment as Mary wishes that she could spend more alone time with her beau. Throw in hilarious lyrics like “Life’s a filet of fish, eh!...Yes it is!” and cameos from both Feist and Mickey Rooney and you have all the makings of the greatest number from the greatest musical of the year.

Song: "The Devil is in the Details" by The Chemical BrothersOf all the odd and stylized things about the kid-assassin movie Hanna, Tom Hollander's tennis-whites-wearing Isaac might be the most fascinating and eternally strange. We meet him first in a strip club, where the clanging tune is playing as music for one of the dancers onstage, and where Cate Blanchett's Wicked Queen-esque Marissa Wiegler assigns him to hunt down the escaped Hanna. When he finds her, it's in the company of the family she's been hitchhiking with, a family that's her first taste of normalcy in her entire uncommon life. Separated into shipping containers for questioning, the family is about to die for the privilege of having known Hanna, a horrible moment that's somehow only heightened, not ruined, by Hollander's whistling. The song is so bright and cheerful, but so menacing as he tosses a metal baton that we know will be a weapon of torment. The entire score for Hanna by the Chemical Brothers is tight and memorable, but it's this one little jingle, used perfectly within the film, that haunts. (Contributed by Katey Rich)

Song: "Star Spangled Man" by Alan Menken & David ZippelBoy, that Steve Rogers really wanted to fight in World War II. From lying on his enlistment form to signing up for a strange medical procedure, Steve showed in Captain America: The First Avenger that he was willing to do anything to help our boys overseas. So when the man responsible for his rebirth was killed and there was a threat he would spend the rest of his life being analyzed by scientists, our hero grabbed the first opportunity he could get: selling US war bonds while on stage with a bunch of line dancers singing “Star Spangled Man.” In a film jam-packed with terrific, fun moments, this musical montage takes the cake, as Rogers struggles at first with the dialogue, reading it off the back of his shield, before becoming a confident showman. The song itself is so energetic that you half expect lyrics to pop on screen guided by a bouncing ball. The sequence even manages to be self-reflexive, addressing the character’s origins as a propaganda figure by having kids go out and buy Captain America comics with the red, white and blue warrior on the front. All in all, it’s one of the best parts in one of the best comic book movies we’ve seen yet.

Song: "Immigrant Song" by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Karen OThere are thousands of films each year that use amazing music in their trailers and then leave the tracks out of the final cut of the movie, and generally that’s fine – the song may have worked for the style and pacing of the preview, but didn’t really fit in the actual product. That said, it would have been a crime not to include Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” in David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. From the song’s industrial beat to Karen O’s incredible, howling voice, it’s a version of the song that both pays respect to the original while also creating something completely new. But this isn’t a list about best music from 2011 movies, this is a list of the best music moments from 2011 movies, and in this case the utilization is a jaw-dropper. The opening title sequence of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a dark goo-covered, gritty, grungy, explosive bit of cinema that operates like James Bond theme that has been shot up with black tar heroin. The music video above is an altered version of it, but the real thing is something that demands to be seen on the big screen multiple times over.

For more of our end-of-the-year coverage, visit our Best of 2011 page.

A book inspired by a rape witnessed by the author is bound to get a little dark. But it’s that tinge of grimness added to the normal mystery format that made The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a New York Times bestseller for multiple weeks. And it’s because of that dark atmosphere that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is so compelling when it’s recreated onscreen.

David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has its own walk and its own talk, even when it sticks remarkably close to Stieg Larsson’s original story. Some of the creative license Fincher takes might throw those of us who’ve enjoyed the novel off a bit, but it’s all in the name of streamlining. Below are the top 8 changes I noticed from the book to the movie in my screening of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Some of these changes are purposeful, others detract a bit, but they all come together to make for one hell of a movie.

Warning: There are many spoilers in this Girl With The Dragon Tattoo book to movie comparison. Best left alone until you’ve actually seen the movie.

This is Salander’s world, more than Blomkvist’s. We are reminded of this again and again as Blomkvist’s personal world is condensed into a tiny bubble. The Wennerstrom affair, Blomkvist’s relationships, and the problems at Millennium are all put on the backburner. Alternatively, time spent with Salander is expanded and feels more significant. It seems Fincher knew she would be more fun to watch.

Salander’s personal relationships are more limited. For the sake of cutting minority characters, her mother is nonexistent and her non-hacker group of friends are never introduced. Salander is always outside looking in within the books, but in the movie she is defined by this loneliness and alienation. It puts her in a much neater package in some ways, but it also makes more sense.

The clues to the mystery are more rapidly discerned and are less in-depth. This is a big one. For example, Blomkvist jumps at identifying Anita in a window just moments after he starts looking at Vanger family photos. Substitutions like these work, but they certainly have less of a punch than the aha! moments in the book.

Martin is never mentioned as a withdrawn boy and he never outwardly threatens as an adult. Some old photos show him as seeming slightly off. However, in Fincher’s movie, Martin is forever the congenial adult. He’s a true master manipulator, and he’s a hell of a lot more compelling to watch.

There are fewer key players who could have committed the crime. Instead of multiple family members with multiple possible motives or at least some shady momentum, the only Vangers that matter are Henrik and Martin, and of course, Frode. Other Vangers, including Harold, Cecilia, and Isabella, are barely present beyond mentions. The lack of population doesn’t detract from the viewing, but it does make determining the “whom” of the killer (though not the why) an iota easier.

Lisbeth Salander is even more of a badass. How is this possible? I mean she’s already a pretty huge badass, but in Fincher’s adaptation we get to see her masterfully fight against a would-be computer thief. She also returns to face her rapist, threatening him even after the initial tattoo justice. She manages to mesmerize us even as she repels us.

Lisbeth runs Martin Vanger off the road. Though Martin does manage to escape in the same manner, he doesn’t chicken out and run himself purposefully into oncoming traffic. Showing her prowess, Lisbeth gets a little too close and Martin accidentally runs himself off the road. It’s a more satisfying way for the sadist mastermind to lose everything he’s carefully constructed.

While Harriet Vanger is very much alive, she doesn’t show up where expected. She’s unmarried and living as Anita in London, a role the real Anita takes in the book. When the pieces of Blomkvist’s puzzle finally cement together, it’s a great moment, one that is furthered by Anita/Harriet having been introduced earlier in the film.

Summary Judgment: It shouldn’t be easy to fit a six hundred and something page book into a two and a half hour movie. If you look at the longer Harry Potter books turned into movies, for example, there are so many plots that must be refocused or cobbled together differently the whole thing nearly feels like a new adventure. In The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the details of Stieg Larsson’s storyline are so meticulous that most changes are either barely noticeable blemishes or are changes that work for the better.

Overall, I would argue The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo makes for a superior film than a book. However, if you are of a mind that’s into thousands of rigid details, I’d certainly suggest the read over the more glossy film.

If you noticed anything I missed, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section, below.

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I believe that conversation and discourse in the movie world is just as important as individual opinion. While I may not be able to convince you that a film is amazing and you might not be able to convince me that a film is crap, reasoning and passion is always appreciated around Cinema Blend. It’s for that reason that I spend a good deal of time reading comments and thoughts left by users here, on our Facebook page, and on Twitter.

Over the past few months, however, I’ve noticed something slightly unnerving. Whenever we posted a new article about David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I would see a number of comments bashing the movie sight unseen, largely linking it back to the Swedish film from 2009. It’s totally fine and understandable not to be interested in a film (I come across titles like that on a daily basis), what’s not okay is to form opinions based on misconceptions. So I’m here to set the record straight.

