1/14/2011

More images of Rooney Mara from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Fincher reveals changes from the book

I love the polarized responses folks had to the first images of Rooney Mara transformed into Lisbeth Salander for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You either love it like a lot of people do, or you outright hate it. I think a lot of the vitriol comes from the fact that Noomi Rapace was so convincing, and it's barely been any time between the Swedish versions and David Fincher's remakes. Me, I'm less concerned by how she looks than I am with how Mara portrays the character. Although Lisbeth Salander is mostly mono-syllabic throughout a lot of the film, she has a certain energy and charisma to her every actress won't be able to match. Anyone can be made to look like a Goth chick.



See? Anyway, we've got a few new photos of Mara from the W Magazine shoot that have already caused
further gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Those shots can be seen below, but if you actually read the interview, it states pretty bluntly states that the film is going to be very different from the Stieg Larsson novel...

"The script, which captures the novel's bleak tone (its original Swedish title was Men Who Hate Women), was written by Academy Award winner Steven Zaillian, who wrote Schindler's List, and it departs rather dramatically from the book. Blomkvist is less promiscuous, Salander is more aggressive, and, most notably, the ending-the resolution of the drama-has been completely changed. This may be sacrilege to some, but Zaillian has improved on Larsson-the script's ending is more interesting."

Ok, now I haven't read the books, but I've seen all three movies, which I liked but didn't love. One of my complaints was that they dragged on lacked momentum at times. However, the characters were not the problem. The fact that Blomkvist isn't a perfect guy is part of what made him interesting, and Lisbeth definitely does not need to be altered in any way. Color me worried.  So before people get all up in arms over a few photos, how about taking a moment and getting riled up about what might be happening to the story. With that said, check out the rest of the photos below.