Guide to the Novels of Stieg Larsson

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- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (wikipedia.org)

- Millennium Trilogy (wikipedia.org)

- Stieg Larsson (wikipedia.org)

- The Girl Who Played with Fire (wikipedia.org)

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (wikipedia.org)

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (film) (wikipedia.org)

- Lisbeth Salander (wikipedia.org)

- The Girl Who Played with Fire (film) (wikipedia.org)

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film) (wikipedia.org)

- Mikael Blomkvist (wikipedia.org)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_the_Dragon_Tattoo on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Plot summary

Characters

Major themes

Reception and awards

Film adaptations

References

External links

Publication details

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Author

Stieg Larsson

Original title

Män som hatar kvinnor

Translator

Reg Keeland, pseudonym of Steven T. Murray

Country

Sweden

Language

Swedish

Series

Millennium Trilogy

Genre(s)

Crime / Mystery novel

Publisher

Norstedts Förlag (Swedish)

Publication date

2005

Media type

Print (paperback, hardback)

ISBN

ISBN 978-91-1-301408-1 (Swedish)
ISBN 978-1-84724-253-2 (English)

OCLC Number

186764078

Followed by

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor – "Men Who Hate Women") is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the first in his Millennium Trilogy.

At his death in November 2004, Larsson left three unpublished novels that made up the trilogy. It became a posthumous best-seller in several European countries as well as in the United States.[1] Larsson, who was disgusted by sexual violence, witnessed the gang rape of a young girl when he was 15. He never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth - like the young heroine of his books, herself a rape victim, which inspired the theme of sexual violence against women in his books.[2]

Introduction

This novel supplies a genealogical table for keeping track of the numerous members of the five generation-old Vanger family who are under investigation. Robert Dessaix of the Sydney Morning Herald writes:

An epic tale of serial murder and corporate trickery spanning several continents, the novel takes place in complicated international financial fraud and the buried evil past of a wealthy Swedish industrial family. Through its main character, it also references classic forebears of the crime thriller genre while its style mixes aspects of the sub-genres. There are references to Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, as well as Sue Grafton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Val McDermid, Elizabeth George, Sara Paretsky, and several other key authors of detective novels. A journalist and magazine editor in Stockholm until his death, Larsson reveals a knowledge and enjoyment of both English and American crime fiction. He declared that he wrote his opus for his own pleasure in the evenings after work.[1]

With the exception of the fictional Hedestad, the novel takes place in real Swedish towns. The Millennium magazine featured in the books has characteristics similar to that of Larsson's magazine, Expo, which also had financial difficulties.[3]

Plot summary

Middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who publishes the political magazine Millennium in Stockholm, has lost a libel case involving damaging allegations about billionaire Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Facing jail time and professional disgrace, Blomkvist steps down from his position on the magazine's board of directors, despite strong objections from Erika Berger, Blomkvist's longtime friend, occasional lover, and business partner. At the same time, he is offered an unlikely freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the elderly former CEO of Vanger Enterprises. With few other options, Blomkvist accepts the assignment — unaware that Vanger commissioned a comprehensive investigation into Blomkvist's personal and professional history, carried out by gifted private investigator Lisbeth Salander.

Blomkvist visits Vanger at his estate on the tiny island of Hedeby, several hours from Stockholm. The old man draws Blomkvist in by promising not only financial reward for the assignment, but also solid evidence that Wennerström is truly the scoundrel Blomkvist suspects him to be. On this basis, Blomkvist agrees to spend a year writing the Vanger family history as a cover for the real assignment: solving the "cold case" of the disappearance of Vanger's great-niece Harriet some 40 years earlier. Vanger admits he is obsessed with finding out the truth of what happened to Harriet, and expresses his suspicion that Harriet was murdered by a member of the vast Vanger family, many of whom were present in Hedeby on the day of her disappearance. Each year on his birthday Harriet gave Henrik a present of pressed flowers. On his birthday every year since Harriet's murder, Vanger explains, the murderer torments him with a present of pressed flowers.

Blomkvist uproots himself from his life in Stockholm, moving to Hedeby in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record, and begins the process of analyzing the more than 40 years worth of information Henrik Vanger has obsessively compiled around the circumstances of the day Harriet disappeared. Hedeby is home to several generations of Vangers, all part owners in Vanger Enterprises. Under the pretext of researching the family history, Blomkvist becomes acquainted with the members of the extended Vanger family, most of whom resent his presence, worried that he seeks to take advantage of the obsession of a sick old man.

Meanwhile, Salander is assigned a new legal guardian, Nils Bjurman, a sadist who extorts sexual favors from her in return for access to her trust fund. He eventually rapes her, unaware that she had been videotaping his actions. She retaliates a few days later by incapacitating him with a taser, tying him up, forcing him to watch the recording of the tape and threatening to make it public unless he arranges for her to have permanent control over her money. Before she leaves, she tattoos "I am a sadistic pig, a pervert, and a rapist" in large letters on his torso.

Blomkvist fulfills his contractual obligations by immersing himself in the case. After discovering that Salander has hacked into his computer, he persuades her to assist him with research. Together, they discover entries in Harriet's diary that list the names of missing local women corresponding with Bible verses describing brutal forms of divine retribution; this leads them to suspect that they are on the trail of a serial killer who has been at large for decades. They eventually become lovers, but Blomkvist has trouble getting close to Salander, a loner who treats virtually everyone she meets with hostility.