Below you will find a full breakdown of the five most common pieces of misinformation floating around about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and my reasons for why they are completely off-base. Check it out.

"The Story Has Been Americanized"

I’ve seen people make this claim in multiple places, but the truth is that the people saying it either a) haven’t done any research about the film or b) don’t know what the word “Americanized” means. I assume that the folks in the latter category believe that the word means “in English,” but, believe it or not, America isn’t the only country where English is the first language (shocking, I know). The truth is that director David Fincher and writer Steven Zaillian actually did the opposite of Americanization. The story is still set in Sweden, all of the actors are portraying Swedish characters with Swedish accents, and the movie was actually filmed IN SWEDEN. The filmmakers could have easily decided to set the movie in Boston, Detroit, or any other cold environment, but they made decision not to. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is everything but Americanized.

"It’s A Remake"

Just like the last section, this comes down to a matter of definition. By calling the movie a remake, people are making the assumption that Fincher and Zaillian completely based their movie on the 2009 film from director Niels Arden Oplev. This is simply not the truth. The source behind the new movie is the novel by Stieg Larsson and that’s all. It’s not a remake, but rather an English-language adaptation of material that has previously been turned into a motion picture. That’s not the same thing. In fact, the Fincher film actually makes some major variations in the story, which not only distances it from the Swedish film, but the book as well. Fincher’s newest work has plenty to offer, even for those that think that the 2009 adaptation is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

"There’s No Way That Rooney Mara Can Play Lisbeth Salander As Well As Noomi Rapace"

This one is a bit trickier, as the judgment of a performance is based on opinion rather than pure fact like the first two entries on the list, but do you know what doesn’t hurt? Universal praise. Since the embargo for reviews of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo lifted last Tuesday, film critics have been lauding Mara’s turn as goth hacker Lisbeth Salander, as she steals every scene and plays the part to perfect. This isn’t to knock the performance by Noomi Rapace, who also earned more than her fair share of applause, but to dismiss Mara sight unseen is preposterous. If you want to make that claim, go see the English-adaptation and then decide for yourself if Mara is up to snuff. Personally, as I said in my review, I think Mara actually surpasses Rapace’s performance.

"I Won’t Understand The Movie If I Haven’t Read The Book"

Yes, I have heard this from some people and hopefully there are more than a few of you who realize how absurd it is. Admittedly Stieg Larsson’s novel is quite dense, both in the sense that it has a complex mystery and is nearly 600 pages long, but it’s the job of a good screenwriter to make the material accessible to a wide audience and that’s exactly what Steven Zaillian has done. But this concept is idiotic on its most base level. Every year we get hundreds if not thousands of movies that have been adapted from books and practically none of them are impossible to understand without having read the source material first (and the only reason I say “practically” is because there are some really shitty screenwriters out there). Just because you haven’t ready the first book in Larsson’s Millennium trilogy doesn’t mean you won’t understand The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

"Hollywood Probably Reduced The Graphic Content Because Americans Can’t Stomach It"

When I’ve read this comment online I’ve been forced to stifle a laugh, but you won’t understand why it’s so funny until you’ve seen the movie. The truth is that David Fincher’s adaptation may actually be darker than the Swedish film from two years ago. The sex and violence in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is startlingly graphic and, in the case of some scenes, actually more intense than the Niels Arden Oplev version. Even more powerful, though, is the unrelenting atmosphere that the film holds, preventing the audience from ever falling out of the movie. The overall idea of this patently ridiculous if not simply because David Fincher has proven over the course of his 19-year film career that he will never pull his punches. America may have been created as a puritanical state, but that history in no way affects The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

"I couldn't imagine my life without doing it."

That's how Rooney Mara describes a realization she had midway through the lengthy audition process for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher's new adaptation of the hugely popular Stieg Larsson novel. She doesn't go so far as to attribute the casting to fate-- she worked far too hard in the auditions for that-- but it's hard to deny there's something amazing about the whip-smart, highly verbal girl from the beginning of The Social Network transforming herself into the dark, repressed and furious Lisbeth Salander in Dragon Tattoo. Dyeing her hair black, bleaching her eyebrows and getting several piercings was only the beginning of the sacrifices made for Dragon Tattoo, which shot for 150 days and had her living in Stockholm on her own for weeks before production began, in order to understand the character better.

By all accounts every sacrifice paid off-- even the film's weaker reviews single Mara out, and though she says she's "shot myself in the leg" in finding equally worthwhile projects to do next, she's suddenly a very big deal when a year ago few people knew her name. I talked to Mara-- still with the black hair, though minus the many piercings-- over the weekend about how Salander's physical appearance bled through into her own life, the "character flaw" she shares with Lisbeth, the relationship she and David Fincher built together, the bruises she took home from set, and the one scene that Fincher, notorious for his many many takes, tried to get done as quickly as possible.

Take a look below, and see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters everywhere this weekend.

How do you go into a role that's this challenging and know that it's going to be worth it in the end?

I didn't know. When I got that list [of what would be required in the role] from David after my first audition I hadn't read the books yet. I didn't want to read them until I knew I had a good shot at it, because I know myself and I can get very obsessed with things. I know that's how I work, and I knew it'd be that much more devastating to read the books and fall in love with this character and not be able to play it out. After I got the list I was like, if I don't get this, it's OK, because it's going to be really hard and I don't know that i want to go through that. Then after I read the books, as I knew I would be, I knew I had to do it. I couldn't imagine my life without doing it. I kept telling a friend, "I think I'm going to get this movie, because I actually can't imagine my future without it." It's just kind of a weird instinct, I just knew i was right.

In the press conference you said it was refreshing to walk down the street after a day of shooting with your black hair and piercings and have nobody pay attention to you. Can you elaborate on that?

There's just a certain amount of attention you get as a girl, when you've got sort of long, pretty hair. I've never been someone to play up my sexuality with my wardrobe, I've always sort of played it down, but regardless as a girl there is a certain attention you get. When you have a weird haircut and no eyebrows and lots of piercings and you're dressing like a boy, people don't look at you, and I found it to be so freeing. To just roll out of bed in the morning and not worry about what you look like.

And I assume you've had the experience everyone has in New York, where you're not wearing anything special and you get catcalled anyway.

Yeah, no one catcalls you when you look like I did.

You were in Stockholm on your own for a few weeks before filming started. How did that contrast to what then happened on set when you're really micromanaged, being shepherded back and forth and fed and everything.

That doesn't happen on a David Fincher set. And people don't do that to me because they learn very quickly that I hate that. They always have an airport greeter for me when you're doing something for Sony, and all the airport greeters have learned "Alright, you're OK, we're going to leave you alone now." I don't do well with a handler, and certainly not when I'm in character. People knew to stay away from me.

How did you let people know you were in character?

It's kind of just a part of me. It was certainly heightened when I was in character. It's quite clear in body language. Sometimes you get a person who doesn't read body language very well. But there's none of that. Shooting a Fincher film is very much like shooting an independent film, without stressing about getting your shots in. You have an endless amount of time, but it's an independent film in the fact that there are no producers on set, there's no bells and whistles. He likes everything as contained as possible. The money is on the screen.

There's a contrast between the famous Fincher method of taking an endless amount of time for shots, and the way that people shoot tough scenes, where you want to get into a scene and get it right early and get out of there. Did you try to nail it early and get it over with, or did you just know that you might have to do 40 takes of a rape scene.

