Coming September 1st. Have fun scheduling around that, everyone else!  (via Wall Street Journal)

Filmbook: "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2011, dir. David Fincher)

What you really need to know about David Fincher's adaptation of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" is that it effectively brings the scares. That's not the last word on the movie, nor is it necessarily the paramount concern, but it was one of mine. Merry Christmas to me (and in fact, I did see this movie on Christmas Day, with family, and we wouldn't have it any other way. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows" will just have to wait.)

In case you still haven't gotten around to either the Stieg Larsson book or its vast fields of spoilers, a quick summary: Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (played here by Daniel Craig) takes a private job allegedly working on a family biography for industrial baron Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer) but actually investigating the disappearance of his niece (played in flashback by Moa Garpendal, listed about 27th on IMDb for this movie), which Vanger believes to have been a murder; in his research Blomkvist enlists the help of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara, double football legacy and girl who dumps Mark Zuckerberg at the beginning of "The Social Network"), a professional hacker and ward of the state.

Discerning whether this version could effectively bring the scares was important to me because I've already experienced "Dragon Tattoo"'s chain of events twice, once on the page and once onscreen. I saw the Swedish "Dragon Tattoo" two years ago, but luckily had one of my sisters (who had seen it more recently) to remind me of the stylistic differences between the Swedish version, which in retrospect looks like an episode of "SVU," and Fincher with full artistic guns blazing. He shoots the flashbacks to 1960s Sweden in a yellowy wash reminiscent of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", but underlined with notes of malice to keep viewers from wanting to linger in those seemingly idyllic pictures. The present scenes are often washed in blue, echoing the distance Blomkvist is putting between himself, his professional failures, his lover and his Stockholm life as he delves back into the past. There is a retread of the famous "Zodiac" into-the-basement sequence, chased by an unforgettable sound cue that makes a creepy moment even more chilling; the rest of the Trent Reznor/ Atticus Ross soundtrack is effective without being intrusive.

That scene-setting is important, but sometimes it overwhelms the performances -- particularly Daniel Craig as Blomkvist, already muted in efforts (I assume) to make his character more sympathetic. We've seen Craig as "blunt instrument" James Bond, but here he's turned down so far that the occasional outburst looks out of place on him. I would never have thought that he would bring less sex appeal to his role than his Swedish counterpart, being both younger and better-looking, but there you go. Plummer is underused (I read that in deference to his age, he shot on set for just 2 weeks), although part of that is related to the source material and how it employs Henrik Vanger as another hammer in the plot's mechanism. Mara is great -- her Salander, more avoidant than Noomi Rapace's aggressive characterization, shifts uneasily between modes of behavior in just the right ways -- but she's being given too much credit for bringing a great character to life. (Also, true or false: Is it easier for a mostly-unknown actress to lose herself in a role?) In a more conventional thriller tale this wouldn't be a problem, but we linger on characterization long enough -- the super first meeting between Blomkvist and Salander coming to mind -- for it to pull away a bit.

There's another troublesome sequence in "Dragon Tattoo" I can't quite let go of, which I don't want to spoil but it involves a series of very violent images, rapidly processed, and one that the camera lingers on that almost belies the point the movie's trying to make. For that, but for a few other reasons, I'd like to catch it again in a few weeks to either confirm or overturn my initial impressions -- and decide whether the Steven Zaillian script collapses the 800-plus pages of the source as efficiently as possible (as it originally seemed). I can only guess that the reason this movie didn't do better over the holiday weekend is because of its graphic violence and sex, both of which wouldn't come as a shock to the many moviegoers who read DRAGON TATTOO first. How anyone can prefer the torture of "Chipwrecked" is beyond my understanding.

Filmbook: The Great Prestige Circus of Book Adaptations, Fall 2011

Now playing: "Moneyball," based on the Michael Lewis book of the same name, already receiving Oscar buzz; "The Three Musketeers," adaptation approximately #2745, not receiving any Oscar buzz whatsoever.

Opens Oct. 28: "The Rum Diary" (Johnny Depp) based on the Hunter S. Thompson book about Puerto Rico. I mistweeted when I said the only NY Public Library copy available to me was in Spanish and called DIARIOS DE RON (trans. RUM DIARIES); it's actually DIAS DE RON (RUM DAYS). I probably won't see the movie till I read that but I expect Peter W. Knox will have something up as soon as it opens. Also 10/28: "Anonymous" (I saw it already and blogged about it here), "Sleeping Beauty" (an adaptation of sorts).