Ultimately the two discover that Harriet's brother Martin, now CEO of Vanger Industries, has been raping and murdering women for years, having been "initiated" into serial murder by his late father, Gottfried, who also sexually abused him and Harriet. Blomkvist attempts to confront Martin, who kidnaps him and takes him to a torture chamber hidden in his house. Martin says that he had planned to kill Harriet eventually, but that she disappeared before he could take any action. As Martin is about to kill Blomkvist, Lisbeth bursts in and attacks, rescuing him. Lisbeth frees Blomkvist as Martin escapes and flees in his car. She pursues him on her motorcycle to the highway, only to see him kill himself by veering straight into a massive head-on collision with a truck.

Blomkvist and Lisbeth realize that Harriet was not actually murdered, but ran away to escape from her brother, who had been sexually abusing her. Using Lisbeth's hacking skills and contacts, they track her to Australia, where she runs a sheep farming company. Confronted, she confirms their account of the case, but also reveals that she was actually responsible for the presumed accidental death of her father. She returns to Sweden, where she is happily reunited with her great-uncle and begins to take a leading role in the newly leaderless family business.

Vanger's promises of evidence regarding Wennerström prove to have been mostly a lure for Blomkvist and are not especially substantial. However, using her investigative skills, Salander breaks into Wennerström's computer and discovers that his crimes go beyond even what Blomkvist was convicted of libel for printing. Using the evidence she found, Blomkvist prints an exposé article and book which destroys Wennerström and catapults him and Millennium to national prominence.

Characters

- Mikael Blomkvist, journalist, publisher of Millennium magazine, and amateur sleuth. Early in his career, he was compared to Astrid Lindgren's fictional boy detective Kalle Blomkvist (in the English translation, Bill Bergson), and the nickname stuck.

- Lisbeth Salander, antisocial but extremely intelligent hacker and researcher, specialising in investigating people. She has a photographic memory, and is believed by Blomkvist to have Asperger syndrome. She has been compared to Pippi Longstocking,[4] and a colleague has stated that Larsson conceived Salander partly as a "grown up Pippi Longstocking".[5]

- Henrik Vanger, retired industrialist and former CEO of Vanger Corporation.

- Hans-Erik Wennerström, corrupt Swedish industrialist and Blomkvist's nemesis.

- Gottfried Vanger, father of Harriet and Martin. An abusive alcoholic with neo-Nazi sympathies.

- Harriet Vanger, Henrik's great-niece (usually referred to as his niece) who vanished 40 years ago.

- Martin Vanger, brother of Harriet and President of the Vanger Corporation.

- Holger Palmgren, lawyer, and earlier guardian of Lisbeth Salander.

- Nils Bjurman, corrupt lawyer and guardian of Lisbeth Salander after taking over from Palmgren.

- Cecilia Vanger, daughter of Harald Vanger, and one of Henrik's nieces.

- Erika Berger, editor of Millennium, friend and occasional lover of Blomkvist.

- Dirch Frode, lawyer for Vanger Corporation, and main friend and assistant to Henrik Vanger.

- Dragan Armansky, director of Milton Security, Salander's boss and quasi-father figure.

- Christer Malm, Art director and designer of Millennium. Also part owner of the magazine together with Berger and Blomkvist.

- Gustaf Morell, Retired Detective superintendent (inspector while investigating Harriet’s disappearance).

Major themes

Larsson makes several literary references to the genre's classic forerunners, and comments on contemporary Swedish society.[6] Reviewer Dessaix writes that "His favourite targets are violence against women, the incompetence and cowardice of investigative journalists, the moral bankruptcy of big capital and the virulent strain of Nazism still festering away ..." in Swedish society.[1]

Larsson further enters the debate as to how responsible criminals are for their crimes and how much is blamed on upbringing or society.[1] Salander has a strong will and assumes that everyone else does, too. She is portrayed as having suffered every kind of abuse in her young life, including sexual assault and time in a psychiatric clinic. Since she holds others responsible for their actions, she takes revenge on those who abuse others.[1]

Reception and awards

A tale of contemporary culture and corruption, the novel was released to great acclaim in Sweden and later, on its publication in many other European countries. In the original language, it won Sweden's Glass Key Award in 2006 for best crime novel of the year. It also won the 2008 Boeke Prize, and in 2009 the Galaxy British Book Awards[7] for Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, and the prestigious Anthony Award [8][9] for Best First Novel.

Larsson was posthumously awarded the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for International Author of the Year in 2008.[10]

Film adaptations

The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird created film versions of the Millennium Trilogy –The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Swedish title: Män som hatar kvinnor, "Men Who Hate Women"), The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish title: Flickan som lekte med elden, "The Girl Who Played with Fire") and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish title: Luftslottet som sprängdes, "The Air Castle that Blew Up"). The films are co-produced with Nordisk Film and TV company,[11] with Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev directing the first one and Daniel Alfredson directing the rest.

Filming began in early 2008, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opened in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland in February–March 2009. In Norway and Denmark it is the most viewed Swedish film ever, and in Sweden total admissions are above one million.

The films have been sold to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Poland, Turkey, Mexico and the United States.

The film was acquired for theatrical and home video release by arthouse distributor Music Box Films. It had its American premiere on March 6, 2010 at the Miami Film Festival titled The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The film opened in US theaters in limited release on March 19, 2010.

