I highly recommend watching the Swedish film Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women), commonly known in America as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Do so before the evil Hollywood types butcher the film with a US version.
To get a feel for what I’m saying, watch the original Death At A Funeral then follow it up with a viewing of the 2010 remake featuring a pair of washed-out comedians (Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock) who haven’t been funny since sometime last decade.
The movie studios will attempt to bleed money from any penny they come across. As a blogger from Lazysupper puts it, Hollywood is creatively bankrupt. Based on the excessive number of remakes in recent years, I agree. There are 75 remakes in 2010 alone. There are US versions of Japanase horror films, 23 television shows being cooked up, and an ongoing list of movies which is quickly becoming astronomical in number: Clash Of The Titans, GI Joe, Transformers, The A-Team, Dukes Of Hazard, The Karate Kid, etc. Those are some of the films already released and we still have Tron, When Worlds Collide, Back To School, The Illustrated Man, Poltergeist, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rosemary’s Baby and about 50 more to go.
As anyone familiar with Fanedit can attest to, the problem isn’t in remaking movies it’s in remaking them so poorly. Movie studios obviously go about production with the same corporate mentality for cutting corners as BP and the end result is absolute crap!
The Swedish production of Men Who Hate Women is a powerful film. Thoughtful casting led to a final product where the actors could deliver in their roles. Acting is already the US version’s downfall, as Daniel Craig has been selected for the lead character Mikael Blomkvist. Popularity is obviously the motivating factor. I’m scratching my head to figure out how a guy who looks like the athletic cousin of Alfred E. Newman gained so much success. It certainly wasn’t because of his acting skills. From L4yer Cake to Defiance, the same persona gets rehashed film after film. Craig’s strongest (and inaccurate) performance as Perry Smith in Infamous was completely outshined by the stronger performance of Toby Jones as Truman Capote. If Craig is the star, expect every co-star to be dumbed-down so as not to outperform him.
So why Craig instead of Bryan Cranston, a superior actor and perfect fit for the Blomkvist role? For a long time now, filmmaking has not been about quality but instead about quantity. Studios churn out films with enough special effects or popular stars to draw people in the cinema doors. These end-products are the fast-food equivalent in filmmaking.
Daniel Craig is the final straw –I know Hollywood no longer cares at all. I’m actually surprised Angelina Jolie wasn’t cast as Lisbeth Salander. Instead, it looks like they’ll go with cutesy and adorable Carey Mulligan. She’ll do her best to look like Tegan and Sara, donning fake piercings and tattoos, and come across as nothing but artificial. So will the dopey-looking Craig pretending to be an intelligent investigative reporter. I’m not saying Mulligan is not a capable actress. She’s just not right for this part. Lisbeth had a rough life, especially when it comes to abuse from men. Noomi Rapace is the embodiment of Lisbeth. Neither ugly nor attractive, somewhat boyish and feminine all at once. Mulligan is no more right for this role than she would taking on Sigourney Weaver’s part in a remake of Alien.
There is still opportunity to go with someone like Clea DuVall whose performance and personification of Lisbeth would be spot-on. I’m not a casting agent though, so what do I know (except how awful these remakes are in general and even more so when compared to the originals).
I am a fan of David Fincher’s work. Se7en and Zodiac are prime examples of how good his telling of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo could be. Unfortunately, Fincher looks to be working on a number of films at once including remakes of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Heavy Metal. This could be a sign he’s become a cog in the Hollywood film machine. If so, one of his upcoming films could easily become what The Last Airbender has been for M. Night Shyamalan –the demise of a career.
From the ungodly amount of crap movies in production, I’m not expecting anything good to come from remaking an already great movie. Men Who Hate Women is perfect in it’s native Swedish. Even in the hands of a great director, too many corporate types have their influence over the final product and are capable of butchering anything they get hold of. Fanedits only come about after movies have been released and the industry is anything but happy about better, amateur work. A film is only as strong as its weakest part and even a Fanedit will not turn Craig into the character with personality his Swedish counterpart was able to deliver.
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