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Dragon Tattoo role goes to unknown Rooney Mara
Legion of Hollywood starlets left out in the cold as Tattoo director makes his pick
It was going to be Carey Mulligan, the perky young star of last year's British hit, An Education. Then it was going to be the Juno actress Ellen Page or the Australian Mia Wasikowska. The latest gossip was that Scarlett Johansson had perfected a Swedish accent for a recent audition.
In fact, it is none of these. The young woman finally chosen by director David Fincher to play one of the most talked about roles in Hollywood, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is the relatively unknown American actress, Rooney Mara.
If only a fraction of the people across the world who have read the late Stieg Larsson's novel go to see the Hollywood version, she is destined to be a star.
She will play the punk computer hacker Salander opposite Bond actor Daniel Craig as the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Robin Wright, the just divorced wife of Sean Penn, plays Blomkvist's lover and boss, Erika.
Mara hasn't just signed on for one movie. She and Craig will take the leads in Sony's three film versions of the Larsson trilogy. After Dragon Tattoo will come The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
So, who is the girl who's beaten so many young stars to the part? She's 24 years old and has appeared in the recent remake of Nightmare on Elm Street and had small parts in the TV dramas ER and Law & Order. Her sister is the actress Kate Mara and, most important, she appears in another as yet unreleased film made by David Fincher, The Social Network, the story of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. She plays the part of Erica, the girl who broke the young Zuckerberg's heart, prompting him to start the social networking site.
According to LA film journalist Gina Piccalo, Rooney Mara beat three other actresses to win the Salander role - none of whom has been mentioned in the welter of media gossip about the film. They were the Australians Sophie Lowe and Sarah Snook and the French actress Lea Seydoux.
It seems the Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, who plays the role in the Swedish films based on the trilogy, never got a look-in, despite brilliant reviews for her Salander. The second in the Swedish trio, The Girl Who Played With Fire, opens at UK cinemas on August 27. ·
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We must know the same Chinese Pirates! I came away from the books with a mental picture of the characters - few of them directly described in the narrative, unless they'd been commented on by other characters (aside from Salander, of course!) THEN I watched the movies, and was rocked by how different it seemed to what I'd seen in my imagination. Blomquist, for example, who skips from bed to bed needed to be a LOT better looking to be plausible. Erica likewise. The books imply that I'd find her attractive... the Erica in the Movies, I didn't.
Let's not get TOO "snobby" about the differences between Sweden and Hollywood. After all, what could be more glitzy and tinsel-covered than Sweden's biggest export: ABBA?
Having seen all 3 Swedish versions thanks to Chinese Pirates, I have great trepidation about how Hollywood will portray the Larssen stories. He had a fire in his belly about his society which was clear in the Swedish films. Hollywood may be creative but the ideology died years ago. I found all the characters in the Swedish films believable, bald pates, saggy bellies, brown teeth and all. I found the fact that Blomkvist wears the same olive buttoned T shirt and Erika the same snow coloured jumpers in all three films terribly endearing. Noomi was fabulous and she wasn't perfect - you would imagine a girl whose life had been spent traumatised would appear thin and spotty. I loved the fact that a woman with obvious lines is still sexy and seductive. I enjoyed the fact the heroes took public transport.. can't imagine Hollywood allowing that. There were no car chases and few fights.. wonderful... no special effects, monsters (other than her dad).. or swaggering macho types.. I am tired of Hollywood and do not want to give them oxygen.. roll on Stockholm.