First thoughts on a controversial remake: Ali Karim talks The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Later this month, the English-language Hollywood remake of the outstanding Swedish film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's juggernaut bestseller THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO opens in cinemas.

Crime fiction fans around the world seem to have very mixed feelings about this latest Hollywood effort to cash in on foreign creativity, and make it more accessible/palatable for a wider (ie American) audience who perhaps aren't too keen on subtitled films, no matter how good.

Will Rooney Mara be able to provide a performance as Lisbeth Salander in the same league as Noomi Rapace, who set the bar so very high and seemed to embody Larsson's creation? Does the fact that terrific director David Fincher is involved give sceptics more hope than if other Hollywood heavyweights had been involved? Ditto for screenwriter Steve Zaillian? We'll all just have to wait and see.

Unless, that is, we were lucky enough to attend the world premiere in London this week. Like renowned crime fiction afficianado and commentator Ali Karim, who has written and edited for the likes of The Rap Sheet, Shots! ezine, January magazine, Crimespree magazine, and many other specialist crime fiction publications. People think I've interviewed a tonne of crime writers, but I've got nothing on Mr Karim, who has been at the forefront of crime fiction commentating for many years.

Now, Karim has shared his thoughts on the English-language remake on The Rap Sheet:

"Let me say that I enjoyed the original Swedish version directed by Niels Arden Oplev, so I was intrigued to see what the Americans might accomplish with the same material. I was not disappointed, as this new version is, in a word, mesmerizing."

Karim has much more to say about the film, and you can read his full review here.

So, are you looking forward to seeing a new version of Larrson's blockbuster? Comments welcome.

Scottish crime writer to give the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a graphic twist

It has been reported today (NZT) that Scottish crime writer Denise Mina, who's recently been in the news down this way with the announcement she would be a guest at the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival (and was the subject of a very good feature by my fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judge Bernard Carpinter in a recent New Zealand Listener) willl take the reins of the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series. Not to complete any rumoured fourth manuscript, but to bring Lisbeth Salander and her escapades to full vivid colour via graphic novels.

Alison Flood of The Guardian has said that, "Mina has been chosen by Larsson's literary estate to adapt the late Swedish novelist's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest into six graphic novels for DC Comics. The author, whose latest novel The End of the Wasp Season was shortlisted for the Gold Dagger award, said she had nearly finished adapting the first book, with the first volume to be out next March. The illustrator is Leonardo Manco, with whom Mina has previously collaborated on the Hellblazer comics."

You can read Flood's full article here.
 
It will be interesting to see Mina's graphic novel take on the Swedish crime tales. I'm fascinated by how some writers produce excellent work in a variety of mediums, while others concentrate solely on one. Different strokes for different folks, of course. Amongst the crime writers I've spoken to this year, our own Neil Cross writes film and television scripts in addition to bleak and gripping thriller novels, Robert Crais went from TV scripts to private eye novels, and Gregg Hurwitz juggles thriller writing with graphic novels, film, and TV scripts. And I thought my life was busy!
 
Hat tip to another of my fellow Ngaio Marsh Award judges, Graham "Bookman" Beattie, for the heads-up with the news about Mina.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo wins and loses at Baftas

While the mainstream media has focused on the unsurprising ‘home ground’ success of the Colin Firth-led The King’s Speech at the recent British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Awards, for crime fiction fans there was also some interest in a few of the lesser-publicised awards.

In a well-deserved nod, the Swedish-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s juggernaut THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO won the Best Film not in the English Language (equivalent of the Oscars’ Best Foreign Film). This was a truly terrific film - well written, acted, and directed. It actually showed in New Zealand in late 2009 (see my review here), but because of release dates has been eligible for this year’s awards round in England and the USA. Both at the time, and now in hindsight, this was one of the best films I’d seen on the big screen in a long time. It’s a shame it hasn’t got even more attention at the English-speaking awards.

Unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) Noomi Rapace missed out on the Best Actress nod to Natalie Portman’s much-acclaimed and publicised performance in Black Swan. Rapace was truly brilliant as Lisbeth Salander, but Portman has had the Best Actress awards locked up across the board this year, and it would be a massive surprise if anyone other than her took out the biggest of all, the Oscar, in the near future. In a kudos to the Bafta judges, it was great to see Rapace recognised with her Bafta nomination for Best Actress - it’s a real shame Hollywood overlooked her for an Oscar nomination, given her terrific performance.

Have you watched m/any of the nominated or winning films? What do you think of the Bafta results? Has TKS built up some Oscar momentum, or will its hometown advantage come to much less when the Hollywood red carpet is rolled out and the likes of The Social Network, Christian Bale in The Fighter, and Amy Adams, might once again walk away with some of the major awards? Thoughts welcome.

Rapace in running for Best Actress BAFTA!

Back in August last year I reported on rumours coming out of Hollywood that Noomi Rapace could be in the running for an Oscar nomination for her tremendous portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's books. Along with speculation that the makers of the English-language version might try to dampen any such hype, in case it damaged their own film.

I think, if all things were equal (which they never are in the entertainment world), Rapace would be a worthy shoo-in for at least an Oscar nomination. However it remains to be seen whether Hollywood would/will embrace the foreign-language performance. Rapace was overlooked by the Golden Globe Awards (I'm not sure whether her and the film were eligible, depending on their criteria) - Natalie Portman (BLACK SWAN) won Best Actress in a Drama ahead of four other English-language performances - but today comes welcome news that Britain's own film awards, the BAFTAs, have lined up Rapace as a deserved nominee in the Best Actress category.

Joining Rapace and Portman in the Best Actress category for the BAFTAs are Annette Bening and Julianne Moore (THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT), along with Hailee Steinfeld (TRUE GRIT). Moore and Bening were both nominated in the Best Actress - Comedy or Musical category at the Golden Globes (Bening won the category), where like Rapace, Steinfield was overlooked by the Hollywood Foreign Press. It's kind of interesting that in fact the BAFTA list only includes three of the ten Best Actress nominees (Drama and Comedy/Musical) from the Golden Globes.

The Academy Award (Oscar) nominations will be announced next week. It would be fantastic (and deserved) to see Rapace on the list, but I'm not that hopeful of the American academy sharing the foresight of their British counterparts, even though there is some overlap between the bodies. A shame. In its latest 'Oscar predictions' rankings, Entertainment Weekly lists Rapace at number 10 for Best Actress, with bigger names (which may be preferred by the often-conservative American academy voters) and previous Oscar nominees and winners such as Hilary Swank, Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman 'above' her (Halle Berry was also rated above her until the BAFTA nominations).

As I said in my review of Män som hatar kvinnor (aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in December 2009: "In terms of acting, I thought Noomi Rapace was brilliant as Lisbeth Salander. She conveyed the computer hacker’s conflict, confusion, anger, and uniqueness (amongst other things) exceptionally well through glances, gestures, and other non-speaking moments – not just scripted dialogue. Like the best performances, I never saw it as someone acting as Lisbeth Salander, rather Rapace was Lisbeth Salander. " Read the full review here.

What do you think of Rapace's performance as Salander (especially in the first film, which is eligible for this year's Oscars etc)? Do you think she deserves to be nominated? How does her performance compare to some of the other strong female acting performances of 2010?

Introducing your new Lisbeth Salander...

The latest issue of W magazine has actress Rooney Mara in full Lisbeth Salander mode on the cover, as part of a large feature on the upcoming David Fincher English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson's worldwide phenomena of a book/series. As W magazine says in the introduction to its "exclusive first look from the set of the year's most anticipated film", Fincher, "the darkly obsessive director" of Fight Club and The Social Network - perhaps last years biggest or best film - has now taken on "the biggest franchise since Harry Potter".

Internationally, Rooney may be facing something of an uphill battle as Salander (given that Noomi Rapace was so pitch-perfect brilliant in the role in the Swedish-language films), but for American audiences (in particular) who may not have bothered with the subtitled films, the photos from the latest issue of W show that there is perhaps quite some potential there. And with David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, etc) at the helm, things may not be so bleak for the film as those in the anti-remake camp may have it.

