Author Stieg Larsson passed away at the age of 50 due to heart attack, shortly before his work would make him a worldwide literary sensation. His three books in the 'Millennium' series have become best-sellers in a number of languages, spawning three major Swedish films and an American version coming next winter from David Fincher. Much has been made of Larsson's intent to publish ten books in the series, detailing the exploits of superjournalist Mikael Blomkvist and his law-breaking sidekick, damaged ward-of-state/hacker Lisbeth Salander. But what did Larsson leave behind?
Larsson's longtime companion Eva Gabrielsson, who engaged in a legal battle with the Larsson estate over the late author's assets, claims to have found a laptop containing the fifth book in the series. There was talk about the fourth book being uncovered, but aside from conversations between Larsson and his family (where he apparently disclosed that the fifth book was more enjoyable to write than the fourth), but this is the first hard evidence that the material exists. There are no plans about what to do with the manuscript, which is close to being finished, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see the material surface in one way or another, since the books have sold millions of copies. We haven't read the books, but we have seen the three ridiculous Swedish films, and if they stay true to the books, they leave a lot of room for another installment in the series. The question is, will a book and/or movie see the light of day? Long, protracted legal maneuverings are expected to happen before the book can even be published not to mention getting the (probably very expensive) movie rights sold. But that said, don't be surprised if "The Girl Who Bothered The Meter Maid" or whatever it's called are destined to go the way of Timur Bekmambetov's "Dusk Watch" as far as unfilmed sequels go.
As a writer or director, the temptation to engage with your on-line critics must be enormous. While most stay above the fray, correctly assuming they'll be called a Nazi within three posts, some, like "Transformers" producer Don Murphy, seem to be spend as much time on message boards as they do producing shitty movies.
Following the release of "The Social Network," a minor controversy has been brewing about the depiction of women in the film, with commentators at the likes of The Daily Beast, Salon and Jezebel all taking the film to task for its portrayal of womanhood. While writer Aaron Sorkin has had plenty of defenders (Alison Willmore at IFC wrote a particularly strong response), the "West Wing" creator, who's more or less a lock for an Oscar for his work on David Fincher's film, even this far out, has finally responded personally, in a somewhat unlikely forum.
A commenter on the blog of TV comedy writerKen Levine ("Frasier") raised the issue, saying that the women "were basically sex objects/stupid groupies" and that Sorkin "failed the women in this script." Sorkin himself (seemingly via an assistant) responded in the comments section, and it's no surprise that it's an eloquent defense of his work. Some select extracts are below.
"It's not hard to understand how bright women could be appalled by what they saw in the movie but you have to understand that that was the very specific world I was writing about"
"Facebook was born during a night of incredibly misogyny. The idea of comparing women to farm animals, and then to each other, based on their looks and then publicly ranking them"
"These aren't the cuddly nerds we made movies about in the 80s. They're very angry that the cheerleader still wants to go out with the quarterback instead of the men (boys) who are running the universe right now. The women they surrond themselves with aren't women who challenge them (and frankly, no woman who could challenge them would be interested in being anywhere near them)."
"I invented two characters -- one was Rashida Jones's "Marylin," the youngest lawyer on the team and a far cry from the other women we see in the movie. She's plainly serious, competent and, when asked, has no problem speaking the truth as she sees it to Mark... And Rooney Mara's Erica's a class act."
You can read the full text over at Levine's site, but it's a gracious, smart response, and should hopefully close the book on a 'controversy' that's always seemed a little thin to us, or anyone else who paid attention in the film itself.
The actor has been shepherding the number one film on that list — an adaptation of "2001: A Space Odyssey" co-scribe Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous With Rama" — for years with no success and has now provided an update on how (little) it's progressing.
"No [it's not dead]. We're still pushing for 'Rendezvous With Rama,'" Freeman told MTV. "That's a got-to-be-done movie. Just have to figure out how to do it. I've been trying for -- I don't know -- 15 years now to get a script. You would think it was easier than it is. It's not; it's really hard."
"Fincher is still part of the conversation. It's a hard nut to crack, but once it's cracked it could become something." Despite sounding like a very loaded statement, especially considering Fincher's past pessimism, these quotes look to have pretty much been put right into Freeman's mouth by the interviewer upon viewing the actual video. Don't put too much weight on it: they're still looking for a writer to adapt the novel. Freeman did provide an interesting development though noting that "now that we've got James Cameron who's done 'Avatar,' we know exactly what genre it has to be. It has to be done in 3D. Absolutely has to be done in 3D." With little to no action to speak of, Hollywood hesitation in developing this story has been understandable but perhaps the film now have it's found it's calling in 3D? The opaque sci-fi story centers on a 30-mile-long hollow cylindrical alien spaceship that is discovered in our solar system and a group of space explorers sent out to investigate (Freeman was being lined up to lead) who find out its intentions and unlock its mysteries.
Without even a script or writer in place after all this time, we highly doubt there will be any movement in the foreseeable future with Fincher also seemingly occupied by a million other things. For now but, keep selling it Morgan. You never know who's listening.
With his film "The Social Network" barely released, David Fincher has already begun production on hisnext directorial effort — the much-talked-about adaptation of StiegLarsson's first Millennium trilogy novel, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."
Speaking with the Swedish media, Fincher described his take on the source material to SVD (via a rough translation from ThompsonOnHollywood) as "Swedish noir" further noting that he was "looking to try to catch Sweden. I hope I can find an atmosphere reminiscent of "Chinatown." Steve Zaillian has written the new screenplay, and he has based it on the book and made his own version. Sure, there are scenes that will resemble ones in the Swedish film, but it is the book that we are filming. " Closer, detailed looks at stars Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig have also been unveiled with the first batch of on-set photos from the Swedish production. Craig, admittedly, pretty much looks like his usual self playing Michael Blomkvist while Mara — who'll portray the bixsexual computer hacker Lisbeth Salander — looks quite unique even compared to NoomiRapace in the Scandinavian adaptations. She definitely bares some similarity to Fincher's own inspiration for the character though, South African rapper Yo-Landi Vi$$er.
