Dragons and Tattoos

If you haven’t checked out the swedish thriller/mystery The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo then you’ve probably at least heard of the new phenomenon by now. If not, well, this guy Steig Larsson wrote a trilogy (the Millennium Trilogy) before he died in 2004. The books were about a duo of a journalist and wild goth chick named Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. The two solve intense mysteries involving lots of graphic details.

They were published starting in 2005 as posthumous writings of Mr. Larsson. However, it wasn’t until they decided to make film versions that the story became oh so popular here in the land of Freedom and pop culture idolization. The film (or should i says “films” because they were all three released in the same year) was released in sweden this past year (the year of our lord 2009). I caught a stint of the publicity when i saw the trailer and checked it out. However, i dismissed it, not expecting it to come to my town, being that it was a foreign film with a reputation. And, my hopes did not fail me, we didn’t get it. So, it slipped out of my head until I started seeing people read the book. I kept catching teachers and students at school nose deep into this book. And so it had hit us. People were overtaken by the almost spooky thought that Larsson was speaking from the grave. Now, it has gone so far that an American remake of the film is set to release in 2011 (imdb). I would love to advise to ignore this, but … it looks fucking awesome. The first film itself was an intense and intricate thriller that rocked my nerves, but this american “version” just might compare. It’s the director that knocks me off my feet.

David Fincher (Fight Club, Benjamin Button, Se7en) is set to direct the film. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian (who won an oscar for Schindler’s List). With a director and screenwriter duo that seem to create nothing but fabulous, masterful pieces, how could this thing go wrong? Not only that, but Daniel Craig (James Bond 007) is to play Blomkvist. Craig himself is one of the best actors out there right now. Now, it was rumored for some time that Carey Mulligan (An Education) was to play Lisbeth, but I read something to where she dismissed those claims and said that Fincher turned her down. So, I can’t be positive, but it looks like this film might just rock the cinema big time, and i certainly hope that it does.

If you haven’t seen the original, go out and rent it today, you’ll be pleased you did.

Can We Handle This?

So, check this:

Everybody knows that Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club made for one of the best movies that turned into a cult phenomena. Also, turning the author himself into somewhat of a huge thing. And let me not sound hypocritical. The guy is one of my favorite writers, I think there is something about the way he writes that is just brilliant, however trite his storyline scheme has become. I take a lot of inspiration from him. And because Tyler Durden was a bigger hit than anyone could have imagined, Palahniuk is a good target for adaptations. Sounds pretty okay, right? Maybe. Clark Gregg sure learned his lesson with his box office failure Choke – a film version of the CP story. Even with a cast including Sam Rockwell and Angelica Huston, it still shattered its own self. But did it ever have potential? Sure, his novels are great to pick up and read and extremely appealing. Yet, they’re nowhere near the reality of anything. Nothing that happens in Palahniuk’s universe could occur in the real world. David Fincher knew that. Clark Gregg … not so much. He tried to make it something it wasn’t, a true story when most of CP’s stuff is fantasy. It is a parallel universe that takes the real world and makes it more absurd, so that Chuck can sit back and bash society and the consumer culture (which he does with such eloquence :)).

Of course, I didn’t come on here to bash Choke “The most disappointing movie I’ve seen in a while”. No, I am writing this because after years and years of trying to adapt certain CP novels (Survivor, Invisible Monsters) that will probably never happen, someone is finally going to step up and be bold. Koen Mortier (Ex-Drummer – which has some cult following of its own) is making Haunted, probably the most intense and horrifying of his novels – it also includes the most disgusting story I’ve ever read (“Guts” AKA The pool Scene). Now, if Mortier can get past Gregg’s mistake and take a word of advice from Fincher, this could be chilling. And not only could it be chilling, but it could make whole audiences leave due to some of the content in the story – that’s if Mortier is true and Saw hasn’t fried everybody’s brains already. Can we handle this, though? What kind of liberties might need to be made in order to make this whole thing suitable for worldwide viewing? Because the way I look at it, you’re going to have to dull it down a lot. Hopefully this will work, because there’s no one more excited than me to see yet another Palahniuk movie. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope this Mortier guy makes us feel uncomfortable, just like Chuck is able to do.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0607831/

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/movies/haunted