You can see a 9-picture slideshow of Mara in Salander mode on the W magazine website here. You can also read the interesting full article by W magazine's Lynn Hirschberg here.

Hat tip to Jeff Pierce of the excellent The Rap Sheet for the heads-up.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to the English-language version?

'The Girl' who won an Oscar?

Reports are filtering out of Hollywood that there is some growing talk of Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, who expertly plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language films of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy books (pictured in character, right), being put forward for an Oscar nomination.

As reported by Deadline and Hollywood News, the first film - Män som hatar kvinnor (aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) - is apparently eligible for next year's Oscars as it was released for a qualifying run in a Los Angeles County theater in March. You can read my review of the film here.

As I said last December, "In terms of acting, I thought Noomi Rapace was brilliant as Lisbeth Salander. She conveyed the computer hacker’s conflict, confusion, anger, and uniqueness (amongst other things) exceptionally well through glances, gestures, and other non-speaking moments – not just scripted dialogue. Like the best performances, I never saw it as someone acting as Lisbeth Salander, rather Rapace was Lisbeth Salander. "

Honestly, I can't think of a female acting performance in a film in the past year, that I've seen, that comes close to Rapace as Salander. If she is indeed eligible, it would be absolute travesty if the Academy overlooked her for a nomination.

However, already there is all sorts of online chatter about whether some Hollywood power brokers and big studio Sony Pictures might try to quash such a move (or ensure Rapace wouldn't win, even if she was nominated), as it could potentially undermine their own attempts to bring their English-language versions of the films to the big screen. All fun and games eh?

Rapace (pictured left, in her real life 'non-Lisbeth' mode) has already won the Swedish equivalent of the Oscar for playing Salander, and is quite the up and coming young actress in general.

She is reportedly currently in Hollywood, and having talks with various studios about her film career. She is rumoured to be in the running for roles in films such as Mission Impossible 4, and the Sherlock Holmes sequel.

Whether she is (deservedly) nominated for the Oscar or not, Rapace has certainly left some pretty big shoes to fill for the actress that takes on the Lisbeth role in David Fincher's remake - which as of this week is reportedly Rooney Mara, "a virtually unknown actress whose profile is so low that even her age is being hotly debated (she is, depending on who you believe, either 24 or 25)".

"In landing top billing in the film, which will open next Christmas, Mara beat off competition from an extraordinary array of stars. Everyone from Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman to Carey Mulligan and Emma Watson has featured on the list of names being tipped for the job," reported the New Zealand Herald two days ago. "Mia Wasikowska, the protagonist in Tim Burton's recent Alice in Wonderland, was among the final half-dozen contenders, though she did not sign a test-screening deal. Four finalists are understood to have spent recent weeks in auditions with the film's director, David Fincher, who will begin shooting on location in Sweden next month."

So, what do you think of Noomi Rapace being talked about for an Oscar nomination? Of young Rooney Mara taking on the role for Fincher's version? Of the Hollywood remake in general? Thoughts and comments welcome.

Stieg Larsson's Longtime Partner on Rumoured Fourth Book

In an exclusive interview with ABC News for its 'Nightline' programme, Eva Gabrielsson talked today (NZT) about her longtime partner Stieg Larsson and her fight with the Larsson family (his father and brother who inherited his estate) over his legacy.

"You can view them as this family he wasn't particularly close to, didn't have much in common with, taking his money," James Savage, editor of The Local, an English-language publication based in Sweden, is quoted as saying by ABC reporter Gloria Riveria in an ABC News online article publicising the Nightline segment. "On the other hand you've got these people who say they were close to Stieg, doing what they think is right. Like [with] any infected family feud, taking sides is a very dangerous thing to do."

Importantly for Millennium Trilogy fans, in the interview Eva Gabrielsson also talks a little about rumours of a fourth unpublished Stieg Larsson book, and that she may have co-written the novels, or could write the fourth.

So, are you a 'Girl' fan? Do you enjoy Larsson's (Gabrielsson's?) crime thrillers? Would you be interested in a fourth in the series? What do you think of the family feud? Thoughts and comments welcome.