"The Social Network" is out in the world, and proving to be perhaps the most universally praised film of David Fincher's career, but we're not sure that the director's noticed, as he's now in Sweden, a few weeks into shooting on his next film, the adaptation of Stieg Larsson's blockbuster crime novel "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." And with filming underway, Fincher's spilled the beans on a handful of new additions to the cast.
The film toplines Daniel Craig as crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara as computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, with Robin Wright, Stellan Skarsgard and, most recently, Christopher Plummer all on board. Recently, Fincher talked to Swedish paper SvD to promote "The Social Network," and revealed that Joely Richardson ("The Patriot"), Steven Berkoff ("The Tourist") and Swedish actor David Dencik are also on board, although there's no word of who they'll be playing. At a guess, we'd say that Richardson is likely to play Cecilia Vanger, a member of the family at the heart of the film's central mystery, and one of three love interests in the film for Blomkvist (while some might find the journalist's success with women in the story implausible, it totally gels with our personal experiences -- we once totally watched the commentary on the Criterion edition of "Down By Law" with a girl in our mom's basement, and nearly made eye contact at one point). Berkoff, meanwhile, could be Nils Bjurman, Salander's corrupt guardian (who would feature heavily in the sequel, should it get that far).
Dencik is interesting, meanwhile; the star of Danish film "Brotherhood," he had a brief role in the Swedish adaptation of the book, as Blomkvist's treacherous colleague Janne Dahlman, the first cast member to bridge the two films. Whether he's reprising the character (a somewhat minor one, particularly in the version that hit the screens), or taking on another part isn't yet clear. IMDB also lists him in the cast for Tomas Alfredson's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," so it seems like we'll be seeing much more of him.
Fincher also talked a little bit about his approach to the film to SvD, saying that "I'm looking to try to catch Sweden. I hope I can find an atmosphere reminiscent of 'Chinatown.'" It's an interesting quote (and one that suggests why Fincher would sign on to a project that seems to tread over old ground for the helmer), and one that makes us look forward to it even more. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" hits theaters on December 21st, 2011.
In general, when we pen a retrospective on a director's oeuvre , we try and save them for when a filmmaker is deep into his career and has a least 15-plus films under his belt. But we're making an exception here for David Fincher, who is obviously considered to be one of the most estimable modern auteurs working today, in the league of Christopher Nolan, if not higher and generally seems to be destined to have a career that will be looked back on with great admiration and panegyrics if it isn't already.
Known for his impeccably stylish, technically meticulous and resoundingly tenebrous films that tend to gravitate towards anti-heroes, flawed protagonists and forsaken souls, Fincher's films are always intensely dark, hyper-detailed, always challenging and never really fit for mass consumption. Yet, with each of his films arriving via a major studio, Fincher's oeuvre does resonate with a strong contingent of mainstream audiences and "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" — his most accessible film — earned him the attention of the Academy that ignored his less embraceable, but much better, previous efforts.
The modern horror of his serial killer film " Se7en" placed him firmly on the map, the anarchic "Fight Club" became a cult-classic basically the day it was released in theaters and the filmmaker has been highly in demand ever since. With "The Social Network" logging into theaters — and having already looked at 5 of his films (and more) that have yet to to the screen — we take a look back on an already impressive body of work that is only growing in stature with each new addition.
“The Game” (1997) “The Game,” the “Twilight Zone”-y thriller about a wealthy businessman (Michael Douglas) who is engaged in an elaborate, possibly nefarious role playing game by his delinquent brother (Sean Penn), is probably David Fincher’s coolest cool-for-coolness-sake pop outing, but also his most hollow. No matter how deeply Fincher wants to connect the material (written by the geniuses that gave us “Terminator 3”) to resonate themes of loss, regret and legacy (since Douglas’ game begins on the anniversary of his father’s suicide), the movie is too slick and polished to be anything more than it is. Thankfully, what it is is a really fun rollercoaster ride, one with plenty of twists and turns and some extremely weird flourishes (like the fact that a large section of the film’s last act takes place in Mexico), anchored by two fine performances by Douglas and Penn (in a role written for Jodie Foster, hence his name - “Connie”). The film is a trifle for sure, with Fincher working comfortably within the flashy boundaries of his music video days and possibly stifled by the resounding critical and commercial approval of “Se7en,” but it’s hard to fault a movie in which Spike Jonze shows up in the last scene as a concerned EMT technician, because that’s just funny. [C+] “Zodiac” (2007) Though he was coming off the box-office success of “Panic Room,” David Fincher’s knack for ambitious material didn’t necessarily make him a studio favorite and so it’s no surprise his next effort, a talky, two and a half hour procedural had Paramount scratching their head. Released to a box-office death in the spring of 2007, the film confounded Fincher-heads who expected the serial killer plotline to bring back the flashy, fleshy pleasures of “Se7en” and while it was praised by critics and landed on numerous top 10 lists, by awards season it was unjustly forgotten. While on the surface, an exhaustive retelling of the search for the famed Zodiac killer, the script by James Vanderbilt slowly spins a tale about the toll and cost of obsession as Robert Graysmith’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) fascination with the case turns into a decades-long hunt that never comes to a satisfactory end. A film that is entirely about the journey and not the destination, “Fight Club” fanboys dismissed the film and also failed to notice Fincher’s jaw dropping technical work on the film. Shot digitally, Fincher utilized a staggering number of digital effects to seamlessly and accurately recreate the 1970s San Francisco skyline and neighborhoods with this own obsession going right down to recreating facsimile newspaper in the San Francisco Chronicle offices that had accurate headlines and articles for the era though they were never on camera. It’s no wonder Fincher related to the material. But the technical wonders would be empty if the film wasn’t so fascinating. Vanderbilt does a wonder job of transferring Graysmith’s obsession to the audience, leading down numerous theories, pathways and puzzles that are both compelling and thrilling. Featuring a wonderful, pre-"Iron Man" turn by Robert Downey Jr. as Graysmith’s smoking, drinking, quipping newsroom colleague Paul Avery and solid turns by Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards as cops tasked to the case, “Zodiac” quietly demonstrates that the terror caused by random and senseless acts of violence can resonate for years. [A]
