The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Case Study

Alex Spanner

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Production

• The film is adapted from the Swedish novel of the same name, written by Steig Larsson. It is the beginning of the ‘Millennium’ Trilogy and was a best-seller in the US and in Europe.

• The film has a pre-requisite form as a Swedish film, which itself made over $100,000,000 worldwide

• Larsson’s idea for the story came when as a 15 year old he witnessed the rape of a girl called Lisbeth. The Swedish title for the story translates as ‘Men who hate Women.’

• It is based on an adapted screen-play by David Zaillian.

A poster for the original Swedish film

Genre/Overview

• The film is described as a ‘thriller’, meaning that the director focuses on creating suspense, tension and excitement for the reader.

• The protagonist for the film is disgraced journalist Mikael Blomquist, recently found guilty of libel, who takes on a case from elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger to discover what happened to his favourite niece Harriet, who disappeared in unknown circumstances40 years previously. Blomquist must then emerge himself in the dark nature of the Vanger families past, with the help of the mysterious investigator Lisbeth Salander.

Finance

• The film was originally financed by Sony Pictures, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announcing in May 2011 they will finance 20% of the film. In this agreement, MGM and Sony have decided to also co-finance the other two films in the ‘Millennium’ Trilogy as well as a co-effort on the next two James Bond films.

Cast• The film was directed by David Fincher, who has had notable

success with films such as Seven, Fight Club and The Social Network. A realistic scene was important to Fincher, who decided to film the majority of the film in Sweden to improve realism.

• Daniel Craig plays Mikael Blomquist. Craig originally turned down the part because of his commitments to Skyfall, however when production halted he was able to take up the role of Blomquist.

• The role of Salander interested many young, famous actresses in Hollywood, including Scarlett Johansson, Carey Mulligan and Emma Watson, however it was eventually given to Rooney Mara.

Distribution

• The film was jointly distributed by both Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing

• The film premiered in London on the 12th December 2011, and opened in cinemas nationwide on Boxing Day.

• The film was advertised before other films in the similar with a more conservative age rating than the film itself, which is an 18.

Problems with Distribution

• US newspaper ‘The New Yorker’ was supposed to release a favourable article a week before the film was released, however it failed to do so as if they printed the article they would ‘miss a deadline’. This angered producer Scott Rudin, who claimed ‘an agreement was an agreement’ and used his influence to have other newspapers print positive reviews instead.

Exhibition

• The film made $102.5million in the US, including $12.5m in the first weekend

• The film won an Oscar for Best Editing• It was released on DVD/Blu-Ray, with the CD itself

having been designed to look like an illegally-burned CD. This attention to detail was used to distinguish this DVD from others. This was distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

• The DVD also features an Ultraviolet code for ‘instant streaming’

The design of the CD