Played with Fire and Hornets' Nest are set to be released in the United States in 2010 by Music Box Films. Men Who Hate Women opened in France on 13 May, and in Italy and Spain on 29 May 2009.

Played with Fire opened simultaneously in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark on 18 September 2009.

Hornets' Nest was released 27 November 2009 in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Finland in January 2010.

In the UK, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opened to critical acclaim in March 2010 and made more than £2 million at the box office. Sales of the DVD on its 19 July release have made it the highest selling foreign language title of the year in the UK. The Girl Who Played with Fire was released in cinemas the UK on 27 August and the final installment, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is set for release on 26 November.

Producer Søren Stærmose of Yellow Bird, who holds the screen rights to the books, has been approached by directors including Ridley Scott, and Martin Scorsese.[12][13]

On December 16, 2009 leading Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment are in final negotiating with Yellow Bird about the film rights according to Yellow Bird Managing Director Mikael Wallén. Steve Zaillian has been in discussions to adapt the first book.[14][15] [16]

In 2010 David Fincher was set to direct a Hollywood adaptation of the book, for release in December 2011.[17] According to The Guardian, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt were all interested in playing the central role of Mikael Blomkvist, but Daniel Craig was officially confirmed as the lead in July.[18] On August 16, 2010, it was officially confirmed that Rooney Mara will play Lisbeth Salander.[19] Robin Wright is currently in talks to play Erika Berger,[20] while Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgård are attached to play Henrik and Martin Vanger.[21]

References

1. ^ [a] [b] [c] [d] [e] Dessaix, Robert (2008-02-22). "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/book-reviews/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/2008/02/22/1203467362919.html. Retrieved 2009-06-27.

2. ^ Penny, Laurie (2010-09-05). "Girls, tattoos and men who hate women". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/09/women-girl-real-violence. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

3. ^ "Nils Andersson review". Amazon.co.uk. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/customer-reviews/1847242537?showViewpoints=1&customer-reviews.start=1#customerReviews. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

4. ^ Review of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, The Chicago Tribune

5. ^ Millennium-trilogy, StiegLarsson.com

6. ^ "The Man Who Blew Up the Welfare State" from n+1

7. ^ "2009 Galaxy British Book Awards. Winners. Shortlists. 1991 to present". Literaryawards.co.uk. http://www.literaryawards.co.uk/british.html#09. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

8. ^ "Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Awards and History". Bouchercon.info. http://www.bouchercon.info/history.html. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

9. ^ "The Anthony Awards". Bookreporter.com. http://www.bookreporter.com/features/awards-anthony.asp#2009. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

10. ^ Allen, Katie (2008-10-06). "Rankin and P D James pick up ITV3 awards". theBookseller.com. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/68347-rankin-and-p-d-james-pick-up-itv3-awards.html. Retrieved 2008-10-06.

11. ^ "Nordisk Film & TV Fond Yellow Bird Puts SEK 106m Millennium Project In Production". Nordiskfilmogtvfond.com. http://www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news_story.php?cid=458&sid=10&ptid=4. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

12. ^ Vanessa Thorpe (2009-07-26). "Poisoned legacy left by the king of thrillers | Books | The Observer". London: Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/26/stieg-larsson-thriller-novels-sweden. Retrieved 2010-03-27.

13. ^ Foto: Bulls, Stella Pictures, All Over Press. "De kan få rollen som Mikael Blomkvist - Expressen Nöje | Nöjesnyheter Musiknyheter Filmnyheter ("They can get the role as Mikael Blomkvist, Entertainment Section of Expressen")". Expressen.se. http://www.expressen.se/noje/1.1652378/de-kan-fa-rollen-som-mikael-blomkvist. Retrieved 2010-03-27.

14. ^ "Millennium-trilogin till Hollywood | Kulturnyheter | SvD" (in (Swedish)). Svd.se. 2009-12-17. http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/nyheter/millennium-trilogin-till-hollywood_3948349.svd. Retrieved 2010-03-27.

15. ^ [1][dead link]

16. ^ Comments (2010-04-10). "Who Should Be 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'?". PopEater.com. http://www.popeater.com/2010/04/10/the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-casting/. Retrieved 2010-08-11.

17. ^ Fleming, Mike (July 20, 2010). "Sony Pictures Skeds 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' - But Two Leads Not Set Yet". Deadline Hollywood. http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/columbia-pictures-sets-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-for-december-21-2011/.

18. ^ "Daniel Craig to star in US Dragon Tattoo remake". BBC News. 2010-07-27. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10777494. Retrieved 2010-07-28.

19. ^ Barrett, Annie (2010-08-16). "'Dragon Tattoo' casts its Lisbeth Salander: Have you seen Rooney Mara in previous roles? | EW.com". Popwatch.ew.com. http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/08/16/girl-with-dragon-tattoo-lisbeth-salander-rooney-mara/. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

20. ^ "Robin Wright Joins Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". Jezebel.com. 2010-08-06. http://jezebel.com/5606275/robin-wright-joins-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

21. ^ "Stellan Skarsgard in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". FilmoFilia. 2010-08-09. http://www.filmofilia.com/2010/08/09/stellan-skarsgard-in-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

External links

- Official website (UK)

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on Facebook

- Student and teacher guide – quotes, themes, literary devices, study questions

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Internet Movie Database

- The Latest News on everything Stieg (English)

