Whoooo! That’s the sound that escaped me when Daniel Craig, star of the upcoming David Fincher film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, announced that the movie will be very much an adult-oriented piece.
Fincher’s last film, The Social Network, was truly fantastic and deserved all of the praise it has received. That being said, his cult-classics like Se7en and Fight Club (though not as immediately accessible as The Social Network) fare far better in my opinion. They are more original, artistic, and downright entertaining.
According to Indiewire, Daniel Craig was quoted as saying:
“It’s as adult as you can possibly make it. This is adult drama. I grew up, as we fucking all did, watching ‘The Godfather’ and that, movies that were made for adults. And this is a $100 million R-rated movie. Nobody makes those anymore. And Fincher, he’s not holding back. They’ve given him free rein. He showed me some scenes recently, and my hand was over my mouth, going, ‘Are you fucking serious?’”
You’ve got to love the closer to that quote. I’m probably the only person who hasn’t read Stieg Larsson’s novel on which the film is based, or seen the original Swedish version. From what I hear though, it’s filled with violence, sexual abuse, red tape, double crosses, and espionage, which are all perfect ingredients for a David Fincher film.
It is also important to clearly convey the studio’s brilliant move to film the story with an R-rating in mind, which truly makes for a revealing and satisfying story. A film like Taken, though in no way similar to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, is a prime example of why gritty stories deserve to be R-rated.
With Taken, the film never reached its violent potential and as a result, there was no emotional impact near its conclusion. Again, the film was never very good to begin with, but it doesn’t change the simple fact that when studios decide to produce a more PG-13 friendly action/gritty film in the hopes of making big bucks, it often curbs the film’s credibility and power.
Daniel Craig continued by saying, “…it’s not that he simply showed me footage that was horribly graphic. It was stuff that was happening, or had happened. And somehow you don’t see it.”
Fincher seems to be playing by the book here (figuratively and literally), which should make for a film that is as visceral in its images as in its storytelling.
If the poster and trailer are any indication, then the tagline for the film, “The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas”, seems to be right on target.