“Panic Room” (2002) It's probably not surprising that David Fincher’s biggest hit since “Se7en” came with his least cerebral, most straightforward effort, the slick b-movie "Panic Room." It should be noted that the film faced a major stumbling block when original star Nicole Kidman stepped aside a knee injury attained during the filming of “Moulin Rouge” sidelined her (though you can see some early footage with Kidman on the ridiculously stacked triple disc DVD edition of the film). Luckily, Jodie Foster came in (pregnant too, no less) to save the day and she was probably a better choice for the desperate, tough as nails mother who has to protect herself and her daughter when home invaders crash the posh Upper West Side home they've just purchased. If the single-setting film is pure Hitchcock, then so is the Macguffin; an enveloper containing valuable bearer bonds that are really of no consequence and just there to drive the plot. Again displaying his digital virtuosity, Fincher sets up some bravura set pieces (particularly the single-shot, triple-level break-and-enter sequence early in the film) and some clever approaches that open up the static environment. The film relies strongly on its performances and Fincher gets them from Foster and particularly Dwight Yoakam as the delightfully deranged Raoul. Forest Whitaker is solid as the baddie with a heart but less convincing is Jared Leto as the cocky mastermind who does a bad Brad Pitt impression for most of the film. But if the mechanics are on the place, the heart isn't. While the nods to “Rear Window” and “The Killing” are nice, the closing shot of the film finds the sympathy somewhat misplaced and the film’s relentless movement doesn't always keep the steam it works so hard to build up. [B-]
“The Social Network” (2010) The defining film of a generation? Not quite. But don’t get us wrong, there is much to love about David Fincher’s tale about the founding of Facebook. Largely ditching the camera trickery of his previous efforts, “The Social Network” finds Fincher’s focus squarely on the dialogue-heavy text of Aaron Sorkin’s rapid-fire script, and he delivers a thrilling, always-moving narrative that whips through 160 plus pages of screenplay in two hours that feels more like 90 minutes. His ensemble of young talent step up to plate with Jesse Eisenberg delivering a career best performance and Armie Hammer stealing every scene he’s in as the privileged Winkelvoss twins. But even though the story is complex and riveting, the characters aren't always as rich. With key relationships underdeveloped and thinly drawn — between Mark Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and his ex-girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) — the film lacks the emotional resonance it strives for in the latter half of the film. And structurally, the film is more or less the best episode of “Law & Order” you’ll ever see in your life. But, lucky for us, the film was guided by the immaculately-composed hand of Fincher. It's almost like an in-the-moment "All The President's Men" surging forward in real time, and propelled by a wonderfully minimal and minor key score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “The Social Network” is grand, populist entertainment at its best. [A-]
“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” (2008) Fincher’s seventh feature-length effort is his beautiful folly: a sprawling epic about a man who ages backwards (Brad Pitt), set against the backdrop of an ever-changing America and formed from the relative noodle of a F. Scott Fitzgerald story that never quite finds its emotional footing. The film is peppered with some unbelievable moments (like the opening clock tower story/backwards war sequence) and delicately calibrated performances (particularly from Cate Blanchett), but Fincher seems more interested in the technology of aging (and then de-aging) a wonderfully detached Pitt than anything else (that technology is, admittedly, impressive and quite cutting edge). Additionally, Eric Roth’s script falters (if Benjamin narrates, how, exactly, does he know the unconnected aspects that surrounded Blanchett’s accident in that really wonderful sequence?) as often as it connects (Benjamin’s extended affair with Tilda Swinton), leaving the entire enterprise to feel off kilter and wobbly, full of amazing highs and crater-ish lulls. Maybe the film is best read as a time travel story, with Benjamin Button a displaced journeyman forced to watch the world change while he remains untouched. It would certainly explain why Benjamin, and Fincher himself, keep such a distance from the emotional core of the story, and place emphasis where Fincher thought it belonged: on technology, not people. [C+]
“ Se7en” (1995) Perhaps Fincher's still most fully-realized and haunting picture, "Se7en," is an unforgettable modern crime classic and a landmark film that essentially made the careers ofBrad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow and the filmmaker (Pitt's first leading role was only the year before in "Legends of the Fall"). Grisly, dark and dank, the mood and aesthetics of this seminal serial killer film are second to none and the entire film carries the weight of a rotten, festering wound that's about to burst. Unless you're somehow unaware, the film centers on two detectives, a disillusioned old-timer counting down the days of his upcoming retirement (Morgan Freeman) and the naive, aggressive newbie trying to make his mark (Brad Pitt), in their search to stop a psychotic serial killer (Kevin Spacey) who is picking off his victims using the seven deadly sins as a guide. The dichotomy of the cops' two trajectories in life is just one simple rich texture in what is a layered tapestry of various unsettling psychological elements. And while this might sound like standard Hollywood fare, Fincher largely bypasses the buddy-cop and action cliches to deliver a twisted and disturbing thriller that irrevocably scars both the audience and its character in its unbelievable, jaw-dropping conclusion (one, that Brad Pitt had to fight for, threatening the studio he'd bail on doing publicity for the film if Fincher's cut wasn't kept intact). Fincher's been accused several times of his coldness and his aloofness, but here that distance allows his dour message about humanity's inhumanity and depravity to land with shocking, arresting and enduring impact. "Se7en" is ultimately about the corrosion of morality and the decay of the human soul across society and Fincher has never been so comfortable than within this condemning milieu. The term "What's in the box?" will never be the same for many. [A]
“Fight Club” (1999) "Overrated"? Adored by the most mongoloid of male filmgoers. Goes off the rails in the third act; throw whatever censure you want at "Fight Club," — and you might not be wrong — but David Fincher is nowhere more at home (aside from maybe "Se7vn") than he is with the devilish, mischievous comedy and psychosocial disturbed mien of his 1999 paean to nihilism, shit-disturbing destruction and male emasculation. Adapted from (and deeply expanded upon) Chuck Palahniuk's novel, in its superficial bare bones form, "Fight Club" is about an everyman (Edward Norton) so despairing and paralyzed with his mundane life that he develops an acute from of insomnia that leads him to Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt); an uber-charming and Machiavellian soap-maker and a prophet of chaos who proselytizes the ultimate form of salvation — perhaps reincarnation — in the form of basement, bare-knuckle fighting. But Fincher's violent and deeply acidic picture uses this premise as a launching pad to explore American male masculinity, identity, and the sickening homogenization of culture; the central problem of this protagonist might just be the societal ennui-like disease that's rotting us all from the inside as we act like spectators and tourists in our own lives. "Fight Club" is ultimately the grandest (and fascistic) carpe diem, a brutal and yet often hilarious, self-created wake-the-fuck-up call birthed from one of the most ambitious self-delusions ever demonstrated from an unreliable narrator. [A-]
