Wired: Feature on David Fincher and “Dragon Tattoo”

Great piece of writing in Wired by Brian Raftery about director David Fincher. Here is how the article begins:

A few months ago, David Fincher was having a problem with his new movie. This in itself wasn’t especially surprising, as Fincher’s productions seem to attract crises of the cosmic-joke variety, be they midshoot injuries (Se7en), last-minute casting switcheroos (Panic Room), or on-the-fly script rewrites (Alien3). Despite the director’s meticulous planning — he can spend years preparing for a film — something usually goes awry. He’s used to it. “All movies are a trial,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s war.”

But this latest battle was unique. In a roundabout way, it had to do with ABBA.

For much of the past year, Fincher has been filming The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, his roughly $100 million adaptation of the macabre Swedish mystery that centers on a punk-hacker heroine with distinctive skin art. On one of the first nights of shooting, Fincher and his crew were in Sweden, filming a murder scene that takes place alongside a gloomy dock. But after a night’s work, Fincher didn’t have the shot he wanted, and the film’s ultratight schedule meant he wouldn’t be able to return for months.

When Fincher began planning the reshoot, he learned that the property had been sold to one of the guys in ABBA. Apparently, the new owner — either Benny or Bj\0xF6rn, it’s not really clear — wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of having his evening stroll interrupted by a simulated drowning, and he refused to let the crew come back. Rather than find a new location or make do with the footage he had, Fincher decided to build his own Swedish dock.

Which is why, on a late-summer afternoon, we’re standing on a Los Angeles soundstage, examining a replica of a rural-Scandinavia mise-en-scène: mossy rocks, foliage-fat trees, and — perched high above the docks, turtlenecking out of the woods — a squat, deceptively cozy faux cottage. Like most sets, it looks a bit weird naked. But once the lights hit and the smoke drifts in, we are suddenly in the land of stunted summers and moderately high suicide rates.

And it just gets better, an interesting ride into Fincher’s psyche.

I am not a big fan of the original version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, so this is actually one remake to which I’m looking forward, especially with a screenplay adaptation by Steve Zaillian. How about you? Excited to see the new Tattoo?

For more of the Wired article, go here.

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