Alright, we’ve covered Dragon Tattoo extensively, and there’s pretty much no other movie with which I’m more excited about finishing up the year’s releases (I certainly can’t finish off a top 15 list without seeing it, considering The Social Network was high up on my list last year). The date for release draws near, and our first bit of news is that it’s now just *that* much nearer, as you can now see the film starting at 7:00pm on Tuesday, December 20th. Obviously that gives them a little jump on the other huge releases that Wednesday, and is likely to make for some nice headlines Wednesday morning.

Beyond that, I wanted to do a quick rundown of all the big and little things I’d run across concerning the film in the last week or so.

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• The viral campaign put out a 9-minute fake Hard Copy news video about the murders at the center of the film. Check it out. The background is interesting for the film, and it’s an impressively genuine-looking recreation of a VHS transfer of an antiquated news segment. Be keeping an eye out on @MouthTapedShut for more stuff like this over the next week.

• I pulled from it when talking a little bit about Fincher’s place on Netflix’s House of Cards series, but you should definitely check out this extensive interview with Fincher from a fan site of his. Even though its origin is a director fanboy site, the piece is nicely done and has some great thoughts from the director about Dragon Tattoo, his old projects, and things yet to come. One of my favorite quotes:

American films are more expensive, but they are (often) for a reason. “We shot 78 days in Sweden, and I believe by the end of it the Swedish crew saw the difference between take 6 and take 30. At the beginning they were definitely rolling their eyes. They were like, ‘Hey, we made the first Dragon Tattoo for 15 million bucks’, and I said, ‘I realize that. But we’re doing something different. It’s going to be handled in a different way.’ So at the beginning the Swedes were very much like, ‘How could you possibly take this long to make a movie?’ And by the middle of the shoot they were like, ‘I get what the difference is. I get what it is to have these choices.'”

• If you haven’t been keeping up on the soundtrack side of things, know that the film’s score is available for purchase, which includes Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Immigrant Song, as well as a new HTDA song (Reznor’s side band, with Atticus Ross and his wife).

What’s awesome is that Fincher himself put together a slick video for Immigrant Song, and it involves footage/imagery you’ll see in the film’s title sequence. You can see it at Pitchfork (buttholes don’t embed).

• Another great inteview? This one from ICG Magazine that gets reasonably technical with Dragon Tattoo D.P Jeff Cronenweth, along with a number technicians and colorists that discuss the look of the film, and how it was accomplished on a day-to-day and technological level. I certainly love this kind of stuff, but I think everyone can get more appreciation for the process from this sort of piece.

Despite all the challenging weather and locations,there were happy accidents that went Cronenweth’s way. One was the casting of Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salandar, and as he describes, her “ivory skin” that became his secret weapon on what could have been some really long nights.

“We used so little light sometimes that I had no idea how the shot was going to work,” Cronenweth says. “But then we’d bring in Rooney and she’d just be glowing in the middle of the night, and I’d say, ‘Thank you, God.’”

• Finally, if you care to get exceptionally technical and learn about digital workflow, codec choices and nitty-gritty sound design work, then I’d point you to this Post article about editing Dragon Tattoo, and this one about its sound editing.

The Social Network shot 85 days, produced 324 hours of material and printed 281 hours of footage to edit. By comparison, Dragon Tattoo shot 167 days, produced 483 hours of Red One and Epic footage and printed 443 hours of footage. “In 3-perf,” notes Wall, “that is over 1.9 million feet of film. We broke records.”

• Finally, it’s worth noting that reviews are starting to surface for the film, and the responses are, so far, exceptionally positive. There are naturally a few “nothing extra added” type responses, which is a bit baffling since I know they changed the ending. Regardless, things are looking good. The obvious link here would be the ole Tomatoes that are Rotten.

Hope you enjoy the lot of it, and I’ll see you at the theaters next week!

(Who am I kidding with that “no more TGWTDT articles from here!” sendoff? I’m sure they’ll do something cool between now and next week worthy of coverage.)

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