Publication details

- 2005, Swedish, Norstedts (ISBN 978-91-1-301408-1), pub date August? 2005, paperback (poss 1st edition)

- 2008, UK, MacLehose Press, (Quercus Imprint) (ISBN 978-1-84724-253-2), pub date 10 January 2008, hardback (trans as The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Reg Keeland)

- 2008, US, Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN 978-0-307-26975-1), pub date 16 September 2008, hardback

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

v • d • e The Glass Key award

Mördare utan ansikte (1992) · Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne (1993) · Sub Rosa (1994) · Masken i spejlet (1995) · Nattsug (1996) · Se dig ikke tilbake! (1997) · Flaggermusmannen (1998) · Limes billede (1999) · Carambole (2000) · Saknad (2001) · Mýrin (2002) · Grafarþögn (2003) · Hjemsøkt (2004) · Odjuret (2005) · Män som hatar kvinnor (2006) · Ystävät kaukana (2007) · Luftslottet som sprängdes (2008) · Nattfåk (2009) · Flaskepost fra P (2010)

Millennium Trilogy

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Trilogy on 2010-12-09.

Millennium Trilogy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search
The Millennium Trilogy is a series of three bestselling novels written by the late Stieg Larsson. The novels in the series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, were first published in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Larsson, who was disgusted by sexual violence, witnessed the gang rape of a young girl when he was 15. The author never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth - like the young heroine of his books, herself a rape victim, which inspired the theme of sexual violence against women in his books.[1]

The primary characters in the series are Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Lisbeth is an intelligent, eccentric woman in her twenties with eidetic memory whose social skills are rather poor. Blomkvist is an investigative journalist, a celebrity in his own right, and has a history not totally dissimilar to Larsson's.

Larsson wrote about three-quarters of a fourth novel before his sudden death in November 2004. His partner, Eva Gabrielsson, possesses the notebook computer with the manuscript. Outlines or manuscripts for one or two more books may exist.[2][3]

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, original title Män som hatar kvinnor. 2005.

- The Girl Who Played with Fire, original title Flickan som lekte med elden. 2006.

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, original title Luftslottet som sprängdes. 2007.

As of May 2010, a total of 27 million copies have been sold worldwide.[2]

The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird has produced film versions of the Millennium Trilogy, co-produced with The Danish film production company Nordisk Film and television company,[4] which were released in Scandinavia in 2009. In 2010, the films were shown in an extended version of approximately 180 minutes per film as a six-part miniseries (each film in two parts) on Swedish television. This version will be released on 14 July 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray. Originally, only the first film was meant for a theatrical release, with the following ones conceived as TV movies, but this was changed in the wake of the tremendous success of the first film. The first film was directed by Niels Arden Oplev and the next two by Daniel Alfredson, while the screenplays of the first two were adapted by Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg, and the last one by Ulf Rydberg and Jonas Frykberg. All three films feature Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original Swedish title Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, literally Men Who Hate Women) had a cinema release on February 25, 2009.

- The Girl Who Played with Fire (original Swedish title Flickan Som Lekte Med Elden, literally The Girl Who Played With The Fire) had a cinema release on September 18, 2009.

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (original Swedish title Luftslottet Som Sprängdes, literally The Air Castle That Exploded) had a cinema release on November 27, 2009.

Yellow Bird has partnered with Sony Pictures to produce an American adaptation of the trilogy. The films are to be written by Steven Zaillian, directed by David Fincher and produced by Scott Rudin, with Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.

1. ^ Penny, Laurie (2010-09-05). "Girls, tattoos and men who hate women". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/09/women-girl-real-violence. Retrieved 2010-10-19.

2. ^ [a] [b] McGrath, Charles (23 May 2010). "The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson". The New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Larsson-t.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all.

3. ^ "The Fourth Book". http://www.stieglarsson.com/the-4th-book. Retrieved 2010-04-07.

4. ^ "Yellow Bird Puts SEK 106m Millennium Project In Production". nordiskfilmogtvfond. 2007-11-02. http://www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news_story.php?cid=458&sid=10&ptid=4. Retrieved 2009-09-22.

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

This article about a 2000s novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

Stieg Larsson

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Science fiction fan

Name change

Activist and journalist

The novels

Death and aftermath

Influences

Bibliography

Non-fiction books

Novels

Periodicals edited

Awards

References

Further reading

Books

Journalism

External links

Stieg Larsson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Stieg Larsson

Born

15 August 1954(1954-08-15)
Skelleftehamn, Sweden

Died

9 November 2004(2004-11-09) (aged 50)
Stockholm, Sweden

Occupation

Journalist, Novelist

Nationality

Swedish

Education

1979

Period

1990s-2004

Genres

Crime fiction, Thriller

Notable work(s)

Millennium Trilogy

Influences [citation needed] Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö, Henning Mankell, Sara Paretsky, Astrid Lindgren, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Susan Elizabeth George, Val McDermid, Enid Blyton

stieglarsson.se

Karl Stig-Erland Larsson (15 August 1954 – 9 November 2004) was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for writing the Millennium Trilogy of crime novels, which was published posthumously.

