The 26-year-old Rooney Mara is currently taking Hollywood by storm with her starring role as Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”.

Directed by David Fincher, with whom Mara previously worked on 2010’s “The Social Network”, ‘Dragon Tattoo’ is the English-language adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Swedish-language novel of the same name. It centres around Mara’s character, Lisbeth Salander, and Daniel Craig’s character, Mikael Blomkvist, and has already been nominated for Best Picture by the Producers Guild of America.

However, the true success story in this film lies with Rooney Mara, who has so far received Golden Globe and National Board of Review nominations for her performance; and is already experiencing early Oscar buzz. This film is by no means Mara’s introduction into the entertainment industry – she has made numerous television guest appearances in recent years, ranging from an assault victim “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to a patient in two episodes of “ER”.

Yet with her latest film, Rooney Mara has entered into a new level of celebrity. Not only has she received numerous accolades and been cast alongside Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchette in the upcoming drama “Lawless;” but she has also experienced her first dose of media backlash.

In a recent interview with Allure, Mara referred to her “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” appearance as:

“[S]o awful. So stupid. People are obsessed with that show. I don’t get it. It’s ridiculous … they sodomized [my character]. I mean, I’ve been sodomized since the beginning of my career. I should have known then it would come full circle.”

Mara was later forced to release a statement clarifying her words, explaining to The Huffington Post that:

“That was my first job. It couldn’t have been more exciting for me. It’s an experience I hold very dear to my heart. People take things out of context, and that’s just not the case. I was more nervous doing that job than I was doing this job … I know that ‘Law & Order’ makes their episodes out of real things that are happening in the city, so to me, by “ridiculous” I meant that humanity is ridiculous. People are awful to one another; and to me, I find it ridiculous.”

Rooney Mara is by no means the first young actress to insist that she was misquoted in an interview, but it does show that her ‘celebrity’ status has reached the point where the public are paying attention to what she does, says, wears and chooses as her next project.

Regarding her next project, aside from the completion of “Lawless,” Mara does not have anything officially greenlit into production; however, she is contracted to reprise her role as Lisbeth Salander in the potential second and third films in Sony’s series.

What remains to be seen for the time being is how Rooney Mara fares in awards season. The nominations for the 84th Academy Awards are set to be announced on January 24th, and plenty of eyes are sure to be on Mara as she competes to make it into the Academy’s final shortlist for Best Actress. For Rooney Mara, 2012 could soon become the year for ‘The Girl with the Infinite Opportunities’.

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The time for deliberation is almost over. The voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have begun mailing out the nomination ballots for the 84th Academy Awards, scheduled to take place on Sunday February 26 and to be hosted by Billy Crystal.

The ballots themselves, which are to be completed by the 5,783 voting members of the Academy, must be returned by January 13 and will be announced on January 24, at which point firm-favourites and critics-choices will learn if their hopes of award-season glory have been warranted or wasted.

Some of those favorites include Meryl Streep and George Clooney, whose roles in “The Iron Lady“ and “The Descendants”, respectively, have already garnered them nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG).

Other actors expected to receive Academy Award nominations based on prior accolades this season include: Michelle Williams for “My Week With Marilyn”, Ryan Gosling for “The Ides of March” – for which, incidentally, Clooney has received a Golden Globe nomination in the directing field -, Leonardo DiCaprio for the biopic “J. Edgar”, and Viola Davis for Dreamworks’ adaptation of “The Help”.

Statistically, the Golden Globes and SAGs have been shown to be the primary indicators of who will achieve success at the Academy Awards. For example, the 2010-11 awards season saw David Fincher’s “The Social Network” compete against Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” in many of the major categories, with Fincher’s film triumphing at the Golden Globes, Hooper’s film triumphing at the SAGs, and each film ultimately walking away with a handful of Academy Awards.

This ceremony is in fact the last in Hollywood’s award season, so if this year’s voting replicates last year’s, it may go down to the wire as to who will indeed succeed in the Academy’s Best Picture and Acting categories. Therefore, while there may be little in the way of surprises awaiting the Hollywood press on January 24 when the nominations are announced, there will be no doubt added anticipation over whether the voters will sway away from favoring the abundance of high-profile biopics making waves this season.

These are namely: “The Iron Lady”, a study of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; “My Week With Marilyn”, a week in the life of Marilyn Monroe; and “J. Edgar”, a study into the FBI director’s personal life and debated sexuality. Each film has already received multiple nominations from other major award bodies, but this may be a case where there are too many releases from the same genre which ultimately cancel each other out.

