The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film)

''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'' is a 2011 neo-noir psychological thriller film based on the 2005 novel by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was directed by David Fincher with a screenplay by Steven Zaillian. Starring Daniel Craig as journalist Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, it tells the story of Blomkvist's investigation to find out what happened to a girl from a wealthy family who disappeared 40 years prior. He recruits the help of Salander, a computer hacker.

Sony Pictures Entertainment began development on the film, a co-production of the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany, in 2009. It took the company a few months to obtain the rights to the novel, while also recruiting Zaillian and Fincher. The casting process for the lead roles was exhaustive and intense; Craig faced scheduling conflicts, and a number of actresses were sought for the role of Lisbeth Salander. The script took over six months to write, which included three months of analyzing the novel.

The film premiered at Odeon Leicester Square in London on December 12, 2011. A critical and commercial success, the film grossed $232.6 million on a $90 million budget and received highly positive reviews from critics, who praised Craig and Mara's performances as well as Fincher's direction, the score, and the film's tone and visuals. The film was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2011 and was a candidate for numerous awards, winning, among others, the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, while Mara's performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Plot

In Stockholm, journalist Mikael Blomkvist is recovering from the legal and professional fallout of a libel suit brought against him by businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström. The wealthy Henrik Vanger offers Blomkvist evidence against Wennerström in exchange for an unusual task: investigate the 40-year-old disappearance and presumed murder of Henrik's grandniece, 16-year-old Harriet. Every year, Vanger receives a framed pressed flower, the same type she always gave him on his birthday before disappearing. He believes her killer is taunting him. Blomkvist moves into a cottage on the Vanger family estate on Hedestad Island.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander is a young, brilliant asocial investigator and hacker whose state-appointed guardian suffers a stroke. He is replaced by Nils Bjurman, a sadist who controls Salander's finances and extorts sexual favors by threatening to have her institutionalized. Unaware she is recording him, Bjurman chains Salander to his bed and brutally rapes her. At their next meeting, Salander tasers Bjurman, binds him, rapes him with a dildo, and tattoos "I'm a rapist pig" across his chest. Using the secret recording she made, she blackmails him into securing her financial independence and having no further contact with her.

Blomkvist explores the island and interviews Vanger's relatives, learning some were Nazi sympathizers during World War II. He uncovers a list of names and numbers that turn out to be Bible verse references, and recruits Salander as his research assistant. She discovers a connection between the list and numerous young women brutally murdered from 1947 to 1967, indicating a serial killer. Many of the victims have Jewish names, making her theorize that the murders could have been motivated by antisemitism. One morning, Blomkvist finds the mutilated corpse of his cat on the doorstep. Another night, a bullet grazes his forehead; after Salander tends his wounds, they have sex. The pair learn that Harriet's late father, Gottfried, and later Martin, her brother, committed the murders.

While looking for more proof, Blomkvist gets caught by Martin and forced into a specially prepared basement. There, Blomkvist is gassed unconscious and placed in restraints. Martin brags about killing and raping women for decades, like his father, but admits to not knowing what happened to Harriet. Blomkvist is about to get killed when Salander arrives, attacks Martin and forces him to flee. She pursues him on her motorcycle until he runs off the road and hits a propane tank, blowing up the car and killing him. Salander nurses Blomkvist back to health and reveals that, as a child, she was institutionalized after attempting to burn her father alive.

They deduce that Harriet is alive and in hiding; traveling to London, they find her. Harriet reveals that Gottfried sexually abused her when she was 14 for an entire year before she was able to defend herself, accidentally killing him in the process. Martin continued the abuse after Gottfried's death. Her cousin, Anita, smuggled her off the island and let Harriet assume her identity in London, though Anita and her husband were later killed in a car accident. Finally free of her brother, Harriet returns to Sweden and tearfully reunites with Henrik.

As promised, Henrik gives Blomkvist information against Wennerström, but it proves to be outdated and useless. Salander reveals that she has hacked Wennerström's accounts and discovered that he is laundering money for various criminal syndicates. She gives Blomkvist evidence of Wennerström's crimes, which Blomkvist publishes in a scathing editorial, ruining Wennerström and bringing Blomkvist to national prominence. Salander, in disguise, travels to Switzerland and removes two billion euros from Wennerström's secret accounts. Wennerström is later murdered in an apparent gangland shooting.