He was the second best-selling author in the world in 2008, behind Khaled Hosseini. By March 2010, his Millennium trilogy had sold 27 million copies in more than 40 countries.[1][2]

Science fiction fan

Larsson's first fiction writing efforts were not in crime fiction, but in science fiction. An avid science fiction reader from an early age, he became active in Swedish science fiction fandom around 1971, co-edited with Rune Forsgren his first fanzine, Sfären, in 1972, and attended his first SF convention, SF•72 in Stockholm. Throughout the 1970s, Larsson published around 30 additional fanzine issues, and after his move to Stockholm in 1977, he became active in the Scandinavian SF Society, where he was a board member in 1978 and 1979, and chairman in 1980. In his first fanzines, 1972–1974, he published a handful of early short stories while submitting others to other semi-professional or amateur magazines. He was co-editor or editor of several fanzines, including Sfären and FIJAGH!; in 1978-1979 he was president of the largest Swedish science fiction fan club, Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction (SFSF).

In early June, 2010, manuscripts for two such stories, as well as fanzines with one or two others, were noted in the Swedish National Library (to which this material had been donated a few years earlier, mainly by the Alvar Appeltofft Memorial Foundation, which works to further science fiction fandom in Sweden). This discovery of what was called "unknown" works by Larsson caused considerable publicity.[3]

Name change

Larsson's first name originally was Stig which is the standard spelling. In his early twenties, he changed it to avoid confusion with his friend Stig Larsson, who would go on to become a well-known author well before Stieg did. At the time, they were amateur photographers and it was in this capacity that they wished to prevent any misunderstanding; neither had yet published a book. Stieg Larsson, in later years, would tell the story that the two men had tossed a coin to decide who was to change his name, but this is disputed by Stig Larsson. The pronunciation is the same regardless of spelling.

Activist and journalist

Larsson was initially a political activist for the Kommunistiska Arbetareförbundet (Communist Workers League), a photographer, and one of Sweden's leading science fiction fans.[4] In politics he was the editor of the Swedish Trotskyist journal Fjärde internationalen, journal of the Swedish section of the Fourth International. He also wrote regularly for the weekly Internationalen.[5]

Larsson spent part of 1977 in Eritrea, training a squad of female Eritrean People's Liberation Front guerrillas in the use of grenade launchers. He was forced to abandon that work due to having contracted a kidney disease.[6] Upon his return to Sweden, he worked as a graphic designer at the largest Swedish news agency, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) between 1977 and 1999.[5]

Larsson's political convictions, as well as his journalistic experiences, led him to found the Swedish Expo Foundation, similar to the British Searchlight Foundation, established to "counteract the growth of the extreme right and the white power-culture in schools and among young people."[7] He also became the editor of the foundation's magazine, Expo, in 1995.

When he was not at his day job, he worked on a independent research of right-wing extremism in Sweden. In 1991, his research resulted in his first book "Right-wing extremism" ("Extremhögern"). Larsson quickly became instrumental in documenting and exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organizations; he was an influential debater and lecturer on the subject, reportedly living for years under death threats from his political enemies.[7]

The novels

At his death, Larsson left behind manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death. The first was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"), published in English as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was awarded the prestigious Glass Key award as the best Nordic crime novel in 2005. His second novel, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006. The third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Luftslottet som sprängdes ("The air castle that was blown up"), published in English as The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, was published in the United States in May 2010.

Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, now possessed by his partner, Eva Gabrielsson; synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth in the series, which he intended to contain an eventual total of ten books, may also exist.[8]

The Swedish film production company Yellow Bird has produced film versions of the Millennium Trilogy, co-produced with The Danish film production company Nordisk Film and TV company, which were released in Scandinavia in 2009.

Death and aftermath

Larsson died in Stockholm at the age of 50 of a heart attack. Rumours that his death was in some way induced, because of death threats received as editor of Expo, have been denied by Eva Gedin, his Swedish publisher.[9]

In May 2008 it was announced that a 1977 will, found soon after Larsson's death, declared his wish to leave his assets to the Umeå branch of the Communist Workers League (now the Socialist Party). As the will was unwitnessed, it was not valid under Swedish law, with the result that all of Larsson's estate, including future royalties from book sales, went to his father and brother.[10][11] His long term lover Eva Gabrielsson,[12] who found the will, has no legal right to the inheritance, sparking controversy between her and his father and brother. Reportedly, the two never married because, under Swedish law, couples entering into marriage are required to make their addresses (at the time) publicly available; marrying would have been a security risk.[13] Owing to his reporting on extremist groups and the death threats he had received, the couple had sought and been granted masking of their addresses, personal data and identity numbers from public records, to make it harder for others to trace them; this kind of "identity cover" was integral to his work as a journalist and would have been difficult to bypass if the two had married or become registered partners.[citation needed]

An article in Vanity Fair magazine discusses Gabrielsson's dispute with Larsson's relatives, which has also been well covered in the Swedish press. She claims the author had little contact with his father and brother and requests the rights to control his work so it may be presented in the way he would have wanted.[14] Larsson's story was featured on the October 10, 2010 segment of CBS News Sunday Morning. In this segment Larsson's family claims the fourth and as yet unpublished book is actually the fifth book.[15]

Influences

Through his written works, as well as in interviews, Larsson acknowledged that a significant number of his literary influences were American and British crime/detective fiction authors. His heroine has some similarities with Carol O'Connell's "Mallory," who first appeared in "Mallory's Oracle" in 1994. In his work he made a habit of inserting the names of some of his favourites within the text, sometimes by making his characters read the works of his own favorite authors. Topping the list were Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, Dorothy Sayers and Enid Blyton.[16] One of the strongest influences originates from his own country: Pippi Longstocking, by Sweden's much-loved children's author Astrid Lindgren. Larsson explained that one of his main recurring characters in the Millennium series, Lisbeth Salander, is actually fashioned on a grown-up Pippi Longstocking as he chose to sketch her.[17]