“Alien 3” (1993) There’s a reason that the documentary about the making of “Alien 3” on the forthcoming Blu-ray box set is called “Rape and Wreckage;” this wasn’t what you would call a smooth shoot. Originally conceived as a film about monks living in a wooden planet, it became, under the creative guidance of Fincher (as his first feature film), about a prison colony of murderers, thieves, and rapists who take in the marooned Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver, sans hair) and help her fight the drippy alien beast from the previous films. Well, not exactly like the previous films. This beastie was born from a dog, so it was slicker and sleeker and moved around the tight corridors like a rocket, which is a good metaphor for the young director that oversaw the project. Working from a compromised conception, not to mention an ill-negotiated premise (the film’s misleading teaser, riffing on the famous tagline of the original film, promised that “On earth, everyone can hear you scream”) and an impossible release date, and the results are a fascinating muddle: every actor, their head closely scalped, looks exactly-the-fucking-same; intriguing subplots (like a prison worshipping the alien as a dragon) were sheared away; and Fincher’s unerring cynicism turned a summer escapist romp into a tortured examination of the nature of death. His keen eye was already present (the drippy facility, the bar-codes on the back of the prisoners’ necks), but his sense of story still needed sharpening. If Fincher's reputation for control precedes him, all one needs to do is look back on the disastrous results of this film — and the experience which he described as his worst — to understand why. [C]
— Kevin Jagernauth, Oliver Lyttelton, Drew Taylor, Danielle Johnsen
For the bulk of his career, David Fincher wasn't exactly prolific. After his debut with "Alien³" in 1995, like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott, he's attached himself to dozens of projects over the years, often ones that prove to be difficult to get green lit. Not that there's any sign of this letting up now. Entering a purple patch in his career (next Christmas' "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" will be his fourth film in five years) the director has a wide array of potential projects on the horizon including "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea," "Heavy Metal," "The Girl Who Played With Fire," HBO series "Mindhunter" and who knows what else percolating further down the line.
But what of the projects that slipped through the cracks? As soon as "Se7en" pushed him onto the A-list, there have been a number of intriguing projects linked to Fincher that never saw the light of day. Whether falling apart just as they seemed ready to go, or never quite getting the support from those who hold the Hollywood purse strings, they provide an fascinating look at avenues and genres Fincher has yet to explore on screen (sci-fi and comedy) as well as material that fits very much into the thematic and aesthetic wheelhouse that is associated with his name. With "The Social Network" hitting theaters today, we've rounded up five that we'd still love to see some day.
"Rendezvous With Rama" Let's face it, should Fincher ever make this movie it will be his Stanley Kubrick-esque science-fiction space epic. Not only was the project based off Arthur C. Clarke's novel (he wrote '2001'), the picture has space odyssey written all over it. Shepherded under the aegis of actor Morgan Freeman for over a decade, the actor admitted to MTV in 2007, "it's a very intellectual science fiction, a very difficult book to translate cinematically." Making the sell even harder he said, "There are no guns, no explosions. Although it's fiction, it's all based on pure science."
An opaque sci-fi novel about mankind's awakening relationship with the universe and zero action? Paging Terrence Malick maybe? Otherwise yeah, we see how it would incredibly difficult to get a studio on board. The novels (four of them in total) focused on a 30-mile-long hollow cylindrical alien spaceship that is discovered in our solar system and a group of space explorers sent out to investigate, who find out its intentions and unlock its mysteries. But since the novels had little action to speak of, the project could have ended up more "Solaris" then "Sunshine" (and neither project was very profitable at the box-office) and it never got off the ground.
Freeman spent years developing the passion project (he once wanted to direct himself) until he convinced his "Se7en" director to take a crack at it in 2007, but by the following year Fincher had pronounced the project dead. Freeman had been in an auto accident a few months prior and the filmmaker had said even after all this time there was no script.
Our only hope is that Alfonso Cuarón's action sci-fi film "Gravity" gets made and somehow does gangbusters at the box-office and then studios start rifling through their drawers for similar projects. But one really can't imagine the slow, arty and hypnotic "2001: A Space Odyssey" being green lit in this day and age, let alone a picture that sounds like its not-too-distant cousin, that is unless some superstar cast comes on board and those names will sadly have to be much bigger than Morgan Freeman. "They Fought Alone" aka "Fertig" David Fincher, "Chinatown" scribe Robert Towne, Brad Pitt and WWII -- can we see this film made like, tomorrow, please?
Originally titled "Fertig" and then changed to "They Fought Alone," the story centered on Wendell Fertig, a civil engineer and American Colonel who led a rogue American-Filipino "barefoot" guerrilla force on the Japanese-occupied, southern Philippine island of Mindanao during World War II. The script was written by Willam Nicholson, a co-writer of "Gladiator," and while it was supposed to be Fincher's post-"Panic Room" project, the film obviously never materialized. One has to wonder with "The Thin Red Line" and HBO's "The Pacific," has this WWII setting been done too much? Then again, this tale is about a bare-bones outfit — they allegedly made bullets from curtain rods; telegraph wires from iron fence — and how they took to the jungle to survive and fight the war on their own terms after the U.S. Army forces had already surrendered.
Yes, Brad Pitt was in QuentinTarantino's revisionist WWII comedy "Inglourious Basterds," but we would like to end our lifetime seeing Pitt in one gritty and visceral WWII film, and who better than under the direction of Fincher. Yet "They Fought Alone," has been kicking around since late 2001, so the chances of it ever being made seem slim. There was a glimmer of hope in 2009 during discussions of the deluxe DVD edition of "Chinatown" — Fincher did a commentary track — when Towne noted the two were mutual admirers of each other's work and said, "we're" trying to make a movie together" (and Fincher had revealed months earlier that "Fertig" was indeed that project). But it's been almost a decade (Tom Cruise was interested at one point) and as Fincher keeps piling on new projects and Towne continues to age, we're not sure this one will ever happen. Though to be honest, simple premise alone, we're there the day it hits screens and months before as its champion.
