Perhaps lost in the article W Magazine ran this week on David Fincher and his new genre film, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, is the fact he and Oscar winning screenwriter Steve Zallian have completely changed the ending of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel. Not so shocking for Fincher to subvert source material, but how will fans of the book treat the alteration?
Here’s a few snippets from the piece, as spoken by Fincher:
“The script, which captures the novel’s bleak tone, was written by Academy Award winner Steven Zaillian, who wrote Schindler’s List, and it departs rather dramatically from the book.”
“Blomkvist is less promiscuous, Salander is more aggressive, and, most notably, the ending — the resolution of the drama — has been completely changed.”
“This may be sacrilege to some, but Zaillian has improved on Larsson — the script’s ending is more interesting.”
Sacrilege indeed. Not for me personally, but for Larrson purists and ardent fans of the novel who may take umbrage with the change. Still, you have to hand it to Steve and Dave for going a new direction…if for no other reason than to make the film different from the Swedish one.
So how do you feel about it? Is Fincher crazy for switching it up, or are you behind the decision?
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