While I didn't start reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo until after David Fincher has signed on to direct an English language-adaptation, it was fairly obvious why Fincher was drawn to the material. Featuring brutal violence and some truly hard-to-read content, the material should bring the director back to his dark roots, a la Se7en, and the film's first teaser trailer seemed to confirm that. According to star Daniel Craig, however, we likely have no idea what we are truly in store for.
In an interview with Esquire, the actor revealed that we should prepare ourselves for what he calls an "adult drama" that is "as adult as you can possibly make it. Craig recently had the chance to sit down with Fincher to watch some of the footage, and what he saw left him covering his mouth in amazement. "I grew up, as we fucking all did, watching The Godfather and that, movies that were made for adults," Craig said. "And this is a $100 million R-rated movie. Nobody makes those anymore. And Fincher, he's not holding back. They've given him free rein." Based on the posthumous book by Stieg Larsson, the story is about an investigative reporter named Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) who is hired by an old, wealthy former CEO (Christopher Plummer) to solve a 40-year-old case involving the disappearance of his great-niece. Teaming up with a hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), they work together to solve the case, but stumble upon a horrifying family secret.
While many of the articles I write here are coated with a layer of surprise and shock, Craig's comments merely affirm everything that both fans of Fincher and the book have been expecting. They're not advertising it as the feel bad movie of Christmas because it's fully of puppies and rainbows. December can't get here soon enough.
