So the latest news on “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” casting?
Evidently director David Fincher will be testing “up to six” actresses for the title role tomorrow (Sunday). And while the final list of who exactly they will be is still somewhat speculative, the fact that these tests will be done in costume, make-up, piercings, and opposite the already-cast Daniel Craig, strongly suggests that these six are the finalists (though last we week it was thought there was five finalists).
So who are they, exactly? Well, Deadline hazards they’ll be six of this eight: Emily Browning (“Sucker Punch”), Sara Snook (“Sleeping Beauty”), Rooney Mara (“The Social Network”), Sophie Lowe (“Blame”), Lea Seydoux (“Robin Hood”), Ellen Page and Mia Wasikowska. There are a few relative surprises on that list for those of us who have been following this closely: firstly, apparently Deadline have either not heard of or have disregarded the Daily Beast’s contention that Browning is out of the running (which we reported here), and secondly, better-known names Ellen Page and Mia Wasikowska again show up on the shortlist, from which they had both been absent for a while, though we had our suspicions (and note, in case you were wondering, Die Antwoord South African rapper Yo-Landi Vi$$er apparently wasn’t interested in acting or the role, so you can count her out too)
It should be noted, however that neither Browning nor Wasikowska made test deals initially, and while that hardly precludes them from being seen this Sunday, it might make sense of the question marks currently hovering over their names. Also, Ellen Page actually sent in her own test to Fincher, in a bid to be (re)considered for the role, and this on the back of the (admittedly somewhat shady) report that she had been asked to “continue working on her Swedish accent” during the casting process suggests that she may be being kept on as a back-up in case the more unknown actresses fail to float Fincher’s boat.
Lastly, because all of this isn’t confusing/speculative enough, the word is that Kate Jarvis from “Fish Tank” has also entered the race, but, though that would make a nice round 6 for relatively unknown actresses minus Browning, she definitely won’t be testing on Sunday.
More interesting, perhaps is to look at why there is this brouhaha surrounding the casting of this particular role. Yes, we have just weathered the casting storm for the “Spider-Man” reboot, but ‘Dragon Tattoo’ is not a superhero/comic book property, and while it’s based on a bestseller, well, so was “The Da Vinci Code” but you didn’t see a million actors desperate to don that bad wig and point at statues (though now that we’ve just described it like that we’re surprised Nic Cage wasn’t all over it). The difference here is really in the character of Salander, and anyone who has read the gripping, page-turner books, (or, to a lesser extent, seen the pretty bad Swedish movie versions), knows just what a mouthwatering, once-in-a-lifetime role she is.
Deadline, apologizing for the possible hubris, compares it to the search for a Scarlett O’Hara, but are they really so far off the mark? On the surface, the similarities between the roles — a headstrong Southern belle fighting to save her plantation during the Civil War, and a Goth-y, punk-y bisexual Swedish hacker who survives serial abuses and is bent on revenge — may seem few. And yet they are both incredibly strong female characters who, crucially in this writer’s eyes, never compromise their own drives and ambitions in order to be liked. Scarlett and Salander both are actually hugely complex and fraught characters, who deal with varying degrees of victimhood with resourcefulness and intelligence — if rarely with honor or charity. This makes them compelling, and atypical, central female characters: uncompromising, often unlikeable and utterly unsinkable. The strange thing then, is not the comparison itself, but that (with the eternal exception of Ripley in the “Alien” franchise) there are so few landmark central female roles between then and now to intrude on it.
In any case, we hope to hear some more solid casting news soon, and while much has been made of Salander’s physicality (because much is made of it in the books), at this stage we’re resting assured that all involved are savvy enough to know that the soul of the part lies not in the actress having the Salander’s razor-sharp cheekbones (though she does kinda have to be small) or whatever but being able to convey her spirit — indomitable, willful and bursting with sly intelligence.
While Fincher recently told MTV that there are currently no plans to make back-to-back ‘Dragon Tattoo’ films (as a recent New York Times article suggested there would be; though they did means films two and three), the director does have an option right now to direct the sequel, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” (and evidently he gets paid either way). And yes, there will be three films. It’s a trilogy that includes “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.” And while Fincher cautioned about getting ahead of himself, “You got to make one [film] that people want to see a sequel to before you can make a sequel,” he said, Daniel Craig is signed on for three films and you can surely bet that whatever female is eventually crowned “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” (our guess is Sophie Lowe, but we like Rooney Mara and Lea Seydoux for it too), she too will be signed on for a three picture deal. Sony and Fincher would really have to blow it at the box-office to not have sequels green-lit and regardless, those sequels can move forward without Fincher and writer Steven Zaillian, if Sony so wishes. The actors, however will remain the same (and this probably means even more vacation time away from James Bond for Craig).