"Torso" On the surface, the "Torso" project — a true-crime graphic novel about Eliot Ness' post-Untouchables/Al Capone days — would entrench Fincher deeply back into his familiar serial-killer world. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko, the novels placed Ness in Cleveland years after Capone had been brought to justice and centered on a true-life serial killer taunting the detective with notes regarding the hacked-off and lifeless torsos that had been popping up in the city. While ostensibly about a psychotic murderer, the project also sounded more in line with Fincher's interest in obsessions, among other themes. "I'm not interested in the serial killer thing," he told MTV in 2007. "I'm interested in Eliot Ness and the de-mythologizing [of him] because 'The Untouchables' was only two-three years of (his) story. There's a whole other, much sinister downside to it. We want to make the 'Citizen Kane' of cop movies."
Gestating since 2004, "Torso" looked like it had found its missing body parts in late 2008 when it appeared like Matt Damon would be taking the lead and Rachel McAdams, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman would be joining the cast (though Fincher once called most of the casting names "rumors"), but the film fell victim — like many do — to studio politics. Fincher was warring with Paramount at the time over the exorbitant running time of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and in a game of retributive who-would-fold-first, the studio let the rights to 'Torso' lapse in a reported "fuck you" to the director. Fincher responded by taking his "Heavy Metal" project (which Paramount had already dropped as an earlier slap on the wrist) to Sony where it looks like he's found a new home ('Social Network' and 'Dragon Tattoo' are set up there and it's the first studio where he's made back-to-back projects). Last we heard, while 'Torso' rights had lapsed, the producers — Bill Mechanic, the former Fox exec ballsy enough to green light "Fight Club" — still felt the film would be made, and a few months later, Bendis (who now owns the rights again) said the same thing, but there's been little movement in over a year. Whether Fincher ever decides to return to the material remains to be seen, but the cast alone is enough for us to buy a ticket years in advance.
"Seared"/"Untitled Chef Project" You wouldn't take Fincher to be a closet foodie, somehow; everything that's been reported about his working practices suggests he's probably a food-is-fuel kind of guy. But he's twice come close to directing films set in the culinary world, and it's not difficult to see why it appealed to the helmer: the high-pressure hierarchy of a restaurant kitchen isn't a world away from a film set. More importantly, both scripts, like "Zodiac," and to some degree "The Social Network," dealt with obsession — in this case, people driven, over-and-above all else, by a desire to achieve perfection, and you can see why David "99-Takes" Fincher might identify.
The first project was "Seared," a loose adaptation of renegade New York chef Anthony Bourdain's memoir "Kitchen Confidential." Around 2001, Brad Pittwas attached to star as Luke Casdin, the infamous hard-living chef at top Manhattan restaurant Horatio's, with Benicio Del Toro also linked to the role of Bobby, his sous chef. The tone's not unlike "Shampoo" as directed by Martin Scorsese, as Luke juggles relationships with his 17-year-old girlfriend and with an older restaurant critic, while trying to keep his kitchen going over a busy weekend. The script, by Jesse Wigutow ("It Runs In The Family"), is strong and well-observed, capturing the controlled chaos of a top kitchen perfectly, and it's full of the kind of hijinks that Bourdain's excellent book is full of — snorting coke off worktops, sleeping with a newly-married woman on her wedding day. But Fincher was burnt out after "Panic Room," and New Line decided to instead turn the book into the short lived Fox sitcom of the same name, which starred Bradley Cooper in an early leading role.
"Untitled Chef Project" was a later, separate project, written by Steven Knight ("Dirty Pretty Things," "Eastern Promises"), although there's plenty in common with the earlier film — a coke-addled, driven chef protagonist, for instance, who was set to be played by Keanu Reeves. Fincher told MTV in 2008 that, "It's good and chewy. It's like a celibate sex comedy if that means anything. It's really about the creative process. It's truly an aromatic art-form, making food. I love that idea. And I love Keanu's passion for that world." Knight's script is more conventional — a protagonist in search of a redemption, a more formal romance with his fish chef (albeit one that involves Reeves' character threatening her with a knife at one point), and the structure is almost like a caper movie in places — but it's also a strong piece of work.
In the end, Fincher focused on "Torso," and then took on "The Social Network," so the project hit the backburner: it's still theoretically an ongoing concern, but we'd be surprised if it saw the light of day in the same form. Having said that, it's clear that haute cuisine is a particular interest of Fincher's, his having circled the subject for close to 10 years now, and we're sure he'll find a way to scratch that itch in the future. A live-action "Ratatouille" remake, anyone?
"Black Hole" Of all the grown-up, post-"Watchmen" graphic novels, Charles Burns' "Black Hole" (unrelated to the batshit-crazy Disney space adventure of the same name) is one of the most acclaimed. Published between 1995 and 2005, and collected in a complete volume in that final year, Burns' work is set in 1974, and follows a group of Seattle teenagers who contract a sexually-transmitted-disease that causes physical mutations. A cure-all metaphor for sexual awakening and adolescence, it picked up all kinds of praise when finally collected, and unsurprisingly swiftly picked up attention from Hollywood, with Paramount picking up the rights.
Alexandre Aja ("Haute Tension," "Piranha 3D") was the first to be attached, with the promising team of Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary (whose script for "Beowulf" is much better than the film deserved) hired to pen the script. The pair worked on it for a couple of years, until, in February 2008, shortly before the release of "Zodiac," it was announced that David Fincherwould direct the film. Gaiman related on his blog shortly afterwards that, with the helmer likely to demand multiple rewrites, Paramount had hired a cheaper scribe, and that Gaiman and Avary had left the project.
That cheaper writer turned out to be D.W. Harper, who's behind the currently-buzzed about projects "All You Need Is Kill" that Doug Liman will direct and "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," which Jeremy Renner and Noomi Rapace may star in. It's unclear in the February 2009-dated draft we obtained how much of Gaiman and Avary's work Harper retained, but it's very good work — David Cronenberg-meets-"Dazed and Confused," respectful of the source material and with a keen sense of period, with all the horror and angst it should have, and a neat sense of poetry.