You just know. You're always giving it your best, but you know that you have time to breathe, so it doesn't have that sort of panicked feeling, that I have four shots at this. You get to really play. The only scene where there was less of that, when we went in saying we've got to get this right, was not even the rape scene, but the scene leading up to the rape, when he chokes me out. That was really, really fucking hard. David came up to us before that and said "I'm going to try and do this six times." We did it much more than six times, but we all went in knowing there was a limited amount of takes we could get at that.

Because of the physical toll it took on you?

Yeah, after that first day of doing the choke-out part, I went home, and I can't remember who was there, but they thought I was in makeup. They thought I had the post-rape makeup on. I was really getting choked out. You can't really fake that-- we weren't faking that. So certainly on that scene we went into it with 100% on every take, and we tried to get it over with as fast as possible.

The book occasionally describes Salander as being weird looking and strange but also attractive. The movie seems very uninterested in that. Is that something that you and David discussed or that came up with the costume designer, trying to make her as unsexy as possible?

Yeah, she's meant to look like a little 14-year-old boy. Her look to us was always meant to repel. It's alway meant to be a means to get the kind of response that I got, people don't pay attention to you, they don't have expectations of you, they just ignore you. We certainly didn't want her to be sexy or attractive in any way. I think by the end of the film she is beautiful. I think a lot of people before they see the movie think "God, she's so ugly, why would they make her so ugly." I think those people will leave the film thinking she's beautiful.

Did you want to get that shocked reaction out of people?

It's not the reaction we wanted, but it's the reaction we knew would happen. It's the reason David always talks about E.T. If you just saw E.T. before the movie you'd think "That's an ugly little creature." By the end of the movie you're like "He's so cute!" And that's sort of what happens with Salander. By the end of it she's beautiful in her own little way.

People talk about this movie and emphasize the way and David Fincher worked together. How did Daniel Craig fit into that? How much of it was the three of you putting your heads together?

Me and Daniel didn't work together that often. Certainly me and David did a lot just me and him-- we had to, a lot of my stuff is on my own. Everything was new to me, so I needed more special attention and protectiveness. We had to really be careful about this character. But there were a lot of rehearsals with us sitting around a fire.

What do you think you got out of all the time you had to build the relationship with David Fincher? Was there a noticeable difference in the relationship between when you first started shooting and the end?

Obviously, yeah, after 150 days of shooting I probably know way too much about David, he knows way too much about me. Certainly by the end of it he knew how to push my buttons better, and what I needed when I was tired at hour 16. I'm very slow to trust people and slow to warm up to people-- it's one of my character flaws. I don't know, there's something about David, I immediately trusted him. Kind of the way Salander almost immediately trusts Blomkvist. And that's sort of how I felt about David. I just knew to trust him, and I couldn't have made the film without that, because there was so much I had to do that required trust.

Having gone through a unique experience like this, how does it affect what you look for in the rest of your career?

It's really hard. I've set the bar high. I've kind of shot myself in the leg a little bit. But again, I feel like David from early on empowered me to have an opinion and to have a choice. At the same time that's been very helpful in the way I look at things. I want to work with other directors who have a strong point of view and who are uncompromising in their method of filmmaking. That's really important to me after working with David. And also script is really important. I'm really ready to start working again, but I don't want to work on anything that I'm not equally as passionate about.

I'm a workaholic, so I have to just work. If I'm not working I'm quite miserable. It helps me to have something to focus on, and i just really like working really hard. But at the same time, from Social Network to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I didn't work once, because I didn't get cast in anything-- certainly there were things I went out for that I really wanted that I didn't get. But I wanted to be picky and not work unless it was something I was really passionate about.

A day ahead of the Christmas rush, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opens in theaters today, meaning you can get a jump start on what they're calling "The Feel-Bad Movie of Christmas." Starring relative newcomer Rooney Mara as the enigmatic hacker Lisbeth Salander, with James Bond himself Daniel Craig as the journalist Mikael Blomkvist, Dragon Tattoo is unrepentantly violent and grim, but also surprisingly enjoyable-- maybe not so surprising if you're one of the 60 million people who's read Stieg Larsson's book.

Craig, Mara and director David Fincher were on hand in New York this weekend to talk about the film, their efforts not to think too much about the original Swedish adaptations of the book, the various ways both actors suffered to play their characters, and why Daniel Craig wasn't allowed to ride on the back of Lisbeth Salander's motorcycle. As usual at a press conference, the questions were kind of all over the place, so I've tried to organize them by theme and condense as much as possible. Check out what they had to say about the film below, and find The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in theaters everywhere today.

By now Rooney Mara's arduous audition process to play Lisbeth is fairly infamous-- she went back to read for Fincher multiple times, had to act the rape revenge scene and immerse herself in the character before she even knew the part. At the press conference Fincher talked about how he cast Mara with Daniel Craig already on board, and Mara talked about the list of things she knew in advance she'd have to do if she got the part.

Fincher: The casting process began with Daniel. Obviously, you build your universe. It is like building a basketball team. I knew him to be self effacing and to be playful and witty. I knew that I needed that for Mikael as well that I wanted a very masculine kind of center to the film. The androgynous side of the movie would be carried by Rooney. That was her job. [Lisbeth and Mikael] are sort of unable to be close to one another. They sort of push against each other. So I started looking at the things about Lisbeth that I wanted to see and I didn’t see them initially in anyone that we were looking at and Rooney was right under our noses. I had already spent 4 or 5 days with her on The Social Network. [In casting] I look for an inherent kind of quality. You are going to be shooting 14 hour days and you are going to be tired. You are going to not necessarily be able to conjure armor or a façade every single moment. You want the actor to have…I liken it to a quality that you kind of can’t beat out of them with a tire iron.

Rooney was somebody that we brought back time and time again not because we didn’t see what we were looking for, but because initially when…the problems she was solving for me at the beginning of The Social Network were that she was intensely feminine, very mature, warm, verbal, and she was trying to build a bridge desperately to Jesse [Eisenberg] in those 5 ½ minutes that she is on screen., and none of those qualities applied to Lisbeth. In fact, they were the antithesis. So every time she would come in and we would work together I would say, “Okay. Now here is a new hurdle and you have to jump this.” So finally after two and a half months the quality that was undeniable, and the thing that seemed to be the most Lisbethian, was that she was just not giving up. She was indomitable. There were times where I was personally embarrassed to say, “I need you to come back one more time.” There was never a moment where she was like “Ugh!” I know that I would have. At the end of it, when we put her on the plane to go to Stockholm by herself for 5 weeks to learn how to ride a motorcycle and find an apartment, we knew we had the right people.

Mara: David had told the casting director to let me know before I went down the long road of auditioning that if I were to get the part that I would have to become a smoker and have to go off and be among myself for a year. I would have to be butt naked, do these horrible rape scenes, ride a motorcycle, and what else was on the list?

Fincher: Skateboard?

Mara: No. That wasn’t on the list. That came later.

Lisbeth Salander is the iconic center of the Dragon Tattoo books, but though she get revenge against her rapist and saves Mikael over and over again, Mara and Fincher both bristled at a question that likened her to a comic book hero-- says Mara, "That was never our intention. We always wanted to make her very human." Instead she talked about how the motorcycle stunts were what she dreaded most in the shooting, and also how the character lingered with her even when walking on the street after a day of shooting.

