Ad for "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" Movie Leaves No Nip Unslipped
The U.S. movie version of the Swedish movie version of the massive bestselling book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be advertised with ... boobs. The new movie poster, featuring a topless Lisbeth Salander's pierced nipples, is a far cry from author Stieg Larsson's original book, published in Swedish as Men Who Hate Women. Now Larsson is dead, Columbia Pictures and director David Fincher appear intent on upping the skin-quotient for the American audience.
- Click on images to enlarge. You can see an uncensored version of the poster here.
It's also a little unnecessary. Tattoo has been such a massive phenomenon in the U.S. -- it's difficult to board a plane without seeing at least one passenger with her head inside Larsson's books -- that the poster will make only a marginal difference to the film's fortunes.
There are two versions of the Columbia poster, the second of which modestly places some typography over actress Rooney Mara's chest. Guess which one you'll be more likely to see on outdoor locations and in newspapers?
The R-rated version appears to be an internet-only tease, which is clever. People like movie posters and regard many of them as if they were art. They don't regard regular advertising in quite the same way. (For years an old print of the painted poster for John Huston's The African Queen hung in my living room.) Why not make several different versions that consumers can choose from?
Now compare those to the Swedish movie's poster. You can't accuse the Swedes of being prudes, but their depiction of Salander fully clothed and huddled over is a lot more representative of her character in the movie.
It's worth bearing in mind that Larsson had a lifelong abhorrence of violence against women after witnessing a gang rape as a child and failing to do anything about it. Somehow, I cannot imagine he would have approved this poster.
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