Opens Nov. 18: "The Descendants," Alexander Payne's long awaited return to our screens (since 2004's "Sideways" or his heartbreaking segment in 2006's "Paris, je t'aime") -- it's George Clooney! It's Hawaii! It's sur...prisingly heartfelt? Highly anticipated by me in any case. Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. Also week of 11/18: "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1" (fourth of the planned 5 "Twilight" movies, in case you're keeping score)

Opens Nov. 24: "Hugo," based on the Caldecott Award-winning THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET by Brian Selznick. So it's a kids' movie, fine, but what if I told you that it was a kids' movie directed by Martin Scorsese starring such casual players as Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Johnny Depp (again?) and Michael "Deserves to Be Slightly More Famous" Pitt? Also, the book is spectacular (about the invention of film in turn-of-the-century Paris), but I'm trying to focus on what you want. Take your small cousins or something. It's a mitzvah. Also week of 11/24: "A Dangerous Method," based on the John Kerr nonfiction book of the same name about Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, starring Viggo Mortenson and Michael Fassbender and I don't know why he keeps coming up either, it's a mystery, and "My Week With Marilyn," based on a memoir by one of Monroe's studio escorts while shooting in London (with Michelle Williams as Monroe).

Opens December 9: "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," based on the John le Carre novel of the same name about Cold War espionage and the search for a plant, starring Colin "Hey do you remember when I won an Academy Award last year? That was awesome" Firth and Tom "Universal Mancrush" Hardy. Hey, did you know this book is almost impossible to find in used bookstores? Also 12/9: "We Need To Talk About Kevin," Toronto-buzzed feature based on the Lionel Shriver novel.

Opens December 16: "Carnage" (dir. R. Polanski), which is technically based on a play by Yasmina Reza but I'm propping it up because the four-handed cast is terrific and there will be fireworks. Also 12/16: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" (a tenuous adaptation at best but will probably live up to the "silly but fun" I gave the first movie).

Opens December 23: "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," U.S. adaptation, tracked here for almost two years.If you think you're going to hate David Fincher's take with Daniel Craig as Mikael "Kalle Bastard" Blomkvist, you could always rent or buy the Swedish trilogy as insurance. Also 12/23: "The Adventures of Tintin," 'starring' Simon Pegg because this is one of those creepy real-ish animation jobs, and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," adapting the Jonathan Safran Foer novel in what will probably be an all too realistic 9/11 tearjerker. You have plenty of time to read this book, which I regard very highly, before it comes out. Not much up to Christmas but more holidays anyway.

There Are Things Eva Gabrielsson Wants You To Know About Stieg Larsson

1. Stieg Larsson was pretty much the perfect guy. Even his temper was just because he got so riled up about injustice! And he loved women, but not in the Mikael Blomkvist way. But he did drink all that coffee in the Mikael Blomkvist way. Now Gabrielsson, his long-time partner (in a romantic cohabitating we-were-always-about-to-get-married sense), can't bring herself to drink coffee any more because he isn't with her.
2. He used a lot of stuff from his life in his books! Like the small town he grew up in, the places he vacationed, even real names of people he admired and wanted to thank. (Are you allowed to use someone's name in a work of fiction without asking them first? I suppose not, but it would probably be most polite to check.)
3. He had all kinds of wonderful plans for their life together before he was felled by a very sudden heart attack, but that beats all those years when he and Gabrielsson were afraid someone was going to assassinate him for reporting on Swedish right-wing and white supremacist movements. Also, he was totally eating better in the months before his fatal heart attack. [I mean, why even point this out. It's kind of late to judge a dead man on his diet, and it seems as though cardiac problems at an early age ran in his family.]
4. Larsson never explicitly set out to write a thriller series, which makes it all the more confusing that he is also described as mapping out a 10-volume saga in literally the same paragraph. How does one go from apparently writing unrelated chunks of text to Thriller Author Beloved Of Millions? It's still a mystery!
5. The absence of legislation in Sweden covering long-term cohabitating couples who never marry is a disgrace. (Okay, that's not really about Larsson, but that is the main point of this book. Regardless of whether you think Gabrielsson is only after the intellectual property rights of her former partner, as she says, or if she is more financially motivated, what happened to her seems to be legal and also sucked.