With Fincher showing a surprising affinity for the dark nuances of under-25 relationships in "The Social Network," it would have been fascinating to see the finished product, but as ever, he's a busy man, and Pajiba reported in August that he was no longer attached to the project, and it seems likely that "Black Hole" will pass into the annals of the great movies never made.
Honorable Mentions Ever since "The Game" was completed, Fincher's had one particular passion project: "Mank." It's unsurprising that he had such a particular interest in the project, a biopic of "Citizen Kane" writer Herman Mankiewicz with Kevin Spacey set in the lead, as the script was written by his father, Howard Fincher, a former journalist. The Ridley Scott-produced TV movie "RKO 281" killed the project for a while, and Fincher Sr. passed a way a few years back, but this may well reappear down the line. Fincher also came close to re-teaming with Spacey on "Chemical Pink," a drama set in the world of female body building, based on the novel by Katie Arnoldi, with a script by "Fight Club" writer Chuck Palahniuk, but he passed it off to Jonas Akerlund ("Spun") and the film never materialized.
Despite his bad experience with his "Alien" film, Fincher has come close to returning to franchise/tentpole territory: Nicolas Cage persuaded him to develop an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel "Hard Boiled" for some time, which would have been a fully CGI-feature, although that seems to be long dead now. And like fellow serial-attachee Joe Carnahan, the director spent a year prepping for "Mission Impossible 3," with a dark, violent script involving organ trafficking in Africa, but bailed in favor of skateboarding drama "Lords of Dogtown" — which did eventually hit the screens, as directed by Catherine Hardwicke.
Fincher was also attached to "Stay," the much buzzed about spec from David Benioff, which also was eventually made by another director: in this case, Marc Forster ("Quantum of Solace"), who, despite a strong cast including Ryan Gosling, Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, botched it so badly that the film barely saw a release. He's also briefly flirted with other big name projects — including, strangely enough, future Oscar-winner "Chicago" (which may sound like an odd match, but Fincher's a hugeBob Fosse fan, counting "All That Jazz" among his favorite movies, and he's already said he'd love to direct a musical, so it would have been an interesting one to watch).
There was also the bizarre body-snatching alien parasite thriller "Passengers," regularly named as one of the great unmade scripts (it's written in the first person, unusually); David Ayer's Cold War submarine drama "Squids," which was scuppered by 9/11; the graphic novel adaptation "The Killer"; a remake of "Strangers On A Train" for Joel Silver; and another remake, of one of Fincher's favorite movies, "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud." The latter's one of the longest-running projects on the director's slate: it's been in development with Scott Rudin since 2001, but as late as last year, "Se7en" writer Andrew Kevin Walker was hired to give it another stab.
Most, if not all of these projects seem to be dead, although it's possible that one could be resurrected. It seems likely that the Scott Z. Burns-penned version of "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" or 'Dragon Tattoo' sequel "The Girl Who Played With Fire" will be next, and we'd put money on it being the former. But, as we've demonstrated, you can never quite guess with David Fincher...
Slow down there tigers. David Fincher's "The Social Network" is an admirable piece of work, another outstanding piece of technical craftsmanship from the notoriously fastidious filmmaker, a tour de force of editing, a snap, crackle and pop of witty "His Girl Friday"-like tête-à-tête dialogue, and it does feature Jesse Eisenberg's best performance so far. Admittedly, there is a lot to love about the film, but those critics bemoaning the fact that it doesn't have a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes because of Armond White (that evil man, how could he!?) are being downright silly. The picture — like all movies — is not perfect (does a truly perfect movie even exist aside from a handful of unimpeachable classics?) and more importantly, it has its flaws.
Moreover, it's a film that has been doused in hyperbole. The film that defines a generation. Really? Why, because it features computers? It's well established that the film is not about Facebook and or social media or social networks. It's about — at the end of the day — friendship, greed, betrayal, entitlement, and to an extent, communication in the communication age. But how most of those themes only apply to this decade is puzzling (Peter Travers, care to explain?). Don't get it twisted, we liked the film (this writer's grade is more B, B+ than the A-grades it's been getting across the board, but whatever), but it's not god's gift to movies (though it certainly will have more long-tail resonance than the enjoyable, but slight, "Toy Story 3" which also almost had a 100% RT grade until Armond did his unspeakable dislike thing). Oh, and don't let producers tell you that screenplays that leak online are just first drafts. While that's often the case, it's not always true, and Aaron Sorkin's script is proof; the version online and the finished film are almost word for word the same in dialogue and certainly in exact structure and sequence flow. Regardless, here's six issues and/or quibbles why the film is not "perfect." 1. The under-developed relationship between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). While Justin Timberlake is an important part of the equation as entrepreneur Sean Parker, the film's nuts and bolts are about the dissolution of the Zuckerberg/Saverin relationship. And in a very Sorkin-esque/TV manner, the backstory of their friendship is done away with and implied. It's fully in swing when the film starts and when it eventually crumbles under the weight of underhanded maneuvers, potential betrayals, miscommunication and greed (though this is all subjective and the viewer is supposed to decide), there's no real sense that Saverin is Zuckerberg's "only friend" as Garfield states in the film. We're not asking for a hugging scene or a heart-to-heart, but something that developed their relationship a little deeper may have made the conclusion a bit more resonant. This under-developed friendship, in a way, is the Achilles heel to the picture; it zips by so enjoyably and with such thrilling zest you might not even realize until later.
2. Speaking of underdeveloped relationships, the girlfriends -- Erica (Rooney Mara) and Christy (Brenda Song) -- are given particularly short shrift. While Mark continues to pine for Erica after she dumps him in the first scene, we're never really shown that he cared for her or they had much of a relationship to begin with. As for Christy, her turn from casual sex Facebook groupie to the raving psychopath girlfriend of Eduardo is as random as it is puzzling and ultimately pointless. Her ultimate impact on the narrative or even Eduardo's brief arc is nil.