When Larsson was 15 years old he witnessed the gang rape of a girl, which led to his lifelong abhorrence of violence and abuse against women. The author never forgave himself for failing to help the girl, whose name was Lisbeth - like the young heroine of his books, who is also a rape victim. This inspired the themes of sexual violence against women in his books.[18]

There are also similarities between Larsson's Lisbeth Salander and Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise.[1][2][3][4] Both are women from disastrous childhoods who somehow survive to become adults with notable skills, including fighting, and who accomplish good by operating somewhat outside the law. One of Larsson's villains, Ronald Niedermann (a.k.a. "blond hulk"), has much in common with the invulnerable, sociopathic giant named Simon Delicata in the fourth Modesty Blaise book A Taste for Death.

Bibliography

Non-fiction books

- Stieg Larsson, Anna-Lena Lodenius: Extremhögern, Stockholm, 1991

- Stieg Larsson, Mikael Ekman: Sverigedemokraterna: den nationella rörelsen, Stockholm, 2001

- Stieg Larsson, Cecilia Englund: Debatten om hedersmord: feminism eller rasism, Stockholm, 2004

- Richard Slätt, Maria Blomquist, Stieg Larsson, David Lagerlöf m.fl.: Sverigedemokraterna från insidan, 2004

Novels

The Millennium series:

- Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men Who Hate Women"), 2005. English translation by Reg Keeland under the title The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, January 2008. US release September 16, 2008.

- Flickan som lekte med elden ("The Girl Who Played with Fire"), 2006. English translation by Reg Keeland under the title The Girl Who Played with Fire, January 2009. US release July 28, 2009.

- Luftslottet som sprängdes ("The Air Castle that was Blown up"), 2007. English translation by Reg Keeland under the title The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, October 2009 (UK release). US release date May, 2010.

Periodicals edited

- Sfären, FIJAGH! and other science fiction fanzines, 1972 and later

- Svartvitt med Expo, 1999–2002

- Expo, 2002–2004

Awards

- 2006 - Glass Key award, Män som hatar kvinnor

- 2006 - Best Swedish Crime Novel Award, Flickan som lekte med elden

- 2008 - Glass Key award, Luftslottet som sprängdes

- 2008 - ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for International Author of the Year, UK, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[19]

- 2008 - Exclusive Books Boeke Prize, South Africa, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

- 2009 - Galaxy British Book Awards, Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year, UK, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo[20][21]

- 2009 - Anthony Award, Best First Novel, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo[22][23]

- 2009 - General Council of the Judiciary, Spain, for his contribution to the fight against domestic violence.[24]

Stieg Larsson is the first author to sell more than one million e-books on Amazon.com.[25]

References

1. ^ "Bestselling fiction authors in the world for 2008". AbeBooks. 2009-01-15. http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/15/bestselling-fiction-authors-in-the-world-for-2008/. Retrieved 2009-09-22.

2. ^ "Inspector Norse: Why are Nordic detective novels so successful?". The Economist. 2010-03-11. http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660846. Retrieved 2010-03-19.

3. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (8 June 2010). "Unpublished Manuscripts by Stieg Larsson Are Found". The New York Times. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/unpublished-manuscripts-by-stieg-larsson-are-found/.

4. ^ http://www.booksfactory.com/writers/larsson.htm

5. ^ [a] [b] "Biography - Background - Stieg Larsson, the man behind Lisbeth Salander". Stieglarsson.com. 2004-11-09. http://www.stieglarsson.com/Life-and-work. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

6. ^ Khaleeli, Homa (2010-10-16). "Stieg Larson 'spent year training Eritrean guerrillas'". London: Guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/15/stieg-girls-with-grenade-launchers.

7. ^ [a] [b] "About Expo". Expo.se. 2010-05-07. http://expo.se/about-expo.html. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

8. ^ McGrath, Charles (23 May 2010). "The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson". The New York Times Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Larsson-t.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all.

9. ^ Forshaw, Barry (23 August 2008). "Crime writer taken too soon". The Times (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4587806.ece.

10. ^ SvD. (28 May 2008). Stieg Larssons testamente hittat

11. ^ Cantwell, Oisin (28 May 2008). "Ville ge arvet till lokalparti". Aftonbladet. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article2556626.ab.

12. ^ Website supporting Eva Gabrielsson's position.

13. ^ Nick Cohen "Read Stieg Larsson, the bestselling socialist militant", The Observer, 13 September 2009

14. ^ "The Battle Over Stieg Larsson’s Estate Intensifies". Vanity Fair. January 5, 2010. http://www.vanityfair.com/online/culture/2010/01/05/the-battle-over-stieg-larssons-estate-intensifies.html.

15. ^ "The Mystery of Stieg Larsson". CBS News. October 8, 2010. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/08/sunday/main6939827.shtml. Retrieved October 10, 2010.

16. ^ Lindgrendetails, Astrid (2009-07-28). "Stieg Larsson - infloox ––– NOT VETTED –––". Infloox.com. http://www.infloox.com/person?id=83bfe892. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

17. ^ Lindgren, Astrid (2009-07-29). "Pippi Longstocking → Stieg Larsson". infloox. http://www.infloox.com/influence?id=7a98a2e4. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

18. ^ http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2010/09/women-girl-real-violence

19. ^ Allen, Katie (2008-10-06). "Rankin and P D James pick up ITV3 awards". theBookseller.com. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/68347-rankin-and-p-d-james-pick-up-itv3-awards.html. Retrieved 2008-10-06.