On her way to give Blomkvist a Christmas present, Salander sees him and his married lover, Erika Berger, being affectionate. She discards the gift and rides away on her motorbike.

Cast

* Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist: A co-owner for Swedish magazine ''Millennium'', Blomkvist is devoted to exposing the corruptions and malfeasance of government, attracting infamy for his tendency to "go too far". Craig competed with George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen, and Brad Pitt as candidates for the role. Initial concerns over schedule conflicts with the production of ''Cowboys & Aliens'' (2011) and ''Skyfall'' (2012) prompted Craig to postpone the casting process. Given the uncertainty surrounding ''Skyfall'' following Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's bankruptcy, Sony Pictures Entertainment and DreamWorks worked out a schedule and Craig agreed to take the part. The British actor was required to gain weight and adopted a neutral accent to befit Stockholm's worldly cultural fabric. Having read the book amid its "initial craze", Craig commented, "It's one of those books you just don't put down" ..There's just this immediate feeling that bad things are going to happen and I think that's part of why they've been so readable for people."
* Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander: Salander is a computer hacker who has survived severe emotional and sexual abuse. The character was a "vulnerable victim-turned-vigilante" with the "take-no-prisoners" attitude of Lara Croft and the "cool, unsentimental intellect" of Spock. Fincher felt that Salander's eccentric persona was enthralling, and stated, "there's a kind of wish fulfillment to her in the way that she takes care of things, the way she will only put up with so much, but there are other sides to her as well." Casting was complicated by the raft of prominent candidates such as Emily Browning, Eva Green, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Lawrence, Carey Mulligan, Elliot Page, Natalie Portman, Léa Seydoux, Vanessa Hudgens, Sophie Lowe, Sarah Snook, Kristen Stewart, Olivia Thirlby, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Watson, Evan Rachel Wood and Yolandi Visser; Lowe, Mara, Seydoux, and Snook were the final four candidates. Despite the hype, some eventually withdrew from consideration due to the time commitment and low pay. Mara had worked with Fincher in his 2010 film ''The Social Network''. Fincher, while fond of the actress' youthful appearance, found it difficult at first to mold her to match Salander's antisocial demeanor, which was a vast contrast from her earlier role as the personable Erica. Mara went through multiple changes in her appearance to become Salander. Her hair was dyed black and cut into various jagged points, giving the appearance that she cut it herself. In addition to her transgressive appearance, which was described as a "mash-up of brazen Seventies punk and spooky Eighties goth with a dash of S&M temptress" by Lynn Hirschberg of '' W'', Mara participated in a formal screening and was filmed by Fincher on a subway in Los Angeles in an effort to persuade the executives of Sony Pictures that she was a credible choice.
* Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger: Vanger is a wealthy businessman who launches an extensive investigation into his family's affairs. Despite calling the Vanger family "dysfunctional", Plummer said of the character: "I love the character of the old man, and I sympathize with him. He's really the nicest old guy in the whole book. Everybody is a bit suspect, and still are at the end. Old Vanger has a nice straight line, and he gets his wish." Plummer wanted to imbue the character with irony, an element he found to be absent from the novel's Henrik. "I think that the old man would have it," he opined, "because he's a very sophisticated old guy ..used to a great deal of power. So in dealing with people, he would be very good ..he would be quite jokey, and know how to seduce them." Julian Sands portrays a young Henrik Vanger.
* Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger: Martin is the current CEO of Vanger Industries. Skarsgård was allured by the character's dual nature, and was fascinated that he got to portray him in "two totally different ways". Regarding Martin's "very complex" and "complicated" personality, the Swedish actor said, "He can be extremely charming, but he also can seem to be a completely different person at different points in the film." While consulting with Fincher, the director wanted Skarsgård to play Martin without reference to the book.
* Steven Berkoff as Dirch Frode, Head Legal Counsel for Vanger Industries
* Robin Wright as Erika Berger: Blomkvist's business partner and editor-in-chief of ''Millennium'' magazine. She's also Blomkvist's occasional lover.
* Yorick van Wageningen as Nils Bjurman: As Salander's legal guardian, he uses his position to sexually abuse and eventually rape her. Salander turns the tables on him, torturing him and branding him across the torso with the words I AM A RAPIST PIG. Fincher wanted the character to be worse than a typical antagonist, although he did not want to emulate the stereotypical "mustache-twirling pervert". The director considered Van Wageningen to be the embodiment of a versatile actor—one who was a "full-fledged human being" and a "brilliant" actor. "He was able to bring his performance from a logical place in Bjurman's mind and find the seething morass of darkness inside," Fincher stated. Bjurman's multifaceted psyche was the main reason Van Wageningen wanted to play the role. The Dutch actor said, "This character goes through a lot and I wasn't quite sure I wanted to go through all that. I started out half way between the elation of getting to work with David Fincher and the dread of this character, but I was able to use both of those things. We both thought the most interesting route would be for Bjurman to seem half affable. The challenge was not in finding the freak violence in the guy but finding the humanity of him."
* Joely Richardson as Harriet Vanger: Henrik's long-lost grandniece who went into hiding posing as her cousin Anita. In performing her "tricky" character, Richardson recalled that Fincher wanted her to embrace a "darker, edgier" persona, without sugarcoating, and not "resolved or healed". "Even if you were starting to move towards the direction of resolved or healed, he still wanted it edgy and dark. There are no straightforward emotions in the world of this film." Moa Garpendal portrays a young Harriet Vanger.
* Goran Višnjić as Dragan Armansky, head of Milton Security, Salander's employer
* Donald Sumpter as Detective Morell. David Dencik portrays a young Morell.
* Ulf Friberg as Hans-Erik Wennerström, CEO of the Wennerström Group
* Geraldine James as Cecilia Vanger
* Embeth Davidtz as Annika Giannini, Mikael's sister and a lawyer
* Josefin Asplund as Pernilla Blomkvist, Mikael's daughter
* Per Myrberg as Harald Vanger. Gustaf Hammarsten portrays a young Harald.
* Arly Jover as Liv, Martin's girlfriend
* Tony Way as Plague, Salander's hacker friend
* Fredrik Dolk as Bertil Camnermarker, Counsel for the Wennerström Group
* Alan Dale as Detective Isaksson
* Leo Bill as Trinity, another of Salander's hacker friends
* Élodie Yung as Miriam Wu, Salander's occasional lover
* Joel Kinnaman as Christer Malm

