Why Are We Still Looking for the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?

July 26, 2010

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and its subsequent series) is now one of the best selling books of all time. Practically every other person comes into the library searching for it, and now there is not only 1, but 2 movies based on it. Swedish author, Steig Larsson, died 6 years ago but his series mixing murder, mystery, and mayham has just recently come into huge popularity. The Swedish movie version was hugely popular in Sweden and Europe, and even reached the United States earlier this year. Now, in a typical move, Hollywood has decided to remake the movie minus the accents and subtitles. The search continues for the female lead, but the wheels have definately been set in motion. All this while, the Swedish market is pushing on with movies based on the rest of the series.

Why does this phenomenon happen? I understand that subtiltles can be difficult, but apparently their presence didn't stop people from seeing the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tatto in the US. People always say the book is better than the movie and I totally agree. Why then are we making a second movie based on the book? With Hollywood's recent track record of taking good books and making them into bad, low box office successes (Dear John, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The Road), why are we throwing yet another good book at it? Language can be a barrier, but this book has already been made into a movie (a pretty good one from what I hear), can we just leave it at that?

For more titles based on books check out Based on the Books.

Sarah E