David Fincher’s Girl With the Dragon Tattoo had been shaping up to be a big blockbuster this winter, with its huge, built in, best-selling book following.
Yet the film hasn’t exactly been performing up to box office expectations – which doesn’t necessarily mean the American trilogy stops here.
But first things first. As to why the US version of the movie hasn’t taken off in spite of mostly good reviews, IndieWire listed five possible reasons: “The holiday release date may be Sony’s biggest mistake,” because it’s not exactly a Xmas movie, “It’s not a mainstream genre title,” even though it’s sold 30 million books world wide, “It lacks marquee stars,” “Sony mismarketed the film,” and “It’s too expensive and too long.”
Still, screenwriter Steve Zaillian, who adapted the book and won the Academy Award for Schindler’s List, apparently has the script for the Girl Who Played With Fire ready to go, although it remains unclear if Fincher will be on board to direct the sequel.
Nevertheless, Deadline claims the sequels are indeed going forward with the next two stories in the series, and confirms the film is getting close to the $100 million mark at the box office “because it’s holding better than any other holiday movie.”
And yet another interesting twist. As Entertainment Weekly confirms, The Directors Guild Awards, “perhaps the most predictive pre-Oscar prize of the season,” nominated David Fincher for Best Director, but Steven Spielberg got shut out. “Could [Dragon Tattoo] snag a Best Picture nod on January 24 as well?”
As Deadline notes, “Dragon Tattoo has had a slow build during awards season, and now appears to be reaching a crescendo. At one point things looked so bleak for serious awards prospects that Sony even began pulling back on some previously planned Oscar ad buys in publications and sites. That has all changed now and the film has become a serious contender.”
This is also Fincher’s third nomination from the Director’s Guild in four years. Will Fincher finally take home a little gold guy this year? True, he’s got some stiff competition with The Artist, which I’ve heard nothing but good things about, and Woody Allen, who’s made his best film in years, and his most successful, with Midnight in Paris.
Then again, the Academy could always split the vote giving Best Picture to one guy, and Best Director to another. Certainly Oscar wins will help the film, and it’s good to see that a movie can hang in there and win over the long term, which Dragon Tattoo may indeed wind up doing.
