The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (12/21/2011) The Movie in Nagoya,

• Info
• Cast & Crew

• Genre: Crime drama,Mystery,Thriller
  
  Synopsis:
  A disgraced journalist (Daniel Craig) and an investigator (Rooney Mara) for a security firm probe a 40-year-old murder.
  
  Release Date: 12/20/2011
  Running Time: 158
  
  Rating: R - Restricted
  
  http://dragontattoo.com/
  
• Cast:
  Mikael Blomkvist: Daniel Craig,Lisbeth Salander: Rooney Mara,Henrik Vanger: Christopher Plummer,Martin Vanger: Stellan Skarsgard,Dirch Frode: Steven Berkoff,Erika Berger: Robin Wright,Nils Bjurman: Yorik van Wageningen,Anita Vanger: Joely Richardson,Cecilia Vanger: Geraldine James,Armansky: Goran Visnjic,Det. Morell: Donald Sumpter,Wennerström: Ulf Friberg,Palmgren: Bengt Carlsson C.W.,Plague: Tony Way,Harald: Per Myrberg,Pernilla: Josefin Asplund,Anna: Eva Fritjofson,Harriet: Moa Garpendal,Young Anna: Maia Bergqvist Hansson,Young Cecilia: Sarah Appelberg,Young Henrik: Julian Sands
  
  Crew:
  Director: David Fincher,Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian,Producer: Scott Rudin,Producer: Ole Sondberg,Producer: Soren Staermose,Producer: Ceán Chaffin,Executive Producer: Steven Zaillian,Executive Producer: Mikael Wallen,Executive Producer: Anni Fernandez Faurbye,Cinematographer: Jeff Cronenweth,Production Design: Donald Burt Graham,Film Editor: Kirk Baxter,Film Editor: Angus Wall,Costume Designer: Trish Summerville,Original Music: Trent Reznor,Original Music: Atticus Ross,Casting: Laray Mayfield
  
