AmericanCinematographer201201

Cold Case
David Fincher reteams with
Jeff Cronenweth, ASC to remake
the Swedish hit
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
By Jay Holben
•|•
David Fincher has tackled some twisted tales over the
course of his career, notably Seven (AC Oct. ’95), Fight
Club (AC Nov. ’97) and Zodiac (AC April ’06), but his
latest picture, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, could be
his most complicated narrative yet. Adapted from the first
book in Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s wildly popular trilogy,
the film follows Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a renowned
investigative journalist who accepts an unusual job offer after
his journalism career is derailed by accusations of libel.
Wealthy industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer)
asks Blomkvist to solve a 40-year-old cold case, the disappearance
of Vanger’s niece, Harriet, and in return Vanger will
not only pay handsomely, but also help disprove the libel accusations
against Blomkvist. During his investigation, which
reveals a number of sordid family secrets, Blomkvist teams
with young, eccentric hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney
Mara), whose eye-catching tattoo gives the story its title.
Larsson’s trilogy — The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The
Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s
Nest — was brought to the silver screen by Swedish filmmakers
in 2009, and when Fincher began prepping his version of
Dragon Tattoo, he was keen to retain its native elements by
shooting extensively in Sweden and using a Swedish crew. “It
was an aesthetic choice,” says Fincher. “We wanted it to look
and feel like a Swedish film, and I think it does. We were
already getting flak for doing a Hollywood version of the story,
so we made a commitment to doing as much of the movie as
possible in Sweden, with a Swedish crew.”
That crew initially included a Swedish cinematographer,
but after a few weeks of shooting, Fincher decided to
make a change. He called Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, one of his
longtime collaborators, and asked him to take over.
Cronenweth recalls, “I got a call at 6 in the morning, and it was
Bob Wagner, David’s assistant director, asking how I was
doing. I said, ‘I’m fine, Bob, but it’s 6 a.m., so this obviously
isn’t a social call. What’s up?’ He said David and the cine-
32 January 2012 American Cinematographer