Aside from their acting nominations at the Golden Globes, none of the films managed to make the final cut into the Hollywood Foreign Press’ Best Motion Picture selection, so there may still be some spots up for grabs in the final Academy Award shortlist.

Whatever happens, it won’t be long until the public finds out.

Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

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Daniel Craig is reportedly set to become the longest-running actor to play James Bond following The People’s report that the producers have offered him “a multi-million pound deal” to carry on with the series for five more films.

The deal in question would cement Craig’s status as the 007 icon for a further five appearances following the completion of this summer’s “Skyfall,” – Craig’s third in the series – bringing his tally to a total of eight films since his debut in 2006’s “Casino Royale”.

News of this potential deal was first indicated by producer Michael G. Wilson, who was quoted by The People as saying:

“Daniel’s been a terrific Bond, a superb actor and a terrific man. The fans love him and I don’t think there’s a better actor to play the part. It’s certainly something we’ll be discussing with him once we finish shooting Skyfall.

Filming has gone very well so far and I’d love Daniel to surpass Roger’s record and do eight pictures. Daniel’s been an absolute pleasure to be around because he takes the role so seriously.

There’s really no one more passionate about making these films work than him – he’s a film maker’s dream.”

While there is certainly nothing official in these words or anything to indicate Craig’s own personal feelings about continuing on with the spy series, it is important to consider the series’ recent box office performance as well as Craig’s attempts to craft a successful film career away from the franchise.

First appearing in 2006’s “Casino Royale”, the film, which saw Craig take over the role from four-time portrayer Pierce Brosnan, opened to critical acclaim and more than tripled its budget at the worldwide box office, bringing in a final gross of over $594 million by the end of its theatrical run in March 2007. Comparatively, this improved upon the gross of Brosnan’s final appearance in 2002’s “Die Another Day” by more than $160 million and placed “Casino Royale” as the number one grossing film (unadjusted for inflation) in the entire series.

The 2008 follow-up, “Quantum of Solace”, brought in a similar final worldwide haul of over $586 million; however, its critical reception was not quite as positive. Still, the commercial success of the film cemented Craig’s status as James Bond; a status which he has yet to successfully broaden into other cinematic offerings. With producers such as Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg, 2010’s “Cowboys & Aliens” was tipped by some to be one of the year’s biggest blockbusters, however it returned a lackluster $174 million on a budget of $163 million. Similarly, his recent starring turn in David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has gotten off to a slow start at the box office, with its worldwide gross still lagging behind its production budget in its third week of release.

Taking all of this into account, it seems unlikely that Craig is in any hurry to step away from the role and the franchise that helped turned him into a global household name. Whether or not he does indeed star in 8 Bond films is questionable, especially given the delay in the production of this year’s “Skyfall.” Also worth taking into consideration is Craig’s age. He is set to turn 44 next month, rumours surrounding Brosnan’s future status as the star of the series began to circulate before he reached 50.

So if Wilson and company would indeed like to see Craig break Roger Moore’s record of seven appearances, they had best put 007 back on duty as soon as possible.

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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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Marvel’s newest film, Captain America, released on July 22, joins the list of great movies that Marvel has produced these last two decades.  With action, and a balance of humor, sadness, and romance, director Joe Johnston delivers the goods straight to the door.

Amidst all the fun, the first 30 minutes is most memorable not for Captain America’s feats of strength but rather feats of bravery and physical weakness.  That’s right, Captain America had to start somewhere.  The effects teams came up with a unique and long process of creating “skinny Steve” Rodgers out of the buff and massive Chris Evans.

At first the plan to create a skinnier Chris Evans was to film a body double and digitally paste Evan’s head on the double’s body.  This technique was primarily used in David Fincher’s films, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button when using Brad Pitt’s head on an older man’s body.  The technique was also used in The Social Network when creating one of the Winklevoss twins.

However, when the time came for the double to re-create Evans’ movements, there was a problem.  He could not seem to mimic Evan’s body movement correctly.

“Chris moves in such a unique way; he doesn’t move like anybody else,” Johnston said. “The body double could not move like him. As hard as he tried to watch Chris and duplicate the movements, it just wasn’t the same.”

This led to a conundrum of what the crew should do to create the skinny Steve Rodgers. Apart from some, Evans liked that the body double would not be used.