Mara:The motorcycle was definitely the thing that I was the least excited about doing. It just seemed very dangerous to me.

Fincher: It is dangerous.

Journalist: Were you going that fast?

Craig: Yes.

Mara: Someone was.

Fincher: We so desperately wanted to do a scene with him on the back of the motorcycle.

Mara: Daniel wouldn’t get on the back.

Craig: That is not true!

Fincher: We couldn’t get insurance for that if Rooney was going to drive.

Mara [later, on the Lisbeth costume]: The hair was stuck to my head so there wasn’t much I could about that. The eyebrows remained bleached and the piercings that I got that were real obviously stayed in. Obviously, I wasn’t wearing my wardrobe at home at night. I expected people to treat me much differently, but it really didn’t happen. The biggest change that I noticed was that when you look slightly off in that way people sort of pay less attention to you and their expectations of you are lowered. I didn’t mind that and actually enjoyed that.

Mara was not the only one who had to suffer for her art. In a scene late in the film, Craig's character Blomkvist is strung up in a sort of torture device, and… well, let Fincher and Craig explain how much real pain that required the actor to go through.

Fincher: The first night that we got to hoisting him the stunt coordinator came in and said, “Daniel has to hold this little metal thing in his hand so that if he does lose consciousness…because he is going to be acting like he is suffocating, which is not very different from actually suffocating.” So it would be hard to see. So he would have this little metal thing in his hand and he was hoisted up and we were rolling.

Mara: How come you didn’t do that for me? [Referring to her rape scene early in the film, in which she's bound and gagged].

Craig: There was a code word.

Fincher: Yeah, the code word was “Hmmmph!” [laughter] So he had this thing in his hand and as I am watching the monitor I hear “Ting! Ting! Ting!” We rushed in and he had passed out. So we wrapped then. On the production report was “Let Daniel go 15 minutes early due to unconsciousness.” [laughter]

Craig: Just another day working with David Fincher. [laughs] The most important thing about this character for me was to make him as real and as believable as possible. Obviously, there is another person that I play [James Bond, of course] that would deal with it in a different way. It wasn’t like I was ever thinking about that. I wanted to put the reality into this. He gets shot and runs away screaming like anybody else would. That was really the key and it was dead easy. Just to be sort of by the by, but that is what I love about this character and the relationship he has with Salander. He doesn’t have to prove that he is a man. He is a guy and he doesn’t have to go around beating his chest and he is very happy to fall into this relationship where she is literally wearing the trousers.

Fincher: Leather trousers.

Though the movie is very measured and often very restrained, it opens with practically a primal scream, with Karen O's cover of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin, set to animated opening credits that look a little like Salander rising from molten steel. Fincher explained how he convinced Led Zeppelin to provide the rights to "Immigrant Song," and also what appealed to him about such a bold opening sequence.

Fincher: Led Zeppelin is very protective, as they should be. They have an amazing catalog I think they wanted to make sure that we respected it and it was our intention all along to communicate the idea that we didn’t want to run it into the ground. We didn’t want to use it in every television spot. We wanted to pick specific places like the teaser and the title sequence to do it. We needed to make sure that they understood that it was going to be a cover. We weren’t going to be licensing the actual performance. We wanted to do it with a woman’s voice. So it kind of went down like clockwork.

I think title sequences are an opportunity to sort of set the stage or to get people thinking in different terms than maybe whatever they understand the movie to be going in. Often times when movies are marketed they are marketed towards the idea of “What is the consensus that everybody has that will get them into the 7 o’clock show?” So often times a title sequence can help to sort of reorient their thinking. I liked the idea of this sort of primordial sort of tar and ooze of the subconscious. I liked the idea that it was sort of her nightmare.

Fincher has been very frank about the fact that the mystery of the story, in which Salander and Blomkvist solve a decades-old murder, is the last thing that interested him about Stieg Larsson's novel, even though he knows that's what a lot of people loved about it. Allow him to explain further.

Fincher: The mystery of this movie wasn’t that interesting to me. You know, Nazis, serial killers, and the evil that people do in their basements with power tools wasn’t the thing that…the thing that was first and foremost was this. I hadn’t seen this partnership before. I hadn’t seen these two people working before to do anything. So I liked the thriller and I liked the vessel of that, but I was really more interested in the people front and center.

Craig, Mara and Fincher were all happy to distance themselves from the source material and comparisons to either the Swedish films or the book. Though Fincher did pay respect to the book in an interesting way, keeping in a brief subplot in which Salander picks up another woman at a punk gay club.

Mara: To be honest, I didn’t really think much about what other people imagined it to be. I used what I imagined it to be. I had read all three books and I had a really clear picture of who this girl was. Luckily, David’s idea was pretty similar. I didn’t really think much about what other people thought of her.

Craig: Exactly. In this industry, the less you think about what other people are thinking about, the better and more original you can be. You can’t go into a project thinking. “How will these people like it? How will those people like it?” You want to be single minded about it. You can’t please everybody.

Fincher: We start with the source material. We start with the book and [Lisbeth's bisexuality] is what the book described. I didn’t feel there was any need to put a frame around it. One of the things we were very particular about was when she meets Miriam Wu in the bar. We wanted that to be a moment of happiness. There are two times that you see her smile in the entire movie and one of them is when is she gets the attention of Elodie [Yung] and Elodie comes over to kind of say, “Why are you here alone?” I thought that was important. I also think that Salander’s sexuality is less of a ambidextrous thing than it is something that she has to act on. I think the tragedy is that friction is not a problem for her; intimacy is a problem for her. I know that, to me, was the important thing to show.

David Fincher is famous for putting his actors through many, many takes of a given scene, and that was no exception even in the violent and disturbing moments of Dragon Tattoo. Fincher talked a bit about how he chooses his actors, and Mara and Craig downplayed the challenges of doing so many takes-- unsurprising, since the director was sitting right there.

Fincher: I like people. I like people that like to work the way that I like to work. If we have an unspoken understanding and a way of communicating that is easy or if we have been through it before and we know. Sometimes people freak out when you shoot 40 takes of something. They start looking at you like, “What did I do wrong?”, and its like “No. It’s not wrong. It’s just that we are going to try something different.” So that could be one of the reasons. Also, I like certain people’s energies and I feel like those are things that you want to….”This person could work really well in this situation.” Hopefully, you are not going to the well for the same thing every time. It’s certainly not in Rooney’s case.

Mara: You don’t really think about [the additional takes] after awhile. It is very exaggerated and dramatized. I think our average take count was much less than that.

Craig: You don’t count. You really don’t count.

Journalist: Did you feel that you get better and better?

Craig: No. Sometimes you get worse and worse and then it kind of changes.

Mara: Usually you get worse and worse in the middle.

Craig: But, as David said, someone throws a lot of money at you to get to do something like this. You are there to do it right. Things get frustrating in a work day and there are lots of other things to get frustrated about, but then there are a lot of triumphs at the end of the day. You can’t get down about it.

Given that it's based on just the first book of a globally best-selling trilogy, it's no spoiler to say that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo leaves room for two sequels-- and it doesn't take much speculation to assume that, if this one turns out well, Sony will be eager to get the second two going. Stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara are both on record saying they plan to continue with the franchise if it moves forward, and though director David Fincher isn't yet signed on to direct the second two, he has a good explanation for that-- and at today's press conference for the film, laid out his plans for how he would tackle the second two films. Check out what Fincher had to say below.

