The movies of Daniel Craig are close to a box office sure thing, thanks to his role in the James Bond movies. He’s among the most bankable stars on the planet. But there are a few Daniel Craig movies that haven’t flown quite as high.
One such project was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which stands as one of director David Fincher‘s best movies based on books. Craig starred as journalist Mikael Blomkvist. However, the movie was divisive on release and was less of a commercial success than it needed to be to complete Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy.
Speaking at a Q&A event alongside Steven Soderbergh at the Tribeca Film Festival, Fincher explained that he wanted to make new movies from the books in a way that would not embarrass their Swedish heritage and was “true to [their] essence”.
He added: “The movie took 140 days to shoot and I was proud of it. I thought we did what we set out to do. I had the same reservations about whether or not a long-dead Nazi story on a remote island in the north of Sweden would really be a gripping yarn.
“But we did it the way we could and then, when people said it cost too much for what the return on investment was, okay fine, swing and a miss.”
Fincher made The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with the help of a hefty $90m budget and, although the finished film made well over $200m worldwide, it wasn’t seen as a big enough total to make the next two movies.
In fact, the character of Lisbeth Salander was left dormant on the big screen until the Fincher-free adaptation of The Girl in the Spider’s Web arrived in 2018. The Crown cast member Claire Foy replaced the Oscar-nominated Rooney Mara as Salander.
For more from one of the best directors of all time, find out why David Fincher doesn’t think one of his best movies should’ve been made. Or shift focus to Craig with our piece arguing that James Bond should end with Daniel Craig.
Alternatively, check out the best movies coming to cinemas this year, including the Oppenheimer release date and the Indiana Jones 5 release date.