# The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (English Language Remake) - Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223 "2010-07-27T20:18:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/1 "2010-07-27T20:18:58Z")
So I read today that Daniel Craig is likely to play Mikael Blomkvist in the English language remake of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”. I don’t have an issue with the casting choice - I’m just bewildered about this remake so soon after the original movie. I read that they were filming in Sweden. Assuming that means that it is set in Sweden as well, are they really remaking the entire movie just to avoid subtitles?! I don’t get it. The original Swedish trilogy is still making its way through cinemas. What is the point of this remake so soon after the original films? ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/2 "2010-07-27T20:22:15Z")
Makes no sense to me either, but it may broaden the interest in the franchise, as well as in the original movies. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/3 "2010-07-27T20:23:23Z")
Americans in general have problems with… you know, reading. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/4 "2010-07-27T20:23:24Z")
Hello, it’s a cash cow. That series is the biggest in this country since Harry Potter or The Davinci Code, and is getting read by millions of people who would NOT want to sit through a foreign film, so of course they have to remake it with Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johanson (or their equivalent). The studio making is is basically writing a blank check to themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/5 "2010-07-27T20:48:49Z")
Same reason they made American remakes of _Funny Games_, _La Cage aux Falles_, _La Femme Nikita_, _Les Diaboliques_, _Let the Right One In_, _Ringu_, and _Solyaris_ - studios felt that an American version of these films would sell tickets. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/6 "2010-07-27T23:16:54Z")
Yeah, seriously, why not? Especially since the Swedish films aren’t exactly Citizen Kane. It’s also disingenuous to imply that the Swedish versions got any kind of normal run in the States. The first one has been running for months and still hasn’t cracked $10 million, with a widest release of ~200 theaters. ([boxofficemojo](http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=girlwiththedragontattoo.htm)) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/7 "2010-07-27T23:22:00Z")
They do it every single time a popular Asian horror movie comes out, too. Like the Grudge or the Ring. I wonder, do foreign countries ever make versions of popular American franchises? Is there some obscure version of Saw or Hostel somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![audiobottle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@audiobottle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audiobottle)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/8 "2010-07-27T23:53:34Z")
I think I heard on NPR that the other two movies of the trilogy were made for TV, not the big screen, so in addition to the “for the money!” answers maybe there’s a component of wanting to do the whole thing silver screen style? ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/9 "2010-07-28T00:08:33Z")
Of course the answer is “for the money” but it is bizarre to me that they simply wouldn’t wildly release the already existing films - that people would so object to subtitles that it makes financial sense to redo the entire films instead of releasing what already exists. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/10 "2010-07-28T00:09:37Z")
Do you really not see _any_ other possible difference apart from subtitles? Is it possible they could end up being of a higher quality? Is it possible they could have big-name stars that would draw out more viewers than the plot alone could? Is it possible that the Swedish films aren’t great, and that giving them a wide release would end up crashing and burning? ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/11 "2010-07-28T00:17:05Z")
But _The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo_ is a great film. I haven’t seen the other two so I can’t comment on them. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/12 "2010-07-28T00:21:56Z")
The actress who played Salander was pretty good, but I thought the film itself was rather pedestrian. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/13 "2010-07-28T00:27:00Z")
A mix of people not wanting to read subtitles and star power. Also, like any book adaptation, you’ve got a built in audience, including many of the people actually willing to see the subtitled original – that’s a hard plus to turn down when figuring out what to make next (you know, a movie about a board game or a big screen version of an '80s children’s series). Plus if they just kept the original movie American audiences might find out the book was really called _Men Who Hate Women_ and then someone will start asking questions about ‘philosopher’s stones’ and someone’s self-esteem might be lowered. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/14 "2010-07-28T00:50:11Z")
> [@Cat\_Fight](#): > > Plus if they just kept the original movie American audiences might find out the book was really called _Men Who Hate Women_ and then someone will start asking questions about ‘philosopher’s stones’ and someone’s self-esteem might be lowered. I gotta say that that was one of the changes I did appreciate. The book was okay–didn’t love it–but found the constant citing of anti women violence to be way too heavy handed. By the end I felt like saying, “OK, I get it. I’ll make a donation to the women’s charity of your choice, just please stop guilting me.” ---
