One day, scholars will pore through the live-action history of Stieg Larsson’s literary Millennium series and wonder what the hell was going on, with David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo the pivotal moment in the messy, messy franchise’s history.
Noomi Rapace found international stardom in the original version, as well as sequels The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, all of which were released in 2009 and went on to earn a combined $215 million at the box office. In swooped Fincher for the blockbuster Hollywood remake, which went on to earn more than the Swedish trio combined, and even landed an Academy Award for Best Film Editing among five nominations in total.
The filmmaker was planning to shoot his sequels back-to-back with eyes on 2013 and 2014 releases, but then everything went radio silent until it was announced that soft reboot/prequel The Girl in the Spider’s Web was happening instead – this time with an entirely different cast and crew in place yet again. It bombed hard and found itself trashed by critics, drawing a line under one of the most bizarre cinematic universes of all-time.
Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo should have gotten the successors it was ultimately robbed off due to studio inactivity and the meticulous director’s impatient nature, but it has at least circumvented its circumstances to become a top-viewed title on Starz this week, as per FlixPatrol.
We ended up getting five Lisbeth Sander adventures from four different directors with three different stars in the space of nine years, which is absolutely insane.