20. ^ Galaxy British Book Awards site

21. ^ "2009 Galaxy British Book Awards. Winners. Shortlists. 1991 to present". Literaryawards.co.uk. http://www.literaryawards.co.uk/british.html#09. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

22. ^ "Bouchercon World Mystery Convention : Anthony Awards and History". Bouchercon.info. http://www.bouchercon.info/history.html. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

23. ^ "The Anthony Awards". Bookreporter.com. http://www.bookreporter.com/features/awards-anthony.asp#2009. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

24. ^ Hibbert, Katharine (2009-09-30). "A terrible injustice mars the publication of Stieg Larsson's final book | Books | Arts". The First Post. http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54127,news,injustice-mars-the-publication-of-stieg-larssons-final-book-in-the-millennium-trilogy. Retrieved 2010-08-05.

25. ^ "Stieg Larsson becomes first author to sell 1m ebooks on Amazon". The Guardian. July 285, 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/28/stieg-larsson-1m-ebooks-amazon.

Further reading

Books

- Barry Forshaw, The Man Who Left Too Soon: the Biography of Stieg Larsson, John Blake, 2010.

Journalism

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive and inappropriate external links. (May 2010)

- Expo's memorial page for Stieg Larsson (English)/(Swedish)

- Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Died Too Soon, Val McDermid, Waterstones Book Quarterly, October 2009

- In praise of… Stieg Larsson, The Guardian, Culture Editorial, 3 October 2009

- In search of Stieg Larsson BBC News Magazine Feature, 28 January 2010

- Thriller with a radical message, Socialist Worker, 15 April 2010

- The Latest News on everything Stieg (English)

External links

- www.larssontrilogy.com from Quercus, publishers of Stieg Larsson (English)

- The official Millennium site of Nordstedt Publishing (Swedish)

- The Girl Who Played with Fire (English)

- Stieg Larsson at the Internet Movie Database

- Stieg Larsson at the Swedish Film Database

- A look at the life and work of author Stieg Larsson

- Web to follow The Millennium Tour in Stockholm

- The Latest News on everything Stieg (English)

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

Persondata

Name

Larsson, Stieg

Alternative names

Short description

Date of birth

1954-08-15

Place of birth

Skelleftehamn, Sweden

Date of death

2004-11-09

Place of death

Stockholm, Sweden

The Girl Who Played with Fire

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Played_with_Fire on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Plot summary

Characters

Reception

Cultural notes

Film adaptation

References

External links

The Girl Who Played with Fire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Author

Stieg Larsson

Original title

Flickan som lekte med elden

Translator

Reg Keeland, pseudonym of Steven T. Murray

Country

Sweden

Language

Swedish

Series

Millennium Trilogy

Genre(s)

Crime/Mystery novel

Publisher

Norstedts Förlag (Swedish), Quercus (English)

Publication date

2006 (Sweden), 2009 (United Kingdom)

Media type

Print (Paperback & Hardback)

Pages

631

Preceded by

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Followed by

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) is the second novel in the million-selling Millennium Trilogy by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009.

The book features many of the characters that appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, among them the title character, Lisbeth Salander, a social misfit hacker, and Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist and publisher of Millennium magazine.

Widely seen as a critical success, The Girl Who Played with Fire was also (according to The Bookseller magazine) the first and only translated novel to be number one in the UK hardback chart.[1]

Plot summary

Mikael Blomkvist, publisher of Millennium magazine, has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment Swedish figures. So when a young journalist named Dag Svensson approaches him with a meticulously researched thesis about sex trafficking in Sweden and those in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation.

Mikael Blomkvist has had no contact with tattooed computer hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander since they risked their lives on a hunt for a serial killer a year earlier (see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Unknown to Blomkvist, however, Salander is in constant contact with him – or at least, with his computer's hard drive, which she has cloned and is monitoring from her vast new apartment (which no one knows the address to).

Armed with a photographic memory and pathologically focused on seeking out and punishing "men who hate women", Salander is drawn to the investigation on Blomkvist’s computer. So while Blomkvist and his fellow journalists research the sex industry according to the rules of good journalism, Salander – spurred on by the case studies of child prostitution she finds on Blomkvist's computer – attempts to take matters into her own hands. She plots punishment for the traffickers, but before she can carry out her own brand of justice, she is accused of the murders of Dag Svensson, Mia Johansson (Dag's longtime girlfriend, who also happened to be writing her doctoral thesis on sex trafficking), and her guardian, Nils Bjurman, who might know more about Zala, the mysterious name that pops up wherever the words "sex trafficking" are, than she even dared to think.

To avoid capture by the police, Salander vanishes. While the tabloids go wild at the idea of a “psychotic lesbian S&M Satanist” on the run, Blomkvist tries despairingly to clear her name, although he can’t find her anywhere. When he does eventually make contact, it is to discover that Salander is more embroiled in his investigation than he could have thought possible. It turns out that for Salander, the trail of guilt leads shockingly close to home.