I don't want to say this book is unnecessary, out of respect for the widow, who has been through enough. But I would read this book only if you are a completist or enjoy being asked by strangers about what you're reading. (Actually, that aspect of it was pretty fun. No one cares if you're reading 2666 on the subway.) The only detail revealed about Book 4 is the title, THE VENGEANCE OF GOD, and that apparently Lisbeth Salander gets hers back, which we already knew because she is badass like that.

Stealing that term.

COWORKER: Do you have the third Stieg Larsson? [We've been talking about these books for weeks ever since she picked up #1.]
ME: Sorry, I have no idea where it is.
COWORKER: No worries. I guess I'll have to stop being a library fugitive and pay my fees. 

Filmbook-to-be: Trailer for U.S. "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" enters the world

Sony is busy yanking all of these off YouTube, so not sure this is going to work, but here's a bootleg version of the redband and the greenband is below:



It looks a lot like the Swedish adaptation at first pass (read my review here) but not all of its Fincherisms might translate to a sneak trailer. In any case: Christmas! A bloody, leave-Grandma-at-home Christmas to you too.

Tattoos not included

MY MOM: See what I'm wearing?
ME: Hmmm.
MY MOM: See the leather stripe on these pants?
ME: Yes...
MOM: This is my Lisbeth Salander outfit.
ME: I don't think so?

"Blomkvist is less promiscuous, Salander is more aggressive, and, most notably, the ending—the resolution of the drama—has been completely changed." W Magazine on the American remake of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, with NSFW (I know, I know, it's Saturday) picture of Rooney Mara as the girl. I haven't seen the forthcoming movie, obviously, but I already don't like it! Because I don't like change. Also, get off my lawn.

"More than three years after the discovery of the body parts"

I don't think it lives up to its billing, but this Telegraph piece on a Swedish murder and subsequent investigation is incredibly weird and disturbing, even if it didn't inspire Stieg Larsson or Henning Mankell. (No spoilers for the books inside.)

Amazon Picks 10 Best Books of 2010

Preempting Publishers Weekly's list, typically the earliest, by about four days. New-media whippersnappers!

Strong disagreement here over #7 and I've never even heard of MATTERHORN. I guess it's time to start working on my own list. What do you all say?

Leftovers

• Not only is there potentially a fourth Stieg Larsson book, his dad is now claiming there is a fifth which he wrote before #4 because it "was more fun to write." (L.A. Times)
• "The Kindle changed my reading habits, because I now buy books pretty much only when I’m drunk, and late at night." Elif Batuman sounds like she'd be fun to hang out with. (Boston Globe via Peter W. Knox)
• Forgive me if you all knew that Keith Olbermann is a huge James Thurber fan who reads his short stories out loud on his show. I just found out this week, perils of the cableless. (GalleyCat)
• Literary betting news! Britons can no longer bet on the Booker Prize after a suspiciously large amount of money was placed on only slightly tarnished star Tom McCarthy. (Guardian)
• "Discussed: Comical Hats, Tertiary Characters, Conan the Barbarian, The Dark One, Typologies Within Typologies, Moral Predicaments, Braid-Yanking, Rhapsodies Over Brocaded Silk, Arcane Metaphysical Theology, Clark Gable." Name that fantasy author! (The Believer)
• This SPOILERY review of "The Social Network" is probably my favorite which I also disagree with. It's an art. (The New Republic).
• "It was a great way of getting out of the house, of not being stuck alone in my room all day, and, as I have Lonoff say in THE GHOST WRITER, I got to use a public urinal — that was a breakthrough — and also I got to read a lot." Yeah, Philip Roth, it sounds like you really got a lot out of teaching. Any of his former UPenn students wish to speak to that experience? (Esquire)

"Dragon Tattoo" adaptation sets stars

Onto the next book-turned-movie that's bound to disappoint me: Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara will costar in the forthcoming inevitable American adaptation of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," to begin shooting in Sweden next month. Craig was rumored already and while he's younger than I would have picked for Blomkvist, he's better than previous likely choice Brad Pitt. While not a total unknown, Rooney Mara is unknown to me, and choosing an actress without an iconic role may have been the best way out. Well, we'll see her in "The Social Network" this fall. (I think she's the weird crying girl, but I could be wrong.)

A friend who hasn't read the books asked me what the age difference was between the characters, compared to the actors: Blomkvist is 42 in the first book and Salander is 24, and those are the exact ages of Craig and Mara right now. Now you know! Liam Neeson would have been too old after all.

Be still my... heart: Variety reports that Daniel Craig is in talks to play Blomkvist in the inevitable "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" adaptation. Craig has appeared in adaptations of MOLL FLANDERS and THE GOLDEN COMPASS and also played Ted Hughes opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the Sylvia Plath biopic.

