A while back we brought you the news that Sony was keen on making The Girl Who Played With Fire despite the middling box office for Dragon Tattoo. Now it seems co-financer MGM isn’t too excited about that prospect. Deadline reports that MGM is officially marking David Fincher’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as a loss, and if the sequels will move forward they will only work under the condition that the studio “can achieve better economics.”
That might be code for giving Fincher the boot. The prickly director is well known for detesting budgetary restrictions and pushing the envelope whenever possible to achieve perfection. Fincher is a true auteur: there’s more going on in single frames of his films than other directors can cram into entire movies. But all that comes at a cost, and MGM may not be willing to pay that price.
“Better economics” might also be code for not putting out the film during the holiday season. Word of mouth on the film boiled down to “It’s good, but really awkward for my family to watch after Christmas dinner.” This may have hurt theater going business and prompted many to wait for the BluRay. That BluRay just hit shelves so if MGM sees massive sales and rentals then maybe they’ll change their mind. We’ll just have to wait and see.
You can read my review of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo right here. You can order the BluRay here.
We’ll keep you updated as the story develops.
