Trivia
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The piercings (including multiple ear, eyebrow, and nipple piercings) that Rooney Mara sports as Lisbeth Salander are real, not cosmetic simulations. Mara got the piercings in a series of sessions in Brooklyn and Sweden. The ear, nose, eyebrow and lip piercings were removed after shooting completed, but she kept the right nipple piercing for possible sequels. "It's not something I want to ever get repierced," she said. "So I'm going to keep it in."
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When the casting process started, the role of Lisbeth Salander was originally offered to Natalie Portman but she declined due to exhaustion. Scarlett Johansson was also considered but David Fincher considered her too sexy. Jennifer Lawrence was considered too, but she was rejected because she was too tall. Finally, Rooney Mara was cast.
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The film was released on December 20; exactly where the novel begins in chapter one.
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Daniel Craig gained weight for his role as Mikael Blomqvist to remind himself and the audience that he was portraying a journalist, not James Bond, and wanted to appear as normal as possible.
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Daniel Craig improvised catching the water bottle. David Fincher appreciated Craig's grace and left the take in the film.
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Stellan Skarsgård remarked that this was the first time in 20 years that he was able to sleep in his own bed while shooting a movie, since it was filmed in his hometown of Stockholm.
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Many Swedish critics questioned the choice to have many of the characters talk in "Swedish-accent". Most criticism was pointed to Mara's accent that many critics heard as Russian or Dutch and not Swedish at all. Daniel Craig admitted in an interview that he thought this was stupid and therefore used his real voice.
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In the Americas, the film's DVD was made to look like a "pirate" disc.
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While filming a scene in a diner, the cast and crew were surprised to find out that Ellen Nyqvist, daughter of Michael Nyqvist, the first actor to play Mikael Blomkvist, was working there as a waitress while attending school. Upon finding out, they wrote in a few extra lines for her, allowing her to interact with her father's successor, Daniel Craig.
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The movie was shot in Sweden during one of the coldest winters in over 20 years.
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Two of the movie's taglines: "Evil shall with evil be expelled" and "What is hidden in snow, comes forth in the thaw" are Swedish proverbs. Stellan Skarsgård, himself a Swede, told them to David Fincher during filming. Fincher liked them and thought they fitted the story and setting well, so he made them taglines for the movie.
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Max von Sydow, a genuine Swede, was the original choice to play Henrik Vanger, but had to bow out and was replaced by Christopher Plummer.
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The film opened at number three at the US box office, behind Mission: Impossible - Protocole fantôme (2011) and Sherlock Holmes - Jeu d'ombres (2011). Ghost Protocol featured Michael Nyqvist, and Game of Shadows featured Noomi Rapace, who respectively played Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander in the original Millénium, le film - Les hommes qui n'aimaient pas les femmes (2009).
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Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen, Brad Pitt and George Clooney were considered for the lead male role.
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When Lisbeth first visits Plague, Plague is wearing a black shirt with a white logo on it; the logo represents the band Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor is the founder of Nine Inch Nails and wrote the score for this film with Atticus Ross as well as the score for director David Fincher previous film The Social Network (2010), for which Reznor and Ross won "Best Original Score" at the 2011 Academy Awards.
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Daniel Craig originally turned down the role of Mikael Blomkvist due to possible conflicts with the next James Bond film Skyfall (2012). After production of the film was suspended Craig's schedule freed up and he retook the role.
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In 2008, Kathleen Kennedy, one of the producers of L'étrange histoire de Benjamin Button (2008), after giving some details of the plot asked David Fincher to read Stieg Larsson's book. Fincher responded by saying 'Kat, nobody is going to make this movie. You're just setting us up to be miserable again'. So he didn't read it.
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After discussions about how to best devise an original score for the movie, David Fincher consulted composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, ultimately deciding that dissonance and tinkling bells (no orchestra) should provide the motif/ambiance for the stark coldness of the Swedish landscape.