  Production Companies:
  Scott Rudin Productions,Yellow Bird
  
  Distributors:
  Sony Pictures
  
  Notes:
  Production Notes - Notes provided by Sony Pictures - In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Academy Award(R)-nominated director David Fincher (The Social Network) uncoils the world of Stieg Larsson's global blockbuster thriller on the screen. Within the story's labyrinth lie murder, corruption, family secrets and the inner demons of the two unexpected partners chasing the truth of a 40-year-old mystery. Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is a financial reporter determined to restore his honor after being convicted of libel. Engaged by one of Sweden's wealthiest industrialists, Henrik Vanger (Academy Award(R) nominee Christopher Plummer), to get to the bottom of the long-ago disappearance of his beloved niece, Harriet - murdered, Vanger believes, by a member of his large family - the journalist heads to a remote island on the frozen Swedish coast, unaware of what awaits him. At the same time, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), an unusual but ingenious investigator with Milton Security, is hired to do a background check on Blomkvist, a job that ultimately leads to her joining Mikael in his investigation of who killed Harriet Vanger. Though Lisbeth shields herself from a world that has repeatedly betrayed her, her hacking skills and single-minded focus become invaluable. While Mikael goes face-to-face with the tight-lipped Vangers, Lisbeth plies the wired shadows. They begin to trace a chain of homicides from the past into the present, forging a fragile strand of trust even as they are pulled into the most savage currents of modern crime. Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures present a Scott Rudin / Yellow Bird Production of a David Fincher film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen and Joely Richardson. The film is directed by David Fincher and produced by Scott Rudin, Ole Søndberg, Søren Stærmose and Ceán Chaffin, from a screenplay by Steven Zaillian based on the book by Stieg Larsson originally published by Norstedts. The executive producers are Steven Zaillian, Mikael Wallen, and Anni Faurbye Fernandez; the co-producers are Berna Levin and Eli Bush. The film's crew includes director of photography Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, production designer Donald Graham Burt, editors Kirk Baxter, A.C.E. and Angus Wall, A.C.E., costume designer Trish Summerville and composers Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for Brutal Violent Content including Rape and Torture, Strong Sexuality, Graphic Nudity and Language. The film will be released in theaters nationwide on December 21, 2011. ABOUT THE PRODUCTION The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo kicks off the screen adaptation of Stieg Larsson's blockbuster Millennium Trilogy, the epic series of thrillers that have sold 65,000,000 copies in 46 countries. First published in 2005, shortly after Larsson's own death, the first novel in the series, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo introduced readers to financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and avenging hacker Lisbeth Salander. With Salander, Larsson forged a heroine unlike any who had come before in the wide-ranging world of crime thrillers - a punk prodigy whose appearance warns people to stay away, who doesn't interact ``normally with others, yet whose personal link to those who have been violated lures her into helping Mikael solve the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. Her pursuit of retribution and her tenuous partnership with Mikael would become the core of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and the two books that followed - The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Director David Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillian aimed at staying true to Larsson's unflinching focus on the corporate, societal and personal corrosion Mikael and Lisbeth confront as they descend deeper into the question of Harriet Vanger's vanishing. Zaillian took his inspiration directly from Larsson's words. ``The script was cut whole cloth from the novel, says Fincher. Faced with the necessity of compacting the first book's intricate plot, they also honed in on what has made the Millennium novels so alluring to people around the world. ``The thing we were interested in most were these two characters, Blomkvist and Salander, who powered the books to be the cultural phenomenon they are, Fincher says. ``There was a lot of juice there, a lot of friction and a lot of dramatic possibility. Adds Zaillian: ``Lisbeth is a great, unusual character, but I think it if the books were only about her, they wouldn't work as well as they do. It's the way her story and Blomkvist's come together, and what they each are going through, that makes the books so resonant. Fincher and Zaillian had no interest in withholding any grit from the book's scenes of brutality and revenge. ``We were committed to the tack that this is a movie about violence against women, about specific kinds of degradation, and you can't shy away from that, Fincher says. ``But at the same time you have to walk a razor thin line so that the audience can viscerally feel the need for revenge but also see the power of the ideas being expressed. This is precisely what Larsson had achieved with the novels, drawing readers into themes of corrupted power, misogyny, intolerance, fanaticism, globalization, social welfare, justice and judgment through the twists and turns of Mikael and Lisbeth's renegade investigation. Says Rooney Mara, who won the role of Lisbeth Salander: ``I think people are more intrigued by the under-workings of society than they're willing to admit. They're interested in the dark secrets people and societies hold. