Many people become upset when Hollywood sets out to remake beloved, classic movies. Right now, Hollywood is in a remake frenzy as Fright Night, Let the Right One In, Conan The Barbarian, Footloose, Arthur, and many more are being or have been remade. Hollywood has stepped on too many toes with their ever-growing remake list as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is to be remade.

David Fincher is set to direct the film but many believe this is not going to save the film’s image as being “just another remake.” In the first filming of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Noomi Rapace plays the role of main character Lisbeth Salander and earned many awards and nominations around the world.

Along with her nominations and wins, came the critical acclaim of the job she did in the movie. Before shooing the movie, Rapace had sat down with Charlie Rose to discuss her preparation plans for playing the role of Slander. “I wanna go all the way, I wanna do my stunts, I wanna change my body, do the piercings, i want to get my license for motorcycles,” Rapace said.

Even though she did a great job as Salander the first time around, and many critics — including Roger Ebert — wanted Rapace to reprise the role in the remake. Rapace turned down the idea of returning. With Rapace now out of the spotlight, eyes turned to young 21-year old actor, Rooney Mara, who had big shoes to fill.

Mara is most well known for her role as Erica Albright in The Social Network and as Taggarty in Youth in Revolt. Even with her previous work with Fincher, many people are skeptical that she can live up to Rapace’s take on the character of Salander. However, Mara has been taking steps that Rapace took in order to get into character such as dying her hair and piercing her nipples.

Alongside Mara will be Daniel Craig, playing the journalist Mikael Blomkvist who tries to track down a missing girl related to a big business tycoon, Henrik Vanger. Craig told Esquire that the movie would be an extremely graphic film.“[David] Fincher, he’s not holding back. They’ve given him free rein. He showed me some scenes recently, and my hand was over my mouth,” Craig said.

David Fincher has directed gritty, dirty thrillers before; Fight Club, Seven and Panic Room are just a few. So with a good amount of experience in the mystery thriller genre, many would expect the hype to go through the roof. Yet, more people are jumping on the pessimistic bandwagon as the release date creeps closer and closer.

Many believe that Rapace cannot be replaced and that Hollywood should not remake a movie that was done so well the first time. However, Fincher’s spin on the tale would seem to prick the ears up on some who are willing to oversee the lack of Noomi Rapace and watch Mara’s take on Salander’s dark character.

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About the author

Peter Yannantuono