3. Fincher's tone is cold and aloof. While "The Social Network" is Fincher's most humanist film, that's still relative and he keeps the viewers at emotional arm's length. This speaks to the director's decision to not develop the friendship further or task the screenwriter to do the same (in a recent Vulture interview Fincher says the studio asked for something more between the two in the film's conclusion, but they ultimately decided to not add the scene). 4. The TV-ish-ness of it all. Yes, the editing is something thrilling, but the sometimes unimaginative cutting-back-and-forth structure in the middle of the film feels slack and TV-ish, as per Sorkin's standards. There's an episodic feel to Zuckerberg's adventures with Sean Parker sans Saverin and one could argue that "The Social Network," while a thrilling piece of drama, is nothing more than super entertaining two-hour tele-film. One created by one of the best technicians working in cinema today, but there's something about the episodic nature and structure that has little emotion and more importantly, little long-tail resonance. "The Social Network" is thrilling in the moment. A little later? Not so much.
5. It's "Law & Order" functioning at its highest level. Back to the TV argument again, but the script — which this writer didn't really care for — is essentially a court room drama played out in flashbacks. Pretty conventional stuff when you think about it.
6. A very small quibble, but the film's lack of interest in current Facebook predicaments — the sharing and profiting of people's personal profiles and Zuckerberg's antagonism towards the critics of this practice would have been some excellent drama or themes that are not utilized.
7. Also, hello? Not enough Winkelvi. Kidding. Sort of, though Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins is an outstanding scene-stealer. Again, don't get it twisted. This isn't the contrarian critic point of view, more of just a keep your pants on fyi to the the critics who woke up passed out with their pants around their ankles and their underwear conspicuously missing when their reviews were completed (in a year of Oscar fives, this writer believes "The Social Network" would have a zero shot). As for the hate on Armond, well, pile on all you want, but he's right with this point (even though we too often don't always agree with him either), "[the] frat-boy mentality [is] in effect, no one else in cyberspace dares dissent from the hype." And it's true and unfortunate. Once that buzz ball starts rolling downhill, everyone wants to join and rarely does anyone care to hear otherwise.
Also? We could totally be wrong, but like Justin Timberlake recently said, this film could easily divide audiences. We suspect it'll do well, but it feels like a critics film to us, not one that the public is going to be totally receptive to afterwards. We could be wrong, time will tell. What seems to be clear though is that the raves and the curiosity bug has bit them. With little competition this weekend, "The Social Network" should easily nab the #1 slot, now it's just a matter of how well it does. Our guess is the $15-20million range, but maybe the Facebook appeal — there are 500 million users worldwide after all — could prove stronger. -- RP, Gabe Toro, Kevin Jagernauth
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score to David Fincher's "The Social Network" is an incredible piece of work vacillating between ominous, yet melancholy tracks ("Hand Covers Bruise") and the more pulsating electronic tracks ("In Motion") that keep the already fast-paced picture propelling forward. While it won't be recognized by the Academy come Oscar time, score aficionados are likely going to be rocking it on their iPods long after the film has been released.
And yet when Fincher first approached the Nine Inch Nails frontman to do the score, Reznor said he wasn't in a good state of mind and actually turned down the gig. "And of course it gnawed away at me," Reznor said in a recent L.A. Times interview. "I got back in touch with him in late winter or early spring and apologized again and asked him to keep me in mind in the future [on other projects].
Of course the tenacious Fincher knew all along that Reznor was doing the score and had never taken his no for an answer. "He said, ‘No, what are you talking about? You’re doing this one.’ ” And that was pretty much that.
While the "The Social Network" filmmaker had already directed the Nine Inch Nails music video “Only” in 2005 (see below), the reasons why he pursued him for the score were simple. "I wanted to work with Trent," Fincher said matter-of-factly at the recent New York Film Festival Q&A. In fact, he was planning it all along, long before he had even contacted the musician with his proposal. "We had [the rough-cut] temped a lot of the movie to Nine Inch Nails' [2008 instrumental and experimental album] Ghosts I–IV already, the conceptual studio album they did in like two weeks," Fincher noted.
Conversely, and contrastingly, the film closes with The Beatles "Baby You're a Rich Man" which in a very Fincher-ian way, is transformed into a much more sardonic and acidic kiss-off given the way the drama concludes. It's a musical stroke of genius and transports the film to another level.
"When we were shooting the final deposition scene and I was listening to my iPod and I heard the Beatles song and I thought, 'We might be able to get away with this,' " Fincher noted in the Q&A. "I played it to Jesse [Eisenberg] and he nodded his head which, you know, is his form of approval and then we tested it. We laid it under the scene and then [before we watched how it worked] we played the entire movie and I remember going, 'yeah, I think that's gonna work.' "
"The Social Network" score by Reznor was released on Tuesday September 28th. The film has already opened in New York and for the rest of the country it hits tomorrow, Friday, October 1. NIN's "Only" directed by David Fincher
With all the chatter surrounding David Fincher's "The Social Network" opening this Friday, it's been a temporary reprieve from the noise around the other movie he's gearing up to shoot, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo."
Well, expect the buzz to build again as Christopher Plummer as joined the cast in the role of Henrik Vanger, the wealthy industrialist who hires Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to dig into the decades old murder mystery, digging up dark secrets in the process. As you might recall, Max Von Sydow was in talks to take the role last month, but evidently, Plummer landed the part.
Plummer will join Craig, Rooney Mara (who was not injured on set), Robin Wright and Stellan Skarsgaard in the film that is set to begin filming in Sweden this fall. Fincher will be directing from a script by Steve Zaillian ("Schindler's List," "Gangs Of New York") and the film is slated for a December 22, 2011 release.[THR]
Yet another clip from the highly anticipated "The Social Network" has arrived, this time with Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker engaging in a morning-after verbal lobby with Stanford student Amelia Ritter (Dakota Johnson).
We saw the film last week at the New York Film Festival and while we think it's grand entertainment, it's not the life changing cinema event some people would have you believe. It's an extremely accomplished genre flick, and while some people are already polishing the Best Picture Oscar for the film, we might need to remind them that a good chunk of Academy voters are older whose only knowledge of Facebook is what their grandchildren tell them. It should also be considered this kind of Oscar hype was leveled at "Inception" this summer before it leveled out; a lot can happen between now and February (with a small handful of films including "True Grit" and "The Fighter" still yet to screen for critics).
