Saturday, 14 January 2012 Written by Ivan Radford
If you've seen David Fincher's Dragon Tattoo, the opening credits probably blew you away with their angry, sub-Bond style and loud cover of Led Zeppelin's The Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor and Karen O. At the very least, they should have made a strong impression, presuming you don't already think that it was the best title sequence of the whole year.
Now, you can watch those Dragon Tattoo opening credits online - thanks to Tim Miller and Blur Studio's superb design, it's 154 seconds of your life that you won't regret losing.
Yet to make your mind up about your favourite titles from the past 12 months? Read on for the top 5 opening credits of 2011.
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Wednesday, 14 December 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Stellan Skarsgard
Certificate: 18
Trailer
David Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo was always going to have a lot to live up to – because of the guy at the helm, rather than Niels Arden Oplev’s previous film version of Stieg Larsson’s popular books. But Fincher announces his intention straight away, with an explosive opening credits sequence full of black liquid, computer keyboards and shattered female silhouettes.
It screams James Bond in an angry, foreign voice, establishing the titular Girl as the franchise’s lead figure. After Benjamin Button and The Social Network, this feels like Fincher back in Se7en territory. Grizzled, haunting and beautiful.
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Friday, 09 December 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
Yes, after yesterday's epic trailer, there's ANOTHER video of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This time, it's a video of the Dragon Tattoo press conference in Stockholm.
And once again, it's amazing that I'm still excited about seeing more of the film - even after watching a whole 8 minutes of the ruddy thing.
Talking to media folks in Sweden, David Fincher, Rooney Mara and Stellan Skarsgard spoke about the making of Fincher's Dragon Tattoo adaptation. Here are 5 things we learned from the Dragon Tattoo press conference:
1. Rooney Mara Is a Coat Hanger
"My casting rules are simple," says Fincher. "You're looking for someone to hang a character on."
2. Lisbeth Salander Is the Next Tony Hawks
"I was thrown into it quite fast," Rooney Mara explains of her sudden casting as the novel's hacker heroine. "There was a lot of physical work... The motorcycle training. The skateboarding. The kickboxing." Skateboarding? If we get to see her pull a 50-50 grind and a heel-flip on the Stockholm streets, I am so there. (I'm also now hoping for a Tony Hawks-style video game franchise.)
3. David Fincher Does 40 Takes of Each Shot
Stellan Skarsgard explains how the shoot lasted a whole year and why it felt like it went on forever. "When I met David, he said "This is not going to be fun." He went "I do 40 takes of each set up..." But when you work with David, you feel that you try to get further in each take." 40 takes of Swedish bum rape? That's pretty hardcore workmanship.
4. Sweden Is Exotic
"For me, it was in this exotic place..." says Fincher. All that Swedish bum rape has probably gone to his head.
5. There's a Bit of Lisbeth in All of Us
"That feeling of being marginalised or held back by people in a position of power," comments Mara, "people can relate to that." I certainly can. Well, that's my excuse for my tattoo of The Moomins, anyway.
Read on to watch the full video of the Dragon Tattoo press conference.
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Thursday, 08 December 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
Watch this 8 minute trailer for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
And now marvel at the fact that you can't wait to see the rest of the 157 minutes.
For more on David Fincher's Dragon Tattoo, head this way to see the trailer - and for all the pretty new Dragon Tattoo stills.
You can now head this way to read our The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo review
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Sunday, 04 December 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
It's cold outside, it's dark by 5pm and you need something to shove on the stereo to keep the family warm.
This isn't it.
These are the rather excellent tracks from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - everyone's favourite Boxing Day treat for 2011 - that have been released as a free sampler by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (much like the five track free EP for Social Network). You can read more about the pre-ordering of the soundtrack and the ridiculous number of other versions planned to hit the digital shelves over at Wired.
Anyway, back to these seven tracks. They're chilling, upsetting and have chimes in them. So in a way, they're the best Christmas music you could choose for your living room. Presuming you're a twisted parent with a penchant for traumatising small children.
What better, then, for our first Christmas playlist in our Advent Calendar? (The others are less disturbing - I promise.) Think Let the Right One In meets The Social Network. Think serious Oscar contender against Alberto Iglesias' two superb scores. Then stop thinking and listen to the damned thing.
Oh, and a special mention for track number 4, Oraculum, for its constantly wrong-footing 5/4-6/4 alternating time signature - 11 beats in a bar? Suck on that, Dave Brubeck.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
It's always good to get an email about David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Especially one with lots of pretty pictures. But what do you do with them? Gallery's get a bit boring sometimes, and I'm sure I've seen some of them before.
So I did the obvious thing - I went to Google. Straight away, I found a ton of new stills from Fincher Fanatic, Just Jared and various other places. Exciting, but not that helpful.