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has that component combined with these two outsider characters people really, really love. AVENGERS AND AVENGED: CAST AND CHARACTERS Blomkvist Much like author Stieg Larsson was before his death, the character of Mikael Blomkvist is an investigative journalist dedicated to rooting out corruption in finance and government. As co-owner of the upscale magazine, Millennium, he is hardly an activist, but he has been known to go too far -- getting into legal, and even mortal, peril due to his merciless investigations of the powerful and wealthy. To play Blomkvist, Fincher chose Daniel Craig, the British actor whose balance of depth and charm won him the role of James Bond in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. ``It's really Blomkvist's movie, because he's the way in, says Fincher. ``He's the more conventional character and Lisbeth is the satellite who orbits him. We needed someone like Daniel, someone who not only has tremendous movie appeal but God-given acting chops. He is so good, you can mine his nuances. Like many people, Craig had read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo shortly after its publication, in the midst of the initial craze. ``Someone gave me a copy of it on holiday and I read it in two days, he recalls. ``It's one of those books you just don't put down. There's just this immediate feeling that bad things are going to happen and I think that's part of why they've been so readable for people. Even then, he found himself inexorably drawn to Lisbeth Salander. ``I think what is interesting about her is that even though she is a victim of sexual violence, she never psychologically becomes a victim, Craig observes. ``Her strength and the way she can take a knock, get up and carry on is something I think people really hook into. The book simmered in his consciousness, but it was the creative team who came together to bring it to the screen that made the role of Blomkvist a done deal for Craig. ``It was already a good story, but the combination of David as director and Steven Zaillian's script made it incredibly exciting for me, he says. ``I had confidence in the material, and confidence in their visual ideas. From the start, he also had an affinity for Blomkvist. ``I like his attitude, I like his politics, I like the way he's all mixed up but in interesting ways, Craig comments. ``He's fighting the good fight, trying to uncover corruption and to be an influential journalist, if that's still possible. Steven Zaillian was impressed with the way Craig slipped into the role. ``Blomkvist is a guy who's not quite as tough as he'd like to be, but who is a really good, decent guy. Daniel was great playing that, he observes. ``His role is every bit as complicated as Salander's. Craig made the decision early on not to adopt any extreme accent for the role, but to keep Blomkvist's manner of speaking more natural, as befits the cosmopolitan culture of Stockholm. ``I went for something very plain, he explains. ``David and I talked about it and we both didn't want an accent to get in the way of the character. Really, many Swedes speak incredibly good English, both with and without accents. I just felt that was the way to go. Blomkvist is well traveled, he's been all over the world, he's been listening to the BBC since he was six and I think this is the person he is. After having wanted to do so for a long time, working with Fincher was exhilarating for Craig - despite the challenges. ``David is known for doing a lot of takes and we did our fair share, but that never bothered me, Craig says. ``We can do takes all day long as far as I'm concerned if something good is coming out if it, as long as we are still creating every time we do. David is also very specific and - what's the nicest way to say it? - particular. But once you see the way he builds a scene brick by brick, it's an easy process to relax into. You give yourself over to it, knowing he's got his eye on all the important details. Craig notes he was in the best shape of his life when he was cast, which was not quite right for a journalist who spends much of his time hovering over a desk or interviewing sources. ``David told me to get fatter, and it was a struggle, but I managed, he laughs. Physical challenges did come, especially in the climactic scenes of the film, but Craig notes that even in those scenes, his focus was more inward. ``Those final scenes are at a high level of emotion for Blomkvist, he summarizes. Salander As soon as production was in motion for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the search was on for Lisbeth Salander. The danger was that everyone who had read the book had already formed a personal picture of her in their minds. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described Lisbeth thus in her review: ``Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson's fierce pixie of a heroine, is one of the most original characters to come along in a while: a gamin, Audrey Hepburn look-alike with tattoos and piercings, the take-no-prisoners attitude of Lara Croft and the cool, unsentimental intellect of Mr. Spock. She is the vulnerable victim turned vigilante; a willfully antisocial girl, once labeled mentally incompetent by the state's social services, who has proved herself as incandescently proficient as any video game warrior. In adapting the character, Steven Zaillian aimed to capture all those contrasting shades of Salander's persona, one that is heavily armored, yet vulnerable if any one dares to get that close. ``She's the kind of character who is the most fun to write, Zaillian says. ``There's a kind of wish fulfillment to her in the way that she takes care of things, the way she will only put up with so much, but there are other sides to her as well. A big part of the power of the movie is Lisbeth Salander. Fincher now wanted to find all that in an actress, but more than anything he wanted someone who would be willing to walk to the edge of an already risky character and take a leap. That's what he found in Rooney Mara, but it wasn't straightforward. The filmmakers conducted an exhaustive search for the role of Lisbeth. That lengthy roster included Mara, who had a small but memorable role in Fincher's The Social Network as Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend, Erica Albright. Fincher put her through a seemingly unending series of intensive auditions - in which he asked her to do everything from recite Swedish poetry to pose with motorcycles - to prove what she could do in the role. ``What endeared me to her during the audition process was exactly what I wanted from Lisbeth: she doesn't quit. I wanted that person who was indomitable, he says. ``By the end of our casting process, I knew this was someone worth falling on the grenade for. He continues: ``She started with so much of