Some fans balked at news of an American adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the first book of the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy of thrillers. A Swedish version had already been released in 2009 and was finally arriving on the American DVD market just as Larsson's novels were becoming best-sellers.
For many, it was the performance by Noomi Rapace as the book and movie's heroine, Lisbeth Salander, that seemed irreplaceable. Rapace's Dragon Tattoo director, Niels Oplev, publicly expressed his frustration with the American version citing that Rapace had "captured" the character of Salander and "it should always be all her". Unfortunately for Oplev, another actress is getting the chance to portray the tattooed and pierced computer hacker.
Director David Fincher went on an exhaustive search of actresses for the role before finally casting Rooney Mara, whose most recent work was in Fincher's The Social Network. While Rooney's Salander has been caught in "spy pics" from the set, W Magazine has the first official look at the American version, looking very much in keeping with Rapace's version. Fincher told W why he cast Mara, who descends from the Rooney and Mara families that own the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants.
Fincher and Mara on casting, serial killers and more >> Posted 01.12.11 by Ryan