Then I started looking back at the last bunch of Dragon Tattoo stills on here, again featuring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, and remembered the amazing fact that Stieg Larsson's original novel mentions sandwiches on average once every 26 pages, and also talks about coffee on 92 separate occasions, because Mikael Blomkvist apparently likes coffee. A lot.
I'm not really sure if that explains what happened next in my head. But if you read on, you can see what I ended up doing. Hey, at least it reminds you how awesome David Fincher's version of Swedish Bum Rape: The Movie is looking. With or without the high caffeine content.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is in cinemas on Boxing Day. Why not take the whole family? Or even better, just get your kids to watch David Fincher's Dragon Tattoo trailer for 30 seconds and scar them for life.
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Wednesday, 16 November 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
"There’s too much anal rape" in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to get an Oscar nomination. I think we’re very safe," Fincher told Entertainment Weekly.
I've long been a fan of the Dragon Tattoo books, ever since I experienced that harrowing Swedish bum rape in the bath (shout to my internet homeboy Chris Blohm for helping me through that difficult time). And now Swedish Bum Rape: The Movie is returning to the big screen where it belongs, and people are suggesting it could be too much for The Academy?
I'm fairly sure that Oscar-nominated anal rape rule is incorrect (hello to Pulp Fiction) but let's reclaim the phrase for all awards contenders and get those Oscar folks used to it. For the next month, please use this hashtag on Twitter whenever you feel is appropriate:
#swedishbumrape
And then feel free to check Google and see if I'm still the first result you get when you search for "Swedish bum rape". It's something I'm oddly proud of.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
New stills for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo arrived in my inbox yesterday and things are looking pretty nifty - David Fincher seems to be stopping at nothing to make his adaptation as faithful as possible.
There's Rooney Mara doing her best Lisbeth Salander and totally pulling off that metal face look...
There's Daniel Craig in possibly the most exciting shot of a man holding a mobile phone ever recorded on film:
And then there's the most important image of all, which shows how close Fincher is sticking to the books. Here it is:
Take one look at that and the key question in the whole of Stieg Larsson's mystery, which sees dogged journalist Mikael Blomkvist investigating the disappearance of young Harriett Vanger with the help of hacker Lisbeth Salander, is pretty obvious:
Is it "Rayman Coffee"? "Stayman Coffee"? Or does the cup simply read "Gayman Off"? (Daniel Craig likes his butch coffee for male men.)
It doesn't really matter - the point is that Fincher's got a cup of coffee centre frame. And given that Stieg Larsson's novel mentions sandwiches once every 26 pages on average and features coffee on 92 separate occasions (FACT), it looks like Fincher's equally caffeine-obsessed, which can only be a good thing. If there's one thing the original Swedish film was missing, it's more coffee. (I can't wait for the second film, in which we move into bagel and tea territory.)
Of course, there are those who will dismiss the cup as an unimportant background object on a table but either way, David Fincher's film is slowly moving from "pointless American remake" to "excellent second adaptation". And if you need to remind yourself why, head this way to see Fincher's Dragon Tattoo trailer.
Most amazing of all? There's still not a Swedish bum rape in sight (unless it's hiding in the coffee cup). And yes, I'll be bringing that phrase back by December. Fair warning and all that.
You can now head this way to read our review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
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Trailer: David Fincher's Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Tuesday, 30 August 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
Director: David Fincher
Cast: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara
Certificate: TBC
Release Date: 26th December
David Fincher's new take on the Stieg Larrson Milennium trilogy follows the original three successful Swedish films based on Larsson's novels.
The first in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, tells the story of dogged journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), who is hired to search for a woman who disappeared 40 years ago on a private island residence.
He finds help in the unlikely form of Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a young sociopath with a penchant for computer hacking and justice.
You can now head this way to read our David Fincher Dragon Tattoo review
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Wednesday, 01 June 2011 Written by Ivan Radford
After a couple of days of waiting for a non-bootleg copy of Fincher's Dragon Tattoo trailer, I can confirm that it's still awesome.
Ok, the official Dragon Tattoo trailer is a green-band instead of red-band but even without the nipples, it still has everything that made that leaked video so staggering: Daniel Craig's Mikael Blomkvist, Se7en-style dim lighting, some whip-snap editing and THAT cover of Immigrant Song.
And if for some unfathomable reason Trent Reznor and Karen O doing Led Zeppelin doesn't do it for you (it really, really should), then you can still get excited about Rooney Mara's appearance as Lisbeth Salander. And the fact that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is being directed by David freakin' Fincher.
The feel bad movie of Christmas? Yeah, I'll take that.
Read on for the official Girl with the Dragon Tattoo teaser. Swedish bum rape ahoy! (Or you can head this way to read our Fincher's Dragon Tattoo review.)
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