David Fincher vs. the press over Dragon Tattoo’s release

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There’s been an interesting bit of drama going on recently surrounding THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. The film was screened early for critics, as films usually are, but everyone in attendance promises to not write about the film until the “embargo date,” after which they’re free to share their thoughts.

Well New Yorker critic David Denby decided to break the embargo after seeing TATTOO, his reasoning being that his magazine would have been too crowded to run the review later, so they might as well run it now, a week early.

The review was positive, but it didn’t matter. The breach made director David Fincher flip his shit, and now he’s on an all out rampage against the press. Denby is now banned from all future screenings and Fincher has some choice quotes about the process of flim promotion in general.

“Embargoes … look, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t show movies to anybody before they were released,” Fincher told the Miami Herald. “I wouldn’t give clips to talk shows. I would do one trailer and three television spots and let the chips fall where they may.”

“This is not about controlling the media. If people realized how much thought goes into deciding at what point can we allow our movie to be seen, they would understand,” he said. “We have been working really hard to make this release date. And when you’re trying to orchestrate a build-up of anticipation, it is extremely frustrating to have someone agree to something and then upturn the apple cart and change the rules – for everybody.”

I agree and disagree with him. I think Denby was a dick for breaking the embargo, and if they don’t want to have him at future screenings because of that, that’s their right. I think that overexposure can hurt a film some times, but I’m not really sure why Fincher is trying desperately hard to be SO secretive about DRAGON TATTOO. It’s a world famous book and a hugely popular Swedish film. It’s not exactly like there are a ton of secrets contained within.

What do you think about all this?