Production

Conception and writing

The success of Stieg Larsson's novel created Hollywood interest in adapting the book, as became apparent in 2009 when Sony's Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal pursued the idea of developing an "American" version unrelated to the Swedish film adaptation released that year. By December, two major developments occurred for the project: Steven Zaillian, who had recently completed the script for '' Moneyball'' (2011), became the screenwriter, while producer Scott Rudin finalized a partnership allocating full copyrights to Sony. Zaillian, who was unfamiliar with the novel, got a copy from Rudin. The screenwriter recalled, "They sent it to me and said, 'We want to do this. We will think of it as one thing for now. It's possible that it can be two and three, but let's concentrate on this one.'" After reading the book, the screenwriter did no research on the subject.
Fincher, who was requested with partner Cean Chaffin by Sony executives to read the novel,
was astounded by the series' size and success. As they began to read, the duo noticed that it had a tendency to take "readers on a lot of side trips"—"from detailed explanations of surveillance techniques to angry attacks on corrupt Swedish industrialists," professed ''The Hollywood Reporter'' Gregg Kilday. Fincher recalled of the encounter: "The ballistic, ripping-yarn thriller aspect of it is kind of a red herring in a weird way. It is the thing that throws Salander and Blomkvist together, but it is their relationship you keep coming back to. I was just wondering what 350 pages Zaillian would get rid of." Because Zaillian was already cultivating the screenplay, the director avoided interfering. After a conversation, Fincher was comfortable "they were headed in the same direction".

