London, Dec 13: Stieg Larsson's literary trilogy was once again launched in filmic form Monday as Columbia Pictures' remake of the Swedish cult classic premiered in London.
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is already gaining accolades, with Rooney Mara (who plays Lisbeth Salander) scooping Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2011 National Board of Review Awards in the U.S..
The film centres around a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, who teams up with a young computer hacker (Salander) to research a woman who has been missing for 40 years.
The content of the novels is legendarily intense, but for Mara, the film's gruelling schedule meant she had little time to think about it.
“It was hard but when you work 16 hours a day, six days a week, you kind of just go home and go to bed, and get up and start all over again the next day.” she explained. “There isn't really time to switch it off or keep it on, you've just got to sleep when you can and get through it.”
In Mara's mind, the persecution of Salander's character made her universally relevant. “I think that everyone can relate to that feeling of being misunderstood or outcast.” she commented.
“Everyone at some point in their life, you know, can relate to people who are in a position of power abusing that power over them, and I think people really want to see her succeed.”
Daniel Craig (who plays Blomkvist) agreed that adversity brought the lead characters closer, despite their complex dynamic.
“I think they come together in an extreme situation and sometimes when that happens with people they kind of fall in love or they find a way of getting together.” Craig analysed. “They're trying to both solve this mystery, they share a lot in common about life, and it's not immediately obvious but they like each other.”
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is one of three books in Stieg Larsson's “The Millennium Trilogy”. Combined, they have sold 60 million copies in 46 countries worldwide.
The original Swedish language version of the film (“M?n som hatar kvinnor”) was released in 2009, and won a BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language, as well as a host of other awards and nominations.
But for Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, treading in such successful footsteps isn't an issue: “It doesn't matter. Any good film is good because it has the personal view of the director that does it, and Fincher has a very strong personal view in everything he does, so I think it will be interesting.” he stated.