Mara, also onstage, then interrupted him to say "Please don't." Fincher laughed and continued:

If you haven't read the books, the second and third books really are the same story, expanding the relatively limited scope of Dragon Tattoo and exploring massive conspiracies and scandals within the Swedish government. Lisbeth and Mikael are both back, though, and the story digs much deeper into Lisbeth's background, which is merely hinted at in the first book and movie. While Dragon Tattoo is a fairly self-contained story, the second two books-- The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest-- focus on a lot of the same characters and locations, so shooting them together would only be logical, as the always-practical Fincher surely knows.

Later on I sat down with the screenwriter Steven Zaillian for a one-on-one interview, and while we talked a lot about the changes between the books and the movie, he did mention one detail about the potential second film-- which he is set to write. Zaillian and Fincher both freely admitted they felt comfortable excising a lot of things from the books, so I asked Zaillian if he would include what I see as an unnecessary prologue in the second book, which finds Lisbeth Salander hiding out on an island in the Caribbean. He wouldn't say for sure, but told me he would "probably not" include it, seeming to agree with me that it was superfluous.

I'll have much more form my Dragon Tattoo interviews, including a conversation with Rooney Mara, running in the next two weeks. The movie opens this Tuesday, December 29.

This weekend marks the return of Sherlock Holmes, who is a wise ass as portrayed in the recent movie series by Robert Downey Jr., but has been one of history's smartest characters since Arthur Conan Doyle created him in 1887. Sherlock Holmes isn't the kind of guy who's content to sit back knowing he has all the answers-- when he walks into a room, he takes control and shows off a little bit, fully aware he's the smartest guy there and making sure everybody else knows it too.

Sherlock Holmes may be the most famous example of a genius hero, but he's not the only character we love who is always the smartest guy in the room. Below are six of our favorite characters who are always a step ahead of everybody else, whether they're genetically blessed with intelligence, stuck with a bunch of people who don't know the rules, or maybe even gifted at talking out of their butts. They might not ever get the chance to match wits with Holmes, but we trust in their brilliance all the same.

Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting

Sherlock Holmes is a demonstrative genius. He can’t wait until the moment when those around him finally figure out his intelligence. Will Hunting (Matt Damon) takes the opposite approach. He buries his brilliance beneath a tough-guy veneer, because he fears that embracing it will only distance himself from his beloved, blue-collar “Southie” crew. But a complicated math equation posted on a blackboard is too much for Hunting to ignore, and once the cat is let out of the bag regarding his book smarts, there’s no going back. In a way, Will Hunting personifies Matt Damon – an incredibly handsome and gifted actor who burst onto the scene as a writer (one with an Oscar, thank you very much). Damon always was going to be capable of bigger things, yet had to be coaxed out of that comfort zone and into the blinding spotlight of fame and celebrity. Deep down, I’m guessing Damon’s rarely been happier than when he and co-writer Ben Affleck were constructing memorable scenes like the “How do you like them apples?” comeback. But he and his character, Will Hunting, prove that once latent genius is recognized, containing it is virtually impossible.

Andy Dufresne

The Shawshank Redemption

For much of the movie, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) doesn't seem like the Smartest Guy in the Room at all. Andy isn't big enough or strong enough to defend himself from the brutal sexual assaults of Boggs and "the Sisters." As the movie says, Andy is faced with the choice to either get busy living, or get busy dying. So he begins using the only resource he has: his mind. He trades tax expertise for protection from the guards, for small comforts for himself and his friends, for an easier life. But when Warden Norton cruelly puts Andy in his place, it looks like Andy might finally yield to despair. And then he vanishes from his cell, the Warden tosses a pebble through an oversized girly poster, and the true extent of Andy's brilliance is revealed. Because sometimes it isn't enough to be smart; sometimes you have to be patient enough to play the long con. With patience and time, Andy not only stages an impossible escape and gets his revenge, he provides a friend with that most valuable commodity: hope.

Ace Ventura

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

When talking about guys who are smarter than the room, you might not initially think a man who frequently speaks out of his butt would make the cut. Don't let Ace Ventura's antics throw you-- he is probably the best detective, human, pet or otherwise, n all of Miami. A modern day Sherlock Holmes, his methods and cases may seem unorthodox (because they are) but there is no question that the case of the missing Miami Dophins mascot (Snowflake) would not have been solved without the investigative genius of the Pet Dick. He not only bests all the other investigators ("Loooooosssers") at pretty much each and every crime scene ("Roger Podacter was... Murdered") but he also wins every single battle of wits and words, successfully sparring with everyone from Detective Aguado to his snooping landlord. Finally, Ace is the only one able to find out the, uh, hidden connection between the Lieutenant and former Miami Dolphins kicker Ray Finkle ("laces out!"), which breaks the case wide open and leads to the rescue of Snowflake. Oh, and Dan Marino. "If I'm not back in five minutes... just wait longer." Genius.

Randy Meeks

Scream

“The police are always off track with this shit! If they'd watch Prom Night, they'd save time! There's a formula to it. A very simple formula! Everybody’s a suspect!” There for comic relief as much as he is to guide the viewers and the characters through the rules of horror, Randy Meeks doesn’t quite break the fourth wall in Scream, but he does lean against it as he brings enough meta to the film to make it nearly as much a comedy as it is a horror movie. Serving as one of the potential victims, a suspected killer, and in parts, almost a voluntary narrator to Wes Craven’s 1996 horror film, Randy’s the one who’s not only immersed in the mess of killings, but also able to step back just enough to see it from the perspective of a scary movie, which as it happens, is how the killers modeled their crimes. Call it genius, or call it his way of dealing with actual murders by detaching himself through his love of movies. Either way, it works and it puts him a shade ahead of the curve as a possible target.

Lisbeth Salander

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

When Lisbeth Salander walks into a room, she doesn't look anyone in the eye or even say hello. She sits down and gets down to business, spouting off everything she knows about the subject in question-- which is almost always more than anyone else could have imagined-- and only revealing her opinion in half-hidden smirks or glares. Blessed with a photographic memory and expert hacking skills, Salander wasn't born knowing everything but has no trouble finding it out, making her both a crack investigator and supremely confident in any context, even when she's getting mugged on the subway or scorned by the people who judge her for her punk clothing and jet black hair. As played by either Noomi Rapace in the Swedish films or Rooney Mara in this year's American version-- take your pick, they're both great-- Lisbeth Salander overcomes the challenge that most women in face in getting on a list like this by simply not giving a damn that no one thinks women can be powerful. She's mean, she's brilliant, and if you doubt her she'll only prove it stronger every single time.

Verbal Kint

The Usual Suspects

When U.S. Customs special agent Dave Kujan, played by Chazz Palminteri, first meets Verbal Kint, he doesn’t see a criminal mastermind. He only sees a talkative middle-aged man with a widow’s peak, cerebral palsy, and a bad limp. But at the end of The Usual Suspects, it’s proven just how wrong Kujan is. Unlike many of the other characters on this list, Verbal doesn’t let the audience know just how smart he is until the final scenes and his engineering of the whole plot doesn’t become fully apparent until the viewer has watched Bryan Singer’s film twice. Everything, from Kobayashi to the ship at San Pedro harbor is part of a setup he had orchestrated from the beginning. Kint is so brilliant, in fact, that by the end of the movie we’re not even sure what details of his story are true or false, as he has culled names and information from his surroundings to fool the authorities. His ruse doesn’t have the greatest staying power, as Kujan discovers the truth soon after Kint has left his office, but it’s more than enough time to get away. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. The truth is, though, that he does, and just when you think you have him, he’s gone.