what we were looking for, what we needed. She's a bit of a fringe-dweller in her real life. But more than that she was willing to do the work to understand this character. I said, 'I don't know if she can do it, but I know she will try like hell if we can just inspire her and support her and then cut her loose.' And that's what happened. She chopped her hair off, she learned to ride a motorcycle, she went to Sweden on her own and disappeared off the grid. And if you have someone willing to do all that, that's everything. Piercings are piercings, but anyone could pull that part off. For Mara, the chain of auditions kept her on edge, helping to fuel the character even more. ``I was ready and willing to do and show them anything to get the part, she states. ``But as it got closer, I was like, 'What else do I have to show you guys? I've shown you everything. I need to either move on with my life, or let's do this. I'm ready to just throw down, but make up your minds.' The months of performing and waiting culminated in an ultimatum. ``David brought me into his office and started rambling about the part, going on and on about all the reasons someone shouldn't want it - how it might change my life, and not necessarily for the better. Then he hands me his iPad and it has a press release on it saying I've been cast in the part. He told me that they planned to send it out that day and I had a half an hour to decide if I wanted them to or not. Mara didn't hesitate. The character was already under her skin. ``There's never been a female character like Lisbeth, this sort of tiny, androgynous person who has so many different facets to her, she says. ``You're so with her - and yet, at the same time, you question her because she's not someone who always does things you agree with. To me, that was really interesting. She adds: ``I think a lot of people relate to her, even if she is also strange to them, because most people at some point have felt like an outsider or like they are being held back by the powers that be. As soon as she accepted the role, Mara was in the gauntlet. ``An hour after I told David yes, I was disassembling a computer, getting on a motorcycle and starting skateboard lessons. And literally five days later, I was in Stockholm, she recalls. ``There wasn't really time to think about what it meant that I got the part, or how I felt about it. I just literally went into laser-focus mode. But she definitely wasn't scared away by Fincher's warnings. ``He told me, 'You're going to have to go to Sweden and be alone and experience this girl's life.' He told me, 'The movie is going to consume you. You'll have to say goodbye for a time to your family and friends.' But he didn't really know me yet, then, she explains. ``He didn't know that I'm actually a loner and that what he wanted didn't scare me. It might have scared someone else, but not me. Eventually, she also radically transformed her entire appearance, cutting her long hair, undertaking numerous body piercings, and bleaching her eyebrows, which she says was the most shocking. Not only was it a hauntingly transgressive look, but also it opened up Lisbeth's face, allowing the character's mix of unsentimental intelligence and buried rage room to play out. ``Right before we did the bleaching, I was really together, I was ready for it, I was excited, Mara recalls. ``Then I looked in the mirror and I really freaked out. But I think the bleaching was one of the best things we did for the look of the character. It really put our own stamp on it. Another part of Mara's stamp on Lisbeth was finding just the right way to reveal all her self-imposed emotional blockades. ``David and I talked about the idea that there is no open wound with Lisbeth. She's all scar tissue. She doesn't cry, she rarely allows herself to really feel, but beneath the scars, the audience has to know the wounds are there, she describes. The more Mara got into Lisbeth's locked-off inner world, the more she began to understand why Stieg Larsson considered the legendary storybook heroine Pippi Longstocking an influence on the character. ``Lisbeth is like what Pippi Longstocking would be 25 years later. She's traded in the horse for a motorcycle. She has a computer now, but she still has her own moral code, taking things from the bad guys, she observes. The full complexity of Lisbeth comes to the fore in some of the story's most unsettling scenes - a bookend pair of violent assaults in the office of Lisbeth's legal guardian, Nils Bjurman. The scenes were intensely challenging - both physically and psychologically - but also key to understanding Lisbeth's impetus to help Blomkvist ferret out a murderer of women. ``The scenes with Bjurman tell you the most about Lisbeth, says Mara. ``The abuse drives her, and the rest of the story to follow, in so many ways. Those were the scenes I was always thinking about. When they played out on the set, the emotional stakes were palpable. ``I always knew those scenes would be hard, but they were even harder than I thought they would be, she recalls. To keep the intensity high, Mara avoided the actor who plays Bjurman, Yorick van Wageningen. ``Yorick is like the sweetest guy ever, but I stayed away from him because I didn't want to be thinking about how sweet he is, she comments. ``It was better for us not to talk too much, but to just go into the room and see how things unraveled. Things do unravel for Lisbeth but they also come together as she grows closer to Mikael Blomkvist. It's not the sexual attraction that surprises her - it's an unexplored instinct to trust. ``Lisbeth spends a lot of the movie pushing people away. She's constantly trying to suppress and push away. She doesn't have relationships where she connects with people, Mara observes. ``But with Mikael, she begins to think maybe this is finally someone that I can believe in, but then she also is given good reasons to wonder if she is stupid to trust anyone. In the end, Mara says the experience of playing Lisbeth was everything she fought for in those months of trying to nab the role. ``It's the kind of part that comes around once in a lifetime, she concludes. ``But apart from that, the thing I'm most excited to take from the experience is that I feel more capable. I've learned so much and done so many things I never thought I could do. She concludes: ``That's my favorite thing about