But do they have Billy's Pan Pizza there?

One notable detail about the allegedly existing* fourth Stieg Larsson book: In whatever state it's in, it's set in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Canada! This is the best news for our neighbor to the north since Margaret Atwood joined Twitter. Think of the tourist dollars!

--
*Book four, hereafter known as THE GIRL WHO ROCKED THE FUCKING HOUSE AND KICKED SOME ASS, has been variously reported as nonexistent, unavailable due to wrangling over Larsson's estate, half-done, and now hinted at in an e-mail.

Kalle Bastard

A few weeks ago the New York Times published a piece about the search for the next great Scandinavian crime series. The vacuum left by Stieg Larsson's death and the likely end of his series with THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (depending on whether you trust the rumors of the 4th in draft) makes execs everywhere say not, "We need to find the next trend in top-selling thrillers," but "Let's quick jump on this bandwagon before it speeds away."

Luckily for you, I am all over this trend like butter and sugar on lefse. Over Memorial Day weekend, I bought a copy of FACELESS KILLERS by Henning Mankell, one of the leading candidates to become the "next" Larsson, at Kaboom Books in Houston. Mankell might find it insulting to be classed as such, given that his 10-book series featuring detective Kurt Wallander began in 1997, has already been adapted into a BBC miniseries starring Kenneth Branagh and was recently brought to a close deliberately by its author... maybe the prospect of selling more books in the heretofore indifferent US market

It's too bad what I read wasn't more promising. FACELESS KILLERS is an obvious predecessor to Larsson's THE GIRL WHO... series, what with their using political currents to feed into crime at hand, the focus on tedium and routine, and the treatment of temporal space as a character. A double murder for which a group of immigrants seeking asylum become the prime suspects makes for a creepy opening but a clumsy development, with the "issue-y" chunks slowing down the suspense of finding the killers. And frankly, I didn't want to spend any more time around the good detective Wallander than I had to; he's basically a dirty, grumpy would-be womanizer who is deeply suspicious of everyone and thinks the world owes him something. Larsson's Mikael Blomkvist has been accused, perhaps with merit, of being a Mary Sue, but at least he's not racist. And without the counterweight of a Salander -- though FACELESS KILLERS does drum up a female D.A. whose time in the center of the plot is deeply appreciated -- we're with him all the time.

I'm not prepared to write off all Scandinavian thrillers because I was disappointed with the Mankell book, but I wonder if the search itself fails to give Larsson enough credit. His reliance on clichés is no worse than any others in his genre, and his character development I submit is much better. Sometimes the "next thing" is nothing at all.

Filmbook of Bad News: No, Brad Pitt, No

The American adaptation of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" has a director -- David Fincher -- and a projected release date of December 2011. (Read my review of the Swedish adaptation here.) I found Fincher's last movie pretty but boring, and his next movie is the Aaron Sorkin-scripted Facebook movie (insert mp3 of me laughing hysterically), but I wasn't worried about this project in his hands till rumors that Brad Pitt would play Blomkvist.

Perish the thought! Quoth Jenni Miller of Cinematical, "Frankly, I can't imagine a more inappropriate, though typically Hollywood, casting choice." She puts forth Mads Mikkelsen which is a solid option, but my top choice is still Liam Neeson, because Blomkvist is supposed to be a little old and a little weatherbeaten. (Don't talk to me about CGI-aging Brad Pitt again.)

As for Salander, the names Carey Mulligan (ace) and Ellen Page (acceptable) have been tossed around, but Cinematical also reports that Noomi Rapace, who played her in the Swedish movies, is not interested in reprising her role. That's a damn shame, but not surprising; these films were huge blockbusters in Sweden and she probably doesn't want to be forever tied to the character.

The mothership calling me home

"Speculating about Stieg Larsson and what he was like has practically become a journalistic subindustry in Sweden." The New York Times has everything you needed to know (and some you didn't) about the author of the THE GIRL WHO... trilogy cut short by his death at age 50. The Times has also gone live with its review of the third book, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST, and in brief, I could not possibly disagree with it any more.

Filmbook: "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2010)

I walked out of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" last night with possibly the best feeling you can get from an adaptation, namely: "I've got to read that book again." Quite the contrast from earlier in the film when I was thinking, "What the what have I gotten myself into?"