**Author:** ![Staver808](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Staver808](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staver808)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/15 "2010-07-28T02:37:25Z")
I thought it was a matter of Americans being too lazy to read subtitles, but at a recent showing of Sideways (The Japanese remake) I asked the director why he chose to remake Sideways, especially since I knew it had Japanese subtitles. He gave a couple answers I never thought of. Main reason is simply, people don’t like to read subtitles. It’s not an American thing, people just want to watch the movie. Now I was at a film festival, so most of the people laughed at this, and while people on here may not mind subtitles, the reality is the vast majority of people do. Cultural differences. I’m sure most people on here have seen some kind of foreign film at one point or another. Comedies are perfect examples. The people will say something, and maybe the translator didn’t do a good job or maybe there’s no cultural equivalent, and you see the people on the screen laugh, but no one in the theater does. An example fo this is in America (don’t know if English use this saying or not) we say the squeeky wheel gets the grease. Meaning the person that stands up and complains gets special or preferential treatment. The Japanese have this same situation, but different. In Japan they say the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. In Japan, to stand out from the crowd is undesireable and the person who does it gets special but undesireable attention. So a translator that just has a script and no movie to watch might think that he could just translate one for the other, although the audience would be lost. A large part of rewrites (according to this Japanese director) was that he felt Sideways was a great movie, but there were significant parts that didn’t quite fit into a Japanese story. So the three main parts (kept purposely vague since I haven’t figured out the spoiler button thingie) of the American film was kept and the rest was slightly different. Sideways as seen through a Japanese eye. It’s the same, yet different film, and I thought it was worth watching. In fact several of the people sitting next to us didn’t even know there was an American film and asked us about it. They were putting it in their queue as soon as they got home. The director was confident that Japanese people who saw his film would think of it as a “Japanese” film rather than a direct remake of the American version. Immediately the Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai come to mind. Same general movie, different endings, based on culture and values. One is obviously Japanese and one is obviously American. In fact I can’t think of how it wrong it would seem to me if the endings were switched either way. Hopefully the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will be more of this kind of remake than the normal run of the mill remake. Also, there were some differences from the book (Yeah, I know, there always is) and I’m hopeful that they’ll correct that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/16 "2010-07-28T03:51:09Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > They do it every single time a popular Asian horror movie comes out, too. Like the Grudge or the Ring. > > I wonder, do foreign countries ever make versions of popular American franchises? Is there some obscure version of Saw or Hostel somewhere? [9 Foreign Rip-Offs Cooler Than The Hollywood Originals](http://www.cracked.com/article_16704_9-foreign-rip-offs-cooler-than-hollywood-originals.html) and [The 6 Most Psychotic Rip-Offs of Famous Animated Films](http://www.cracked.com/article_18516_the-6-most-psychotic-rip-offs-famous-animated-films.html) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/17 "2010-07-28T03:59:45Z")
> [@GHO57](#): > > Americans in general have problems with… you know, reading. Which is why none of them have read the book. Watching a movie with subtitles (especially when you aren’t used to it) is a different, and in some ways diminshed, experience from watching a movie where you can actually understand what the actors are saying. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/18 "2010-07-28T05:02:18Z")
Another filmed version of a pre-existing story is not the same thing as a remake. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/19 "2010-07-28T07:05:35Z")
It’s about subtitles and Hollywood’s obsession with making money over being original. Otherwise why don’t other, non-English speaking countries make remakes of subpar American films? And cultural differences? This is a Swedish story. Set in Sweden. Adapt a different book if that’s a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223/20 "2010-07-28T07:23:06Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > Of course the answer is “for the money” but it is bizarre to me that they simply wouldn’t wildly release the already existing films - that people would so object to subtitles that it makes financial sense to redo the entire films instead of releasing what already exists. It’s not “objecting to subtitles”, so much as “believing that a subtitled film will be unwatchable”. If the problem was the having subtitles, the Greek or the Belgian would be remaking movies left and right, but they don’t: for them subtitles are normal like dubbing is normal to me. But to most Americans, the idea of “watching a foreign movie” is just alien (notice that most people will not say “foreign-language”, although that’s really the rub); they won’t even try it. Many people view watching a “foreign movie” as somehow an elitist activity, it’s as if every foreign movie was somehow “high brow” or as if watching it was done only by people who don’t fart. This isn’t made easier by people who do watch those movies, I’ve had idiots talk to me about an Almodóvar movie they had watched as if it was something terribly profound when it was a comedy. But, it’s a foreign movie by a famous director, therefore it’s profound. **alexandra** , most remakes begin by moving Paris or Madrid to New York. Not in this case? Ok, but it’s the usual MO. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-english-language-remake-why/548223.md?page=2)