David, that he challenges everyone. That's why his movies are so great. Because they challenge you and make you think about things you wouldn't have - and I think people like to be challenged. Supporting Cast Joining Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is an accomplished cast including Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger, the retired tycoon who launches the investigation into his family's hidden past; Steven Berkoff as Dirch Frode, Vanger's lawyer, who first commissions Lisbeth Salander to spy on Mikael Blomkvist; Robin Wright as Blomkvist's partner in Millennium Magazine and sometime lover Erika Berger; Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger, Harriet's brother; Yorick van Wageningen as Nils Bjurman, Lisbeth's new legal guardian; Joely Richardson as Anita Vanger, who knew the missing Harriet best of all; and Geraldine James as the tight-lipped Cecilia Vanger. At the center of the Vanger family's power is Martin, now CEO of the troubled family enterprise, who welcomes Blomkvist to the family estate on Hedeby Island to investigate Harriet's disappearance. Playing Martin is Stellan Skarsgård, the Swedish actor known for his international film roles. ``I'm interested in human beings who are very complex and complicated and that is true of Martin, he says. ``He can be extremely charming but he also can seem to be a completely different person at different points in the film. Like the rest of the cast, Skarsgård trusted in Fincher's sensibilities. ``David is particular about every single detail, he comments. ``He's very technically skilled but he also has this idea that, no matter what the genre is, what carries any film is character, and so within all the technically brilliant things he does, he cares most about character - and that leads to very good performances. Another Vanger family member who plays a key role in the investigation is Anita Vanger, portrayed by Joely Richardson. Like other cast members, she was compelled by Fincher's approach, especially to her tricky character. ``He kept saying 'darker, edgier, nothing sugar-coated, nothing resolved or healed,' she says. ``Even if you were starting to move towards the direction of resolved or healed, he still wanted it edgy and dark. There are no straightforward emotions in the world of this film. The character who pushes Lisbeth Salander over the edge is Bjurman, her newly assigned legal guardian who, after studying her grim record of foster homes, arrests, addictions and psychiatric confinements, believes he can control her. He commandeers her bank account. He requires sexual favors. When she can no longer abide by his abuse, she determines she will take him down, and forever mark him as a sociopath in the process. Playing Bjurman is Dutch actor Yorick van Wageningen. Fincher picked him for a very specific reason. ``I felt the character shouldn't be villainous, he needed to be worse than that, says the director. ``He needed to be someone who isn't so much a rapist as a man who sees a girl who is spiky and sullen and doesn't make eye contact, and decides she's worthless. It becomes like quicksand for his own need to dominate someone. I didn't want a mustache-twirling pervert at all. So when I saw Yorick, I saw someone who was a full-fledged human being and also a brilliant actor who could give him all of these things. He was able to bring his performance from a logical place in Bjurman's mind and find the seething morass of darkness inside that. For van Wageningen, that complexity was the main reason he agreed to take on the graphic role. ``This character goes through a lot and I wasn't quite sure I wanted to go through all that, van Wageningen admits. ``I started out half way between the elation of getting to work with David Fincher and the dread of this character, but I was able to use both of those things. We both thought the most interesting route would be for Bjurman to seem half affable. The challenge was not in finding the freak violence in the guy but finding the humanity of him. Still, it was never anything resembling easy. ``I often spent a good 15 minutes crying in my trailer between takes, remembers van Wageningen. ``I think a scene like the rape scene with Lisbeth only works if it becomes real for both parties. So the emotions had to be real in that scene, the thrusts had to be real. It was quite horrendous for me and then the big final scene between them . . . I don't think I've yet recovered from that. It took me to a place that people don't normally go and that no one is keen to go to. Van Wageningen and Mara agreed to have no contact outside of their scenes. ``It was a daring thing to do when you have big scenes together, because the tendency is to want to talk your scenes to bits, he says. ``But I think we both already understood what Fincher wanted, and we knew what we wanted from our characters, and then we just let everything go in the scene. I think that gives it that reality you can feel. It was Fincher's way of working with the cast that allowed that to happen, says van Wageningen. ``David creates a space where you can dare to do that one thing you've never tried before in a take, he summarizes. THE SETTING From the beginning, David Fincher and Steven Zaillian made the decision to maintain Stieg Larsson's Swedish setting for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and not presume to drop the story wholesale into America. ``There was no way to transpose it, Fincher comments. ``You couldn't make this movie in Seattle, or even in Montreal. It had to take place in Sweden because the story's roots are wholly Swedish. Indeed, Larsson had invited international readers into a Sweden most had never encountered. While elements of Sweden's social democracy, rustic landscape and cultural emphasis on functionality were very much in evidence, the Millennium trilogy also readily exposed the often-unseen cracks in the nation's polished veneer. To capture Larsson's interplay of light and noir against the Swedish landscape, Fincher worked closely with an artistic crew that includes Oscar(R)-nominated cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network) and Oscar(R)-winning production designer Donald Graham Burt (The Social Network, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button). The cast also immersed themselves in Swedish life. ``Being in Sweden