I read the bestselling Swedish crime thriller in 2008, when it was just one of many imports from foreign markets hoping to hit it big among American readers. I was riveted straight through to the second and third books* with only the delays of publishing schedules. There was a fair amount I had forgotten about the first book, though, prominent among them how incredibly violent and brutal it is. I know my tolerance for described violence is much higher for depicted violence, but some of the scenes, even though they were familiar, were shocking to me.**

I held my head thinking of the many people to whom I had recommended this book and whether my encouragement to go forth and read past the really depraved parts could be seen as an endorsement of the depraved parts. But even for that, I wanted to go back to the book and roll up the additional character development I know Larsson left there, to re-evaluate the paths each character took to their actions and whether (this is a major theme of the book) they were justified. So maybe the source of this discomfort was, to use a Nathan Rabinism, a Secret Success, because it pulled me into that world, instead of taking me out.***

As a thriller, "...Dragon Tattoo" suffers from a slight overuse of Ominous Music and a slow-to-pick-up story early on. But there are three great reasons to see this movie: Two are the leads, actors totally unknown to me who were fantastic. Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist is sort of a cross between Jeremy Renner and Alec Baldwin, and Noomi Rapace is just the right amount of powerful and awkward as Lisbeth Salander. They've already wrapped the trilogy of movies ("The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest" came out last fall in Sweden) so for the Swedish public they are Kalle Bastard and Lisbeth.

The third reason is that David Fincher has signed on for the English-language remake, with filming to start after his Facebook movie comes out, and it will be very interesting to compare them. It's possible his version will be much more innovative than this one; then again, it can't just look good.

Filmbook verdict: Read the book first, despite misgivings; then see the movie.

---
* Oh yeah, that happened! I received the third book, and sleep got overrated for a little there.
** I even had to look away once -- to avoid giving spoilers I will say: the photos in the cellar, holy hell. But what a great visual match between that scene and the one in Henrik's attic, right? Creepy as fuck, but effective.
*** My relationship with superviolent movies has progressed from "hate them all" to "it's complicated." As with the last violent movie I saw, Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet," there were evidently those in the audience at "...Dragon Tattoo" who were not prepared for its nastier moments. "A Prophet" also uses its violence effectively, particularly in an incredible scene on the streets of Paris, but is a better movie overall.

Filmbook-to-Be: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2010?)

Back in October it was announced that the Swedish adaptation of the first volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy would be released in the U.S. after speculation that only the inevitable Hollywood remake would hit screens here. Here's the subtitled but NSFW trailer:

It opens March 12 (great day to debut) March 19 (thanks for ruining my joke, film industry) in New York and Los Angeles.

Regarding the inevitable adaptation, listed on IMDb with a 2012 release, a fun game to play with people who have read the book is to mock-cast its leads. None of these are spoilers but if you hate thinking of actors while reading, don't go on to the next paragraph.

I can see Keira Knightley in her "I'm going to get a bad haircut and do stunts in order to win an Oscar" capacity as Lisbeth Salander. (I would also be interested to see what Kristen Stewart would do there; aside from this whole vampire business, I think the kid can act.) Blomkvist is harder and if I had my druthers I'd get in a time machine and pick up 1980s William Hurt for the part, but I don't have my druthers (or a time machine). My dad suggested Liam Neeson, which was a stroke of genius considering he hasn't even read it yet. The flip side of this game is coming up with the worst possible cast, for which I've got down Kevin Spacey as Blomkvist and Hilary Duff as Lisbeth Salander. Dare you do worse?

Live from Whoville

• I didn't do a proper Reading On The Road list because it was unclear, once again, if the weather would ever allow me to leave New York. On that account I got really lucky, because I can't claim to have foreseen the tiny window left by Eastern and Midwestern weather patterns and pitched myself through it. If you need that luck now, consider it my gift to you.
• Waiting for my mom to finish THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST is the new waiting for Santa.
• I went to Best Buy yesterday and was surprised to see they (now?) sell books there. Most of it expected -- the new John Grisham stories, Glenn Beck, THE LOST SYMBOL, teen vampires -- but they also have UP IN THE AIR and THE BLIND SIDE, in case you're marooned somewhere without spare reading material. They also had THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE in stock, and it's hard to not see that as some sort of ironic comment.
• We crashed my cousins' early Christmas and watching my 12-year-old cousin open the Kindle she had begged and done extra chores for all year, well, you'd have to be a Luddite not to light up a little. She'll get years and years of use out of it. (Or else, Amazon. Or else.)