We probably don't need to remind you that "The Social Network" opens this Friday, October 1st. [MTV]
There's no denying that David Fincher, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, Jesse Eisenberg and the rest of the cast of his upcoming drama, "The Social Network" has an immense degree of empathy for Mark Zuckerberg, so those expecting an intense vilification of the founder and CEO of Facebook — accused of stealing the idea from his co-founders and other Harvard grads who had enlisted his help for a similar idea — best think again. While the picture does cast the Aspergers-like social media creator in an unflattering light, it's not simply an excoriating one and the picture shares several character textures and perspectives.
"[Saying Zuckerberg] is an asshole is such a reductive overly simplistic way [of looking at it.]," Fincher said in today's post-New York Film Festival press screening Q&A about his latest which arrives in theaters October 1.
In fact, Fincher openly sympathizes with the anti-hero of the film played by a tremendous Jesse Eisenberg, finally playing against his nerdy neurotic type. "I have no qualms in saying that I think Eduardo Saverin [Andrew Garfield's character] had a failure of imagination and at some point there was going to be a fork in the road for those two guys," Fincher said about the two Facebook partners who part ways acrimoniously in the film.
Eisenberg concurred that his rendering of the damaged and dysfunctional Zuckerberg is one rooted in the character's own insecurities and failures and wasn't simply a one-note villain. "My main responsibility was to not only understand where my character was coming from but to be able to defend all his positions and behavior and ultimately sympathize with him. Over the course of the movie and this publicity [tour] I've developed even a greater affection for my character."
However those expecting a film about Facebook (or hoping to hate a film about Facebook) itself should also ready themselves, and or put their knives away. Justin Timberlake does not play Myspace in guyliner and Fincher's eighth feature-length film is more of a courtroom procedural, and perhaps is not unlike "Zodiac," insofar as it's another intense examination of past events from the contradicting perspective of several different people.
"Obviously there was a lot of Internet chatter when it was first announced," Fincher explained dryly not concealing his disdain for the Internet. "I think people thought we were making a sequel to 'The Net' or something, or we were trying to do some fad-hopping, but I didn't really know anything about the origins of Facebook. I just had a dry read of the script that had a bunch of people that I felt I knew intimately and could relate to and felt it was a wonderful two hour [movie]." Unless, you've been living under a rock you probably know the film centers on three men: Zuckerberg, his business partner Saverin and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the entrepreneur and former Napster co-founder and their involvement (and eventual, bitter falling-out) in the creation of the now phenomenally popular social media application (500 million active users and counting) that has changed the digital landscape like no other. But that's just surface level conceit as the picture is much more about alienation, brotherhood (or lack thereof), the nature of communication, the irony of disconnection in the dialed-in media world, with a good dose of betrayal, greed, alienation and misunderstanding thrown in for good measure.
"I never thought it was a movie about Facebook," screenwriter Aaron Sorkinsaid. "It was a movie that has themes as old as storytelling itself, friendship, loyalty, class, jealousy, things that Shakespeare or [legendary screenwriter] Paddy Chayefsky would write about. Lucky for me none of these guys were around so I got to write about it."
Those expecting a traditional biopic explaining why people behaved the way they did should also be forewarned. This is a movie that lives in a present tense and attempts to deconstruct facts for an audience to discern or make what they will of them. "I wasn't interested in [the why], " Fincher said, "I was interested in what they did, and because we saw it from multiple points of view — and all of those points of view were of course polarized by intense litigation — [you never knew the full truth.]"
Sorkin echoed the thought, noting the different points of view created layers upon layers of subjective truths and realities. "What I really liked was that there were three different versions of this story, there was [a] 'Rashomon' [effect] but I came up with the structure of the deposition rooms that would give everyone the ability to say, 'that's not true, that's not what happened.'"
While Facebook themselves and Zuckerberg declined any involvement or cooperation in the film, and the CEO was quoted as saying he would simply ignore the film, a recent report claimed that the Facebook co-founder attended a recent screening in Seattle. "I know there was [that] rumor," Sorkin said about the alleged appearance. "But I doubt it. I don't think there are any of us who would want a movie made about the things we did when were nineteen years old... I doubt he'll be the first in line to see it next Friday," Sorkin said. "He purchased a print," Fincher said flatly as the room went silent, before letting the gas out of his ruse. "I'm joking," he winked. As for recent claims that some of the source material — Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires" — was embellished, fictionalized and/or conveyed a deeply incomplete and therefore flawed portrait in the collaboration and battle over Facebook credit, Sorkin insists "Nothing in the movie was invented for the sake of Hollywood-izing it or sensationalizing it." The writer also added that aside from the aforementioned book he conducted his own "first-person research" with real-life characters in the movie and people close to the event who spoke on the conditions of anonymity. As for a controversial cocaine and bare breasts scene in the film, well, for one it's incredibly tame. "I'm not going to sell any tickets by making this statement, but let me tell you there is less sex in this movie than there is any two minutes in 'Gossip Girl,'" Sorkin quipped.
As stated in our 'Social Network' film review earlier today, Eisenberg delivers the best performance of his career and Garfield, the upcoming "Spider-Man," is destined for great things beyond tentpoles. Plus, the film also contains Mara Rooney, the next, 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' and another constant scene stealer is Armie Hammer, who does digital double duty as the Kennedy-like Winklevoss twins (Hammer was handpicked to play Batman in the "Justice League" film director George Miller could never get off the ground).
Well aware his cast is an embarrassment of possibly unknown, but up-and-coming riches, Fincher praised the various players saying they are all destined for long-term greatness. "I feel about it like, would I have liked to have made 'American Graffiti'? Now, in it's own weird way I've been able to. I got to look at eight, nine people across a screen and go, 'There was a moment in time where they were all in the same movie.' "
"The Social Network" opens October 1. Photos taken and used with permission courtesy of Jeffrey Wells and Hollywood Elsewhere.
Author Stieg Larsson passed away at the age of 50 due to heart attack, shortly before his work would make him a worldwide literary sensation. His three books in the 'Millennium' series have become best-sellers in a number of languages, spawning three major Swedish films and an American version coming next winter from David Fincher. Much has been made of Larsson's intent to publish ten books in the series, detailing the exploits of superjournalist Mikael Blomkvist and his law-breaking sidekick, damaged ward-of-state/hacker Lisbeth Salander. But what did Larsson leave behind?