was more helpful to me in many ways than any of the training I did, `` says Rooney Mara, ``because you can't really understand Stieg Larsson or Lisbeth until you've gotten to know the Swedish people and felt the energy of Stockholm as a city. From the icy Norrland coast to the modernist minimalism of Stockholm, the Swedish environment was a constant inspiration to Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, who worked with the digital RED One camera (which he also used on The Social Network) as well the newest RED camera, the Epic, taking full advantage of their versatility and resolution. The decision was made early on that the look of the film should have a roughness around its atmospheric edges that mirrors Larsson's tone in the books. ``The idea was to use unorthodox light sources and keep it all very real, Cronenweth explains. ``So there may be shadows, there may be flaws, but it's reality. You allow silhouettes and darkness, but at the same time we also wanted shots to counter that, so it would not all be one continuous dramatic image. Shooting exteriors on location, Cronenweth worked in synch with the mercurial shifts of the Swedish seasons to enhance the film's moods. ``The Swedish weather was a huge part of this movie, he comments. ``It's always an element in the background and it was very important that you feel it as an audience member. The winter becomes like a silent character in the film giving everything a low, cool-colored light that is super soft and non-direct. Cronenweth was impressed with how the Epic camera handled the austere conditions. ``It was really interesting shooting all these black trees against white snowfields with shiny cars driving through under falling snowflakes - elements that are hard for any camera to capture, let alone a digital camera, he says. ``David and I were both really, really happy with the images. By now, Cronenweth has developed more than a shorthand with Fincher; they share many visual instincts. ``I like to think we see eye-to-eye on aesthetic choices, the cinematographer says. ``We've had such a long, long relationship that I feel like I can get as close to the way David sees things as anyone can. David is really amazing at conceptualizing all kinds of emotional shots. Cronenweth says many of those shots involved Rooney Mara's face in situations ranging from terrifying to tender. ``Her skin as Salander is so fair that light bounces off it magically, he muses. ``So we were able to use really low light situations and she always comes out looking phenomenal. A favorite sequence for Cronenweth is when Lisbeth chases a computer thief through the frenetic Stockholm subway. ``David staged that scene on these long escalators in an actual Swedish subway station, he explains. ``You see Lisbeth provoked into an almost animal persona and the trick was to capture the energy of that. It was one of the situations where we utilized the Epic cameras the most because you can make them so small. Sometimes we balanced them on a baseball as a tripod. We also created rigs that the escalator railings could pass through. The idea was to really get in there and be participants in this battle. We shot it so things suddenly come into view and other things are obscured and the tension builds because the audience can't see everything. Whether it's a fight scene, rape scene or love-making scene, that's something David does very well. Adding further layers to the film's imagery is the work of production designer Donald Graham Burt, who also has a long history with Fincher, garnering an Oscar(R) for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (along with set decorator Victor J. Zolfo). On The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Burt was drawn by the chance to completely immerse himself in a culture with which he was largely unfamiliar. ``I thought it would be a really interesting challenge to make the first major Hollywood movie inside Sweden, he says. ``It's a culture that really hasn't been tapped into and it was something new and different that intrigued me. He set out on a month-long trek across Sweden, not so much to scout locations as to soak in the atmosphere. ``It takes time to start really taking in the nuances of a culture, to start seeing the themes that recur in the architecture, the landscape, the layouts of the cities and the habits of the people, he observes. ``I felt I had to really integrate myself into this world to develop a true sense of place for the film. It was not just about understanding the physicality of the locations, but the metaphysics of them, and how the way people live comes out through design. Later, Fincher joined Burt in Sweden, and the two began to talk about the film's overall design structure. ``The approach was to keep everything very true to Swedish reality, but without being picture postcard, without going to the typical places. We wanted to use locations that are in the margins, more offbeat, more unknown, Burt describes. While Burt built some sets on location in Sweden, working with local Swedish crews, the majority of stage work was done in the U.S. to afford Burt and his team more creative flexibility. These sets included two of the story's most essential locales: Blomkvist and Salander's diametrically opposed apartments. ``Salander's apartment is mostly about her computer and her hacking and everything else is sort of secondary, Burt notes. ``When she is on her computer, she's completely absorbed and it's her whole world, so there is a sense that all the other objects in her life are somewhat neglected or ignored. She also lives in a large, anonymous apartment building that is very basic which adds to the sense that she is a loner, that she is hidden. Blomkvist's apartment, on the other hand is more stylish and outward. He works for an upscale magazine, and yet he is an investigator and there's still a bit of an outsider quality to him. One of Burt's most fascinating challenges was creating the Vanger estate, shot in a mansion located southwest of Stockholm that the team turned into a family enclave rife with secrets. According to Burt, the estate is considered to be in a typical style of a ``manor from Småland - based upon 18th Century French architecture. ``We wanted something that would be very austere, very organized, very formal and very Old Money, he sums up. ``The Swedish are very goo