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David Fincher has a reputation for being the feisty director of some of the most stylized films of the last 16 years -- from 'Se7en' to 'The Social Network' -- In 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,' Fincher gives us his version of Stieg Larsson's now famous Swedish best-seller. At a press conference in LA, he spoke about making the film
Before you got involved with this, what did you know about the books?
Nothing. In 2005 or 2006 I was trying to get 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' made. Kathy Kennedy brought me an English language translation of the first book and said, "I want you to read this." I said, "Kathy, it's 600 pages. I don't have time to read a 600-page book right now. Tell me what it's about." She says, "It's about a bisexual hacker in Stockholm, rides a motorcycle and fights misogyny and Nazis." And I said, "Why are you doing this to me? I'm not getting this movie made."
So I didn't read the book. And it was my bad and it was stupid and I apologized to her many, many times. But, five years later, the book has sold 25 million copies and a Swedish language movie was about to come out. I had just finished 'The Social Network' and I turned the movie in and Scott Rudin and Amy Pascal came to me and said, "We're making this movie. We want it to come out next Christmas. Can you do it after you finish 'The Social Network'? I read the book and I thought, Oh my God, what do you cut?
You changed some things from the book. What didn't you like that you felt needed to be changed?
Well, we needed to distill it as much as possible. I mean, how many Vangers can you keep in your mind at any given time. I mean, why see flashbacks when a film had already been made where you don't see the flashbacks? I like putting a face to Harriet. I like living through that day and seeing what Sweden was like in 1966. I liked all of those things that Steig chose to do and I like how it made this odd parallel between the girl who didn't fight back -- the girl who ran -- and the girl who does fight back.
Also, in the Swedish version, when Henrick Vanger shows Mikael the flowers that he assumes are coming from the killer, I remember my first thought was, Why does it have to be the killer?
I didn't feel that way with your version. It felt more subtle.
Well, you don't know when you're reading subtitles, you don't know if that's how it plays out. I have seen interviews that I've given in Sweden, written in Swedish, and translated back into English and I don't recognize what I'm saying. So I think a lot gets lost in translation. There may be that kind of subtlety, I don't know. I know in the translation into English of the Swedish film I think there's some stuff in it that you go, "Why would you put it that way?" But I only saw it once.
Now you've made two movies in a row in which watching people type on a computer is somehow enthralling. All day at work I watch people typing: not exciting at all. That seems like a very monotonous thing to do...
[Laughs] Incredibly monotonous. Well, it's also ... Look, you just have a rule of thumb: It's got to be as short as you can possibly make it and make the point. And you have to ask yourself, "Am I asking the audience to conclude something from what they've seen? Or am I asking them to simply watch somebody who's masterful at interfacing with this technology?" If I have to have something take place on a screen and then I have to make it land -- it has to drop nine stories and land on its feet -- I've got to go to somebody's reaction. And as goofy as it is to ask actors over a 140 day shoot, or whatever, to go, "I need another Scooby-Doo"...
Scooby-Doo?
We'd call them Scooby-Doos [in a Scooby-Doo voice], "Huh?" You know, "We're going to need a Scooby-Doo from you here!"
You had a quote recently where you mentioned how if it were up to you, you wouldn't screen movies early. You're David Fincher, couldn't you just not screen them if you don't want to? I just assumed it was up to you.
We didn't screen this movie. We didn't screen 'The Social Network,' we didn't go to a mall and recruit an audience and show it to them. We didn't.
But you screened it for press. I was under the impression that's what you were talking about.
No. I'm talking about the whole thing. I don't have it in for [New Yorker critic] David Denby [who ran a review early, breaking studio embargo]. I don't really care.
I agree. That whole thing was nonsense. I just thought what you said about not screening movies early was interesting.
What I care about is, in this day and age -- to the extent that this has bothered me in the past and to the extent that it has had to be addressed with me by other people -- I have had to sit with people from Sony and Scott Rudin's people who will show you studies done at major universities as to whether or not spoilers are bad. And the work being done now in that area would lead you to believe that spoilers don't actually hurt a movie to go in and experience. And part of this has to do with Pavlovian response people have to movie that have "2s" and "3s" after them. We're trying to turn audio and visual content into fast food.
How has that affected you?
The reason all trailers look the same ... you know, I had screaming fights with Sony. I loved the trailer for 'Inception.' I just don't want to make the trailer for 'Inception.' I appreciate what it was, but I don't want my trailer to go, "Whomb ... Whomb!" I feel that's their thing. They did it beautifully, more power to them. They branded a sound. They branded a way of this sort of throbbing call to action. Great. 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is not that. It's a very different thing. You know, it's a much different experience. And I felt like we had bequeathed them when we handed over Karen O singing 'Immigrant Song' in this drive up to the Vanger manor in the snow and this flash cutting of sort of the highlight scenes from book you may love.
There are similarities between the 'Inception' trailer and the first 'Dragon Tattoo' trailer.
We had sort of given them a roadmap. Then when the trailer started being cut, all of a sudden it was 'Inception' and the television spots look like 'Inception.' Part of that is just the world that we live in. There's this wanting to make the promise of a Friday night experience. "How do we go to the thing that you last loved?" Well, that would be fine, but it precludes all of the hard work that [starts hitting the table] this specific story which is very different from that other story.
Speaking of movies with "2s" and "3s," if 'Dragon Tattoo' does well, is it a done deal that you will direct the next two movies?
No. Not a done deal. And, you know, this has to do well at a scale that ... a big scale.
If another director asked you, "Should I do the sequel?" what advice would you give them? Because from what I've read, you didn't have the best experience taking over an established franchise when you did 'Alien 3.'
It was a tough thing on 'Alien 3' because there was no need to make a movie for any other reason than it was a sound business decision. There was no story that everybody felt, "Wow, this is worth getting out of bed early for." It was simply, "We could do this or we could do that or we could do this." I don't think you have that with this. You have books that are beloved. Let me put it this way, you have a jumping off point.
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