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Noomi Rapace's performance as Lisbeth Salander in the original Swedish version of Millénium, le film - Les hommes qui n'aimaient pas les femmes (2009) was so well received, a campaign to have her reprise the role in the English language version gained wide attention in the media, championed by film critic Roger Ebert, among others. Ultimately Rapace declined to reprise the role, saying that after playing the character for three years (during the filming of the original film and its sequels), she couldn't play the role again in the same stories.(Tant mieux !)
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The security office is actually the office building of Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE), the company which created the Battlefield computer games.
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David Fincher's physical requirement for actresses intended to play Lisbeth: approximately 5'5 tall, age median of 25.
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According to David Fincher the opening title sequence of the movie is a "sort of primordial sort of tar and ooze of the subconscious... sort of her nightmare."
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Shot in a period of 160 days. By contrast, Fight Club (1999), also directed by David Fincher and shot by Jeff Cronenweth took only 132 days. Cronenweth stated in several interviews that the large amount of time was mainly due to the lack of night time in Sweden - on-location sets required pre-lighting days ahead before shooting.
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David Dencik was also in the 2009 Swedish version, Millénium, le film - Les hommes qui n'aimaient pas les femmes (2009), but played another part.
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Jeff Cronenweth is formerly an understudy of the legendary Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist. Nykvist was famously known for his use of soft-lighting photography; Cronenweth stated that he shot a bulk of the film with soft-lighting as homage to him.
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In the director's audio commentary David Fincher discussed how a merkin was utilized for actress Rooney Mara, after she suggested to him that the character she portrayed in the movie was a natural red head in the book and actually dyed her hair black. Consequently, the merkin she wore was made in the color red.
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The film received two Golden Globe nominations on December 15, 2011, six days before the film's release date. Rooney Mara was nominated for Best Actress in a Drama and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were nominated for Best Original Score.
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Carey Mulligan, Ellen Page, Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman, Mia Wasikowska, Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Thirlby, Emily Browning, Eva Green, Scarlett Johansson, Sophie Lowe, Sarah Snook, Léa Seydoux, Emma Watson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Katie Jarvis were among the actresses considered for the lead role. (Some actresses turned down the role; others were rejected by filmmakers and the studio) Ultimately, Rooney Mara won the coveted role of Lisbeth Salander. (parfait!)
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In September 2011, a trailer for Les Muppets, le retour (2011) was released that was a spoof of the teaser trailer of this movie.
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The full musical score was released on December 9, 2011. Seven days prior to the official release, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross released a 6-track sampler of the score online for free. The download was also accompanied by a free 8-minute trailer for the film available via iTunes.
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Jeff Cronenweth replaced original cinematographer Fredrik Bäckar after eight weeks.
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This is David Fincher's sixth collaboration with Angus Wall, who previously won the Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar with his work in Fincher's The Social Network (2010).
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Back-to-back consecutive Academy Awards for Best Editing were won by Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for this film - they had won the Editing Oscar the previous year for The Social Network (2010).
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One of two 2011's film releases with Christopher Plummer and Goran Visnjic in the cast, the other film being Beginners (2010). Beginners was filmed in 2010 but released in 2011.
Cameo
Peter Haber: Spokesperson for Wennerström in a brief news clip. Haber played Martin Vanger in the original Millénium, le film - Les hommes qui n'aimaient pas les femmes (2009).
Spoilers The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
Most of the bruising seen on Rooney Mara's body when she takes a shower is in fact real, the physicality of shooting the rape scene the day before resulted in countless bruises on the actress' wrists, neck and torso.
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Yorick van Wageningen was so disturbed after shooting the rape scene with Rooney Mara that he spent a whole day locked in his hotel room, crying.
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In one of the more harrowing scenes in the film, Martin Vanger has Mikael Blomkvist bound and he switches the music on. The music playing is the song 'Orinoco Flow' by Enya. This choice came about after discussion on the scene when Daniel Craig flicked through his iPod and called out the first song he found, which was initially met with a lot of laughter.