The writing process consumed approximately six months, including three months creating notes and analyzing the novel. Zaillian noted that, as time progressed, the writing accelerated. "As soon as you start making decisions," he explained, "you start cutting off all of the other possibilities of things that could happen. So with every decision that you make you are removing a whole bunch of other possibilities of where that story can go or what that character can do." Given the book's sizable length, Zaillian deleted elements to match Fincher's desired running time. Even so, Zaillan took significant departures from the book. To Zaillian, there was always a "low-grade" anxiety, "but I was never doing anything specifically to please or displease," he continued. "I was simply trying to tell the story the best way I could, and push that out of my mind. I didn't change anything just for the sake of changing it. There's a lot right about the book, but that part, I thought we could do it a different way, and it could be a nice surprise for the people that have read it."

Zaillian discussed many of the themes in Larsson's ''Millennium'' series with Fincher, taking the pair deeper into the novel's darker subjects, such as the psychological dissimilarities between rapists and murderers. Fincher was familiar with the concept, from projects such as ''Seven'' (1995) and ''Zodiac'' (2007). Zaillian commented, "A rapist, or at least our rapist, is about exercising his power over somebody. A serial killer is about destruction; they get off on destroying something. It's not about having power over something, it's about eliminating it. What thrills them is slightly different." The duo wanted to expose the novels' pivotal themes, particularly misogyny. "We were committed to the tack that this is a movie about violence against women about specific kinds of degradation, and you can't shy away from that. But at the same time you have to walk a razor thin line so that the audience can viscerally feel the need for revenge but also see the power of the ideas being expressed." Instead of the typical three-act structure, they reluctantly chose a five-act structure, which Fincher pointed out is "very similar to a lot of TV cop dramas."

Filming

Fincher and Zaillian's central objective was to maintain the novel's setting. To portray Larsson's vision of Sweden, and the interaction of light on its landscape, Fincher cooperated with an artistic team that included cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and production designer Donald Graham Burt. The film was wholly shot using Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED MX digital camera, chosen to help evoke Larsson's tone. The idea, according to Cronenweth, was to employ unorthodox light sources and maintain a realistic perspective. "So there may be shadows, there may be flaws, but it's reality. You allow silhouettes and darkness, but at the same time we also wanted shots to counter that, so it would not all be one continuous dramatic image." Sweden's climate was a crucial element in enhancing the mood. Cronenweth commented, "It's always an element in the background and it was very important that you feel it as an audience member. The winter becomes like a silent character in the film giving everything a low, cool-colored light that is super soft and non-direct." To get acquainted with Swedish culture, Burt set out on a month-long expedition across the country. He said of the process, "It takes time to start really taking in the nuances of a culture, to start seeing the themes that recur in the architecture, the landscape, the layouts of the cities and the habits of the people. I felt I had to really integrate myself into this world to develop a true sense of place for the film. It was not just about understanding the physicality of the locations, but the metaphysics of them, and how the way people live comes out through design."

Principal photography began in Stockholm, Sweden in September 2010. Production mostly took place at multiple locations in the city's central business district, including at the Stockholm Court House. One challenge was realizing the Vanger estate. They picked an eighteenth-century French architecture mansion Hofsta located approximately southwest of Stockholm. Filmmakers wanted to use a typical "manor from Småland" that was solemn, formal, and "very Old Money". "The Swedish are very good at the modern and the minimal but they also have these wonderful country homes that can be juxtaposed against the modern city—yet both speak to money." Principal photography relocated in October to Uppsala. On Queen Street, the facade of the area was renovated to mimic the Hotel Alder, after an old photograph of a building obtained by Fincher. From December onward, production moved to Zurich, Switzerland, where locations were established at Dolder Grand Hotel and the Zurich Airport. Because of the "beautiful" environment of the city, Fincher found it difficult to film in the area. Principal photography concluded in Oslo, Norway, where production took place at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. Recorded for over fifteen hours, twelve extras were sought for background roles. Filming also took place in the United Kingdom and the United States.