At midnight EST last night the embargo on reviews of David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was lifted and the floodgates opened to reveal overwhelmingly positive responses. With 21 reviews logged on Rotten Tomatoes, only two have been negative and our own Katey Rich called it a "bracing and completely absorbing thriller" (my review should be up soon, and I loved it as well). All of the good buzz should only serve to heighten anticipation for the movie and now Sony has opted to throw fans a bone.

It has been announced that The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo will now be released early...by about five hours. The trade says that instead of having screenings start at midnight on December 21st, theaters around the country will now hold showings a few hours early, starting at 7:00pm on December 20th. Discussing the decision, Sony chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution Jeff Blake said, "This is one of the busiest times of the year for moviegoing and we can't wait to share this outstanding thriller with audiences all over the world. We feel that by opening for nighttime shows on December 20th, fans of the book will be given the perfect opportunity to get jump start on the release of the exceptional film."

This really is a smart move. As Blake explained, next week is a crazy time for new releases, with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and The Adventures of Tintin also set to come out on December 21st. While it's not much of a buffer, why not take advantage of the fact that fans of Stieg Larsson's books and David Fincher want to see the movie as early as they can? It may not end up having the biggest impact on the movie's box office totals, but it's still a good plan.

David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is explicit in almost every way, featuring graphic scenes of rape and torture, copious nudity from leading lady Rooney Mara, and even some blunt discussions of the Swedish legal system-- OK, OK, that last one probably didn't contribute to its hard-R rating. But what's brilliant about the film is the way Fincher's attention to detail makes all of that more than just titillation or exploitation; even when you see Mara's Lisbeth Salander stripped naked, it's for a purpose and a clear explanation of her character. And yes, that includes the moment when you see Lisbeth Salander's pubic hair.

Yeah, you heard me. How the movie hung on to its R rating without bumping up to NC-17 I have no idea, but there's one clear moment in Dragon Tattoo in which you glimpse Salander's pubic hair-- and according to Mara, even that tiny glimpse was discussed intensely on the set. Here's how she explained the evolution of the merkin to Metro:

So there you have it-- the famously meticulous Fincher went back to the source material to make sure the merkin was absolutely perfect. For more on the ways Fincher and Mara make Dragon Tattoo fantastic, you can read my recently published review. The movie comes to theaters next Wednesday, December 21.

Airing from 1989 to 1999, Hard Copy was a show infamous for not simply reporting the news, but for being sensationalistic and, often, a little too graphic. What you may not know, however, is that years before Stieg Larsson began writing his world-famous novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Hard Copy had already done a nine-minute segment about the fictional disappearance of Harriet Vanger.

I am, of course, aware of the difference between what's real and what's imaginary, but there really is a Hard Copy segment about the case: it just happens to be fake. Mouth Taped Shut, the viral site for the upcoming David Fincher adaptation of Larsson's book, has created its own video parodying Hard Copy and telling the story of the case at the center of the new film. Check out the video below.

As you can see, they really went all out creating this, and perhaps its biggest effect is making me happy we finally moved beyond VHS tapes. While the information isn't really anything new for people that have read the books or even seen the Swedish language adaptation, I could actually see this nine-minute report being helpful to those completely unfamiliar with the story. It doesn't have any spoilers, and is basically pure exposition. If you have a friend who is concerned about the dense nature of the mystery behind The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, just send them a link to this video.

The new David Fincher film, which is set to be released on December 21, stars Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and Joely Richardson. To learn more about the movie, be sure to head over to our Blend Film Database.

On Sunday I received an e-mail from a Sony publicist I'd never heard from, with the subject line in call caps: "URGENT REVIEW NOTICE / THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO." The e-mail was intended to both warn film critics about a brouhaha that had broken out thanks to The New Yorker critic David Denby, who saw the film on November 28, signed an embargo agreement saying he wouldn't publish a review until December 13, then went ahead and published his review anyway. The e-mail named Denby specifically as the embargo breaker, and was not so subtly threatening the rest of us: "We have punished Denby, and he is a big-deal film critic. Don't think we won't do the same."

Denby and The New Yorker stood their ground, resulting in a heated e-mail exchange between Denby and Dragon Tattoo produce Scott Rudin, which you can read at The Playlist. But only today has the film's director, David Fincher, spoken up about the mess, in an interview with The Miami Herald. Unsurprisingly Fincher sides with his producer, but says with no hesitation that film critics are part of the business of getting films out there, and they need to play ball.

He also suggested his ideal strategy for screening a film for critics, which is course, is something no one will ever actually agree to but probably nice to think about for a director as controlled and detail-obsessed as Fincher:

Fincher has always seems more than a little press shy, and even in the relentless promotional effort for The Social Network he kept his distance-- that probably helped Tom Hooper take the Best Director Oscar that Fincher richly deserved. But while this, in his words, tempest in a teapot rages on around his film, I don't blame Fincher for being annoyed. He's not trying to control the opinions of film critics or change the minds of people who didn't like his movie; he just wants people to stick to their word, and not throw a wrench into the difficult process of releasing a movie as big as this one. I'm obviously inclined to side with my fellow film critics in most instances, but in this case, it's hard not to sympathize with Fincher, caught in the middle of this just for having made a movie people care about.

In addition to releasing six tracks from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack and offering his and Karen O's cover of "Immigrant Song," Trent Reznor linked last night to a new eight-minute trailer for the movie, complete with music he and collaborator Atticus Ross scored specifically for this trailer. You can stream the whole thing in high-res at the iTunes store for free-- and we really recommend you do that-- but you can also watch it below, via an embed procured by our friends at The Film Stage. Take a look below:

There's so much plot in the movie, based on the first book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, that this trailer can explain a whole lot without really spoiling anything. In fact, if you haven't read the books it's probably good to familiarize yourself with the basics before diving into the movie. Even if you don't care about the plot, though, it's worth getting a look at David Fincher's always amazing cinematography, which spans a huge range of color palettes and styles while both depicting the world of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) and revisiting the historical mystery that she and Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) will be solving. As you might know from seeing the original Swedish movies, this much plot can feel daunting and plodding when not told with style; that seems to be one hurdle Fincher has no trouble clearing.

I've been listening to the six-track sampler from Reznor's score all morning, and i hope you have been too. The music here is equally as impressive, and it's kind of great to think that Reznor is really putting in the effort to make sure everything is as detail-perfect as Fincher undoubtedly wants it to be. The Girl WIth The Dragon Tattoo isn't coming to theaters until December 21, but at the rate we've been going, I guarantee we'll be hearing plenty more about it until then.

The real story behind The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo starts 40 years in the past. Sure, for most of the movie we follow disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and anti-social hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) as they try to solve a murder for retired industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), but the crime was committed decades earlier, during a horrific car crash on the only bridge off of the Vanger estate. Now the film's viral site, Mouth-Taped-Shut.com, has provided a look back to that fateful day.

The website has posted a new video, filmed using a super 8 camera, that seems to be taken from a truck passing the accident after the situation has been calmed. Does it contain any secrets or evidence about the murder? Watch and find out for yourself.