“The beginning part of the movie is so crucial to get the audience invested in who Steve is, I didn’t want to share that part of the performance with another actor,” Evans said.  “I talked to Joe about it and thankfully, he agreed.”

With this bump in the road the crew had to figure out a different way to “unenhance” Evans’ body.

The final plan was to digitally shrink Evans’ muscles, jaw line and body to look like the 90-pound Rodgers.  This worked but left the digital effects team with a problem.  After shrinking the body, it left empty space in the background that Evan’s body previously covered.

To fix the problem, the crew had to shoot using green screens and superimpose the background into the picture to cover the empty space.  This turned out to work well but became a long and trying process.  Taking up some of the production time and all of post-production, the effects team had to alter about 250 shots to create “skinny Steve.”  However, sometimes the artists would catch a break in scenes when Evans’ was laying or sitting down because the head replacement became possible.

Captain America: The First Avenger pulled in a lot of attention in the time leading up to its release: Joe Johnston did not disappoint.  With a movie pulling off difficult special effects as well as keeping the characters and the story in mind, Captain America blew audiences away.

Many movies get carried away with special effects but Captain America, even with the overwhelming amount of effects, stayed true to what really makes a movie great, the story and the characters.

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Stieg Larsson’s internationally acclaimed novel “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” will, once again, hit the big screen worldwide this winter in a most-anticipated re-make of the enigmatic story – this time by the hand of David Fincher. The green band trailer was released by Sony last week but shortly before, fans and curious spectators were buzzing with excitement over a “leaked”/camera-captured red band trailer – which was subsequently pulled off of youtube. One day later, the US green band version appeared online but the word had already spread – a pitch-perfect example of viral marketing.

Blogger Todd Brown commented on the site twitchfilm.com that “Sony’s handling of the trailer release feels to me like on of the great recent moves in viral marketing – think about it, who announces that they’re putting a red band trailer in theaters but not releasing it then sits quietly for days while a suspiciously high quality version of that same trailer racks up massive traffic and chatter online? It’s a classic case of creating desire by ‘denying’ access.”

Fincher’s version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is expected to turn out notably different from Niels Arden Oplev’s 2009 take on the popular book. The Golden Globe-winning director has re-cast Rooney Mara (fresh off The Social Network) as the dark and hard-hitting Lisbeth Salander while Daniel Craig stars as Michael Blomkvist, the journalist who gets tangled up in the web of terror behind a young girl’s disappearance.

The announcement of the American remake made quite a stir initially when it was revealed that the Oscar-winning screenwriter Steven Zaillian, who was to pen the American version, had crafted a new ending to the revered work. According to slashfilm.com, “fans of Larsson’s work have been very vocal with their disappointment” and according to an article by Lynn Hirschberg in W Magazine, Fincher’s version does admittedly depart rather dramatically from the book.

“Blomkvist is less promiscuous, Salander is more aggressive, and, most notably, the ending—the resolution of the drama—has been completely changed. This may be sacrilege to some, but Zaillian has improved on Larsson—the script’s ending is more interesting.”

So – should Larsson fans forego the remake?

If you were one of the few who managed to catch a glimpse of the red band trailer – heck, if you’ve had the chance to peek at the official trailer – it does actually look good. Very good.

Draped over a rough and stormy Karen O-cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, the preview of Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo is a dazzling glimpse into the darkness that looms in Larsson’s universe. The final result will most likely prove darker than what the reserved and delicate Scandinavian storytelling tradition is used to, but like last year’s Let Me In (not to mention a wide array of Spanish, Japanese and Korean horror and thriller films), American cinema has a way of taking something foreign and translating it into Hollywood. For better or for worse.

Some may continue to curse the day Fincher laid eyes on Larsson’s work but if you read the book and saw the 2009 adaptation, another take may not be such a bad idea. The character of Lisbeth Salander is becoming an iconic figure of anti-hero(ine)ism – and a refreshingly grim one I might add. The more interpretations we get of her troubled fictional existence, the deeper we may venture into her mind. Fans of the books will have to admit that the first movie was a good, but superficial, interpretation of the original story’s complexity and suspense. A remake may add a new layer to its visualization.

With a promising trailer out, Dragon Tattoo fans should let go of their reservation and at least give the upcoming adaptation a chance – it won’t be the book and it won’t be the 2009 movie; The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by David Fincher is going to leave a whole new set of marks this December.

Image provided by Naír la jefa

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