In one sequence the character Martin Vanger plays the song "Orinoco Flow" by Enya before beginning his torture of Mikael Blomkvist. David Fincher, the director, said that he believed that Martin "doesn't like to kill, he doesn't like to hear the screams, without hearing his favorite music" so therefore the character should play a song during the scene. Daniel Craig, the actor who played Blomkvist, selected "Orinoco Flow" on his iPod as a candidate song. Fincher said "And we all almost pissed ourselves, we were laughing so hard. No, actually, it's worse than that. He said, ‘Orinoco Flow!’ Everybody looked at each other, like, what is he talking about? And he said, ‘You know, "Sail away, sail away..."’ And I thought, this guy is going to make Blomkvist as metro as we need."

Title sequence

Tim Miller, creative director for the title sequence, wanted to develop an abstract narrative that reflected the pivotal moments in the novel, as well as the character development of Lisbeth Salander. It was arduous for Miller to conceptualize the sequence abstractly, given that Salander's occupation was a distinctive part of her personality. His initial ideas were modeled after a keyboard. "We were going to treat the keyboard like this giant city with massive fingers pressing down on the keys," Miller explained, "Then we transitioned to the liquid going through the giant obelisks of the keys." Among Miller's many vignettes was "The Hacker Inside", which revealed the character's inner disposition and melted them away. The futuristic qualities in the original designs provided for a much more cyberpunk appearance than the final product. In creating the "cyber" look for Salander, Miller said, "Every time I would show David a design he would say, 'More Tandy!' It's the shitty little computers from Radio Shack, the Tandy computers. They probably had vacuum tubes in them, really old technology. And David would go 'More Tandy', until we ended up with something that looked like we glued a bunch of computer parts found at a junkyard together."

Fincher wanted the vignette to be a "personal nightmare" for Salander, replaying her darkest moments. "Early on, we knew it was supposed to feel like a nightmare," Miller professed, who commented that early on in the process, Fincher wanted to use an artwork as a template for the sequence. After browsing through various paintings to no avail, Fincher chose a painting that depicted the artist, covered in black paint, standing in the middle of a gallery. Many of Miller's sketches contained a liquid-like component, and were rewritten to produce the "gooey" element that was so desired. "David said let's just put liquid in all of them and it will be this primordial dream ooze that's a part of every vignette," Miller recalled. "It ties everything together other than the black on black."

The title sequence includes abundant references to the novel, and exposes several political themes. Salander's tattoos, such as her phoenix and dragon tattoos, were incorporated. The multiple flower representations signified the biological life cycle, as well as Henrik, who received a pressed flower each year on his birthday. "One had flowers coming out of this black ooze," said Fincher, "it blossoms, and then it dies. And then a different flower, as that one is dying is rising from the middle of it. It was supposed to represent this cycle of the killer sending flowers." Ultimately, the vignette becomes very conceptual because Miller and his team took "a whole thought, and cut it up into multiple different shots that are mixed in with other shots". In one instance, Blomkvist is strangled by strips of newspaper, a metaphor for the establishment squelching his exposes.

In the "Hot Hands" vignette, a pair of rough, distorted hands that embrace Salander's face and melt it represent all that's bad in men. The hands that embrace Blomkvist's face and shatter it, represent wealth and power. Themes of domestic violence become apparent as a woman's face shatters after a merciless beating; this also ties in the brutal beating of Salander's mother by her father, an event revealed in the sequel, ''The Girl Who Played with Fire'' (2006).

A cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (1970) plays throughout the title sequence. The rendition was produced by soundtrack composers Atticus Ross and Nine Inch Nails member Trent Reznor, and features vocals from Yeah Yeah Yeahs lead singer Karen O. Fincher suggested the song, but Reznor agreed only at his request. Led Zeppelin licensed the song only for use in the film's trailer and title sequence. Fincher stated that he sees title sequences as an opportunity to set the stage for the film, or to get an audience to let go of its preconceptions.

Software packages that were primarily used are 3ds Max (for modeling, lighting, rendering), Softimage (for rigging and animation), Digital Fusion (for compositing), Real Flow (for fluid dynamics), Sony Vegas (for editorial), ZBrush and Mudbox