In other The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo news, The Playlist is reporting that there is some behind the scenes drama going on with the project. Mirroring director David Fincher's dealings with Paramount back when The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was about to be released, the site says that the studio and the filmmaker are currently butting heads over the length of the film. Apparently Fincher wants to release his three hour cut of the movie, while Sony wants him to cut it down to two hours and 20 minutes. Another point of controversy is the Mouth-Taped-Shut site, which the story says Sony doesn't have any control over. The feuding may end up affecting whether or not Fincher would come back for the second and third movies in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.

I must admit that I would be extremely interested in seeing Fincher's three-hour cut. While Niels Arden Oplev's Swedish-language adaptation of Larsson's book was solid, its 2 and a half hour run time simply wasn't enough to contain the entire story and many of the interesting elements from the novel were left out. The reason Sony would be against a three-hour movie is simply because it would automatically mean that theaters wouldn't be able to host as many screenings. Considering there is almost exactly two months left before the film is released on December 21st, this is a situation that will need to be resolved sooner than later.

For more about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, including posters, images, news and trailers, be sure to head over to our Blend Film Database.

Last week, select folks around the country received an incredibly cool treat as early screenings of Rod Lurie’s remake of Straw Dogs were preempted by an 8-minute long trailer for David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. While nobody expected the full preview to come online, today brings a brand new trailer that clocks in at approximately half that length and is filled with just as much awesome.

Check out the trailer below or in HD over on Apple.

Based on the worldwide best seller by Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo centers on disgraced journalist named Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who is hired by a retired industrialist (Christopher Plummer) to solve a forty-year-old mystery. Working with a young, antisocial hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), Mikael investigates the various members of the industrialist's family and uncovers some truly horrifying secrets. Based on a script by Steven Zaillian and featuring a score by Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network), the film is set to debut in theaters on December 21st.

For more on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, including news, posters, images and trailers, be sure to head over to our Blend Film Database.

Back when summer began over Memorial Day weekend, the internet lit up with chatter about an apparently pirated teaser trailer for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which lingered so long online without a takedown notice from Sony that rumor spread the studio may have leaked the trailer themselves. You can't pull off the "fake leaked trailer" gambit twice, but Sony may once again be piquing our interest by masquerading as something more underground with Mouth Taped Shut, a Tumblr that purports to be a Dragon Tattoo fan site but which features behind-the-scenes stuff no regular fan would have access to.

What kind of stuff? Oh, video of David Fincher sitting behind the monitors on set, for one thing. You can take a look at that below:

There are also evocative shots of both what appear to be the set and production offices, spanning both snow-covered chairs and editing room screens. I especially like this one, which appears to be of the missing girl at the center of the film's mystery, Harriet Vanger, along with her cousin Anita:

There's nothing in here that's exactly new to see, but this Tumblr seems worth following for these cool little photos, and who knows what else might pop up on there in the future. It seems likely that this is a Sony-sanctioned site-- you don't get that kind of access without the approval of the people on top-- but for now that doesn't seem to diminish the site's very cool cachet. We'll be keeping an eye on it as we get through the long fall on our way to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo's release on December 21.

(h/t to Slashfilm for digging up the site)

As the fall movie season gears up with a lot of Oscar hopefuls preparing for their Toronto Film Festival or New York Film Festival debuts, there's one huge, feverishly anticipated movie that's keeping well under the radar. David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo exploded online with a mesmerizing trailer over Memorial Day weekend, but has been conspicuously quiet throughout the summer, assuming correctly there's no chance we'd forget it anyway. It doesn't take much for the movie to grab our attention again, and now the official site has done just that with two simple moves: posting a gallery of photos and character descriptions for all the movie's main players, and accompanying it with what sounds like a selection from Trent Reznor's score.

Check out four of the character descriptions, including those for our heroes Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), below, but definitely click on them for both the full gallery of characters-- 18 in all-- and Reznor's haunting music, which has clear similarities to the work he did for The Social Network but it also a little more ghostly, and dare I say, Nordic? I might just be projecting because I know it's going to go along with a movie set in chilly Sweden, but somehow this music seems like the last thing you'd hear before freezing to death out on the tundra somewhere-- or, in the case of the Dragon Tattoo book, encountering a murderer on a remote Swedish island.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a.k.a. the Feel Bad Movie of Christmas, comes to theaters on December 21. Try not to gnaw off your arm in anticipation between now and then.

The Best Director Oscar that once seemed promised to him now may be slipping out of David Fincher's hands, as The King's Speech director Tom Hooper moves up in the pack and The Social Network's Best Picture win seems more in doubt than ever. So even though Fincher would probably much rather hunker down on the set of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and give the rest of the world a giant middle finger, he's instead agreeing to extensive celebrity profiles, the latest in the new, glossy Hollywood Reporter.

It's not all that different from the big W Magazine photoshoot from last month, and absent any of the new images from the Dragon Tattoo set. There is a titillating details in there, though, that's gotten at least all the guy-centric movie blogs in a tizzy. Fincher showed the THR reporter his mock-up for what he wants the Dragon Tattoo poster to be, and well, you're pretty much guaranteed to never see it yourself:

Someday there will be a feminist literature thesis written about Lisbeth Salander, and why the entire world is obsessed both with his spiky appearance and the idea of seeing her naked. In the meantime, though, we've got this poster and the images that came online last month, emphasizing both Salander's rough edges and sex appeal. You can count on the eventual poster to do the same, and probably be some variation of what Fincher showed the reporter, though doubtlessly with more modesty added.

Weirdly there's another detail about a movie poster in the story, this one about the Social Network's iconic "Punk. Prophet. Billionaire" poster. Apparently Fincher originally wanted to include the epithet "Judas," but was overruled by the studio. You can read more details like that, along with the general history of Fincher's career in case you need a refresher, in the full article.

David Fincher is essentially hiding out these days in an effort to ride out wave after wave of accolades for The Social Network. He's got a good reason for the vanishing act, at least-- he's over in Europe shooting The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the American adaptation of the hugely successful series of Swedish novels, starring Social Network muse Rooney Mara along with Daniel Craig. Fincher could easily spend the next six months working on the film and surfacing only to accept the occasional award (including his inevitable Oscar), but for some reason he's given a big splashy interview to W Magazine, which is also featuring Mara in full-on Lisbeth Salander gear on its cover.

The cover image is what you see above, but it's well worth clicking over to the online article for the full story, which covers both Fincher's early Hollywood experience-- "I know what it’s like to be in a room full of people who just think it’s so cute that you’re young and have an idea about how things should be done"-- to his plans for the Dragon Tattoo movie. Fans of the book will be interested to know the movie will be a far less faithful adaptation of the book than the Swedish film; screenwriter Steven Zaillian has toned down Blomkvist's sexual exploits, increased Lisbeth's aggressiveness, and changed the ending entirely, though what happens now isn't specified in the article of course. Mara and Fincher also talk about the hellish audition process she endured alongside the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Natalie Portman; Fincher had five or six actresses act out Lisbeth's big rape revenge scene-- "The girls had to kick a dildo up his ass. That’s Salander’s big scene, and we had to see if they could do it.” Mara admits she was at the end of her rope when Fincher finally called her to say she had the part.

Check out the article, which also explains Lisbeth's bloody knuckles on the magazine cover, and look for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo less than a year from now on December 21.

For most of the past year, fans were up-in-arms as the release date for Matt Reeves' Let Me In approached. A remake of the Swedish film Let The Right One In from director Tomas Alfredson, fans didn't see the reasoning behind the remake and believed that it would only service to besmirch the original film. Then October 1 arrived and people realized something: Let Me In is a damn fine adaptation of the same book that Alfredson had based his film on. Perhaps someone should let The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo director Niels Arden Oplev know about that.

Oplev recently gave an interview to Word & Film where he expressed distress over the English language adaptation currently being made by David Fincher. He starts the conversation about the new film by discussing Sony's PR and saying that their work is discrediting the performance by Noomi Rapace, who played heroine Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish language films. He then went on to comment about other people's outrage over the "remake," saying:

I must say that these comments come across as quite unfair towards the currently in-production Fincher film in many ways, but let's take it one by one, shall we?

First of all, it's completely unfair of Oplev to make comments about Sony public relations, simply because what they are doing is their job. What exactly does he expect them to say - that Rooney Mara is a great actress but is no Noomi Rapace? Nobody is criticizing Rapace's performance and, in fact, the role has already earned her quite a few jobs in Hollywood. This is simply a case of a director being too over protective of his star, even when she doesn't need it.

Next is the reference to Fincher's film as a "remake." Much like Reeves did with Let Me In, Fincher isn't remaking the Swedish film, but is instead simply adapting the source material (see his comments on the matter here). Having both read Stieg Larsson's novel and seen Oplev's first film, I can say that this is entirely doable. Because of the book's girth (it's nearly 600 pages), it would be a challenge for any writer to shrink down the story to a manageable length, but even in two and a half hours, Oplev cut out some major plot points in the story, such as Mikael Blomkvist's relationship with Erika Berger and dedication to the Millennium newspaper. It's not only possible, but likely that Fincher's film will explore areas that Oplev's did not.

Lastly, there's the reference to La Femme Nikita that is entirely unwarranted and, in many ways, a cheap shot. This comparison lines up the man who directed Zodiac, Fight Club and Se7en against the guy who made Short Circuit and Wargames (neither are awful films, but there is truly no comparison). Nikita also happened to be an original story by Besson that Point of No Return did directly work from, as opposed to an original source. It's apples and oranges.

I don't have an issue with Oplev wanting to protect the sanctity of his work - I wish other directors were as passionate about their films as he seems to be - but his comments here are completely misdirected. If Fincher's film comes out and reveals itself to be a dud, Oplev will have full rights to come out and say, "You should watch my movie instead." The English language adaptation is not an attack on the Swedish language film and it's a mystery why Oplev is perceiving it that way. Would things be fine and dandy if his version of the story was the only one out there? Absolutely - it's a quality film and a much better-than-average mystery story. If Larsson, may he rest in peace, were the one complaining, that would be a horse of a different color. But the truth is that Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo may have absolutely nothing to do with David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is really taking shape. Nearly every puzzle piece is in place and the crew is already set up and in the midst of filming in Sweden. Only it seems they have forgotten one of the key pieces to the murder mystery: the victim. That changes today.

Just Jared reports that Alexandra Daddario will play the young Harriet Vanger in the English language film based on the novel by Stieg Larsson. In the story, the young Harriet has been missing for more than forty years and is presumed murdered by her uncle Henrik (Christopher Plummer). Wanting to know the truth behind her disappearance, Henrik hires a disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) to discover the truth. Daddario is best known for her role in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in which she played the female lead.

For obvious reasons, the role of Harriet isn't that large, so I'm quite curious how they plan to utilize Daddario in the film. Will she only show up in the photographs from the day she went missing or will there be extended flashback sequences? Which ever way they decide to work it, with Fincher behind the camera and Oscar-winning writer Steven Zaillian behind the pen, it's hard not to have total faith in their production.

With The Social Network a critical smash and working its magic in theaters, attention can now be dedicated to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, David Fincher's follow-up and adaptation of the best selling novel. Currently in production in Sweden with Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara as the stars, the film is certainly one of the most anticipated of 2011. Now they've added three more names to the cast.

Swedish website SvD (translated to English) reports that Joely Richardson, Steven Berkoff and David Dencik have joined the cast that also includes Christopher Plummer, Robin Wright and Stellan Skarsgard. Dencik, who played Janne Dahlman in the Swedish adaptations of the book, is the first actor to be in both versions of the book. For those unfamiliar with the story, Craig plays a journalist who is hired by an aging industrialist (Plummer) to find out who murdered his niece forty years before.

The website also got the opportunity to speak with Fincher about the project, who, at first, was a bit dismissive, saying, "I've just started with it. I have not had time to figure out some cliché answers yet to use when I asked about it," but then confirmed that while he has an appreciation for the Swedish film, they are making their own adaptation of the book and that his goal is to create an "atmosphere reminiscent of Chinatown." It's also worth noting that he hasn't committed himself to making the full trilogy, saying, "If the first is not good, it's no use to do more."

Having read the both the book and seen the first film, I'm elated to hear that Fincher is making his own adaptation, rather than a remake. While far from a bad film, the Swedish version cut out and changed so much from the story that it felt rushed and underdone even with a 150 minute run-time. While I've been a fan of every Fincher film since Se7en, never has my confidence in him been higher than after seeing The Social Network, and I can only see him doing great things with Stieg Larsson's book.

The casting demolition derby is finally over, and the American Lisbeth Salander has at last been selected. Sony announced today that Rooney Mara has been cast opposite Daniel Craig in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, an English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson's novel that's set for release in December 2011. 25-year-old Mara starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street earlier this year but probably more importantly will appear in this fall's The Social Network, which was also directed by Dragon Tattoo helmet David Fincher.

Fincher was reportedly on a global hunt for the right Lisbeth, auditioning both unknowns and A-list actresses to the point that basically every actress under the age of 30 was at one point rumored to be getting the job. Mara has been in the running at least since last July, and last we heard was up against French actress Lea Seydoux for the role. Production starts next month in Sweden, so it's probably a good thing she's spent so long auditioning for the role-- she already knows exactly where she'll put the piercings and the fake tattoos.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its two follow-ups, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, is one of the more bizarre literary success stories of recent years, given that all three books describe in detail rape, murder and extreme violence against men and women alike. All eyes will be on Mara as she tackles the complex, harsh and brilliant character of Lisbeth Salander, the guarded and violent computer hacker at the center of all three novels. It's exactly the star-making role any young actress would hope for; now we all have to watch to see if Mara can take advantage of it.

(Photo credit: Merrick Morton)

Earlier today we learned that Stellan Skarsgard was in talks with David Fincher to play Martin Vanger in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a good role but one that, without spoiling anything, isn't that relevant as the three-part book series goes on. There are only a handful of characters who play major roles in all three of the Stieg Larsson books, and now one of the best ones, Erika Berger, seems to have finally been cast.

According to Deadline, Robin Wright is on board to play Erika Berger, the no-nonsense editor of the magazine Millennium who is also the occasional lover of the magazine's star reporter, Mikael Blomkvist (the lead character of the series, to be played by Daniel Craig). In the books Berger is described as a tough woman who's also incredibly attractive and capable of carrying on a relationship with both her husband and Blomkvist, all while shepherding one of Sweden's best magazines. She's pretty much a superhuman character, and there aren't many actresses other than Wright who would be capable of the part.

The trickiest and most important character in the series, Lisbeth Salander, has yet to be cast, but with Craig, Skarsgard and Wright in place, Fincher is building up a solid supporting cast to back up the young actress he chooses, who I'm hoping will be either a total newcomer or Katie Jarvis. Either way, with this many supporting players jumping on board, it's only a matter of time before we have our Lisbeth at last, and this incredibly fun guessing came has to come to an end.