Characters

- Lisbeth Salander, tattooed computer-hacker with violent tendencies and a hatred of "men who hate women"

- Mikael Blomkvist, journalist and publisher for Millennium magazine, also a minor celebrity after his role a year ago in exposing corrupt Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström

- Erika Berger, editor of Millennium, friend and occasional lover of Blomkvist

- Dag Svensson, a bright young journalist who approached Millennium with his research into sex trafficking

- Mia Johansson, Dag’s girlfriend, writing a thesis on sex trafficking for her doctorate

- Miriam Wu, performance artist and Lisbeth’s sometime girlfriend

- Nils Bjurman, corrupt lawyer and Lisbeth’s abusive guardian

- Alexander Zalachenko alias Karl Axel Bodin, an elusive figure of the sex trafficking industry whose name alone strikes fear in people’s hearts, and who just so happens to be Lisbeth's biological father

- Ronald Niedermann, a German criminal who works as enforcer for Zalachenko with a disorder that makes him completely impervious to pain, who is Lisbeth's half-brother

- Jan Bublanski, inspector of the Stockholm police force, who leads the hunt for Salander

- Sonja Modig, inspector with the Stockholm police force, main collaborator of Bublanski

- Hans Faste, inspector with the Stockholm police force

- Paolo Roberto, former boxer, boxing trainer, and friend of Lisbeth Salander (an actual person, played by himself in the film)

- Gunnar Björck, former Säpo agent

- Holger Palmgren, former legal protector of Salander and one of the only people in the world she actually can sort of trust

- Dragan Armansky, director of Milton Security

- Magge Lundin, chief of the Svavelsjö MC ("Sulphur Lake Motorcycle Club")

- Richard Ekström, prosecutor in the case against Salander

- Annika Giannini, criminal lawyer and Mikael Blomkvist's sister, who plans to defend Salander in her upcoming murder trial

Reception

The English version was published in January 2009 and immediately became a number 1 bestseller.[1] It received reviews from most of the major UK newspapers. Many reviewers agreed with Joan Smith at the Sunday Times that this novel was “even more gripping and astonishing than the first”. Carla McKay at the Daily Mail said that, like its predecessor, the book is "not just a thrilling read, but tackles head-on the kind of issues that Larsson himself railed against in society".[2]

Most of the reviewers concentrated mainly on the character of Lisbeth Salander, with Mark Lawson at the Guardian saying that "the huge pleasure of these books is Salander, a fascinating creation with a complete and complex psychology".[3] Boyd Tonkin in The Independent saying that "the spiky and sassy Lisbeth Salander – punkish wild child, traumatised survivor of the "care" system, sexual adventurer and computer hacker of genius" was "the most original heroine to emerge in crime fiction for many years".[4] One reviewer was not convinced. Paul Connolly at the London Lite complained that Larsson's second book was "far too long and the tub-thumping far too loud", and that it was "less gripping" than the first book in the series.[citation needed]

Cultural notes

The character of Paolo Roberto is an actual person. He is a former boxer and television chef who has also dabbled in politics. He played himself in the film based on the book.[5][6]

In the first part of the book, Salander is exploring Dimensions in Mathematics apparently written by L. C. Parnault and published by Harvard University Press in 1999. On February 9, 2009, Harvard University Press announced on their website that this book, as well as the author, is purely fictitious.[7]

The mysterious K. Axel Bodin, in whose house Salander finds Zalachenko and Niedermann, is an historical name. Bodin was born in Karlstad and later moved to Sundsvall. He went to Norway to join the Waffen-SS; at the end of World War II, he was attached to the country's branch of the Gestapo. At the war's end, Bodin and another Swedish volunteer stole a car in an attempted escape to Sweden. The car's owner saw the theft, and soon a gunfight erupted in which the car owner and Bodin's friend were shot. Bodin left his friend behind and crossed the border.[8]

Film adaptation

See The Girl Who Played with Fire (film)

References

1. ^ [a] [b] "Top 10 hardbacks - fiction. The Sunday Times Bestseller List, April 25, 2010". The Sunday Times (London). April 25, 2010. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4304928.ece.

2. ^ McKay, Carla (January 22, 2009). "Crime". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-1126580/January-crime-round-up.html.

3. ^ Lawson, Mark (January 10, 2009). "Hot for anything". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/10/stieg-larsson-girl-played-fire.

4. ^ "Boyd Tonkin: A Swedish punk tops our charts". The Independent (London). January 23, 2009. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-a-swedish-punk-tops-our-charts-1501301.html.

5. ^ http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/film/article662977.ab (Swedish)

6. ^ http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/litteratur/artikel_35129.svd (Swedish)

7. ^ http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2009/02/dimensions-in-mathematics-a-phantom-a-chimera.html

8. ^ http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=2723

External links

- Fan site on WordPress

- UK publisher website for Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played with Fire

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Kicked_the_Hornets'_Nest on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Plot

Characters

Film adaptation

References

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Author

Stieg Larsson

Original title

Luftslottet som sprängdes

Translator

Reg Keeland, pseudonym of Steven T. Murray

Country

Sweden

Language

Swedish

Series

Millennium Trilogy

Genre(s)

Crime / Mystery novel

Publisher

Norstedts Förlag (Swedish), MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus (English)

Publication date

2007 (Sweden), October 2009 (United Kingdom), 25 May 2010 (United States)

Media type

Print (Paperback & Hardback)

Pages

602 (Hardback)

Preceded by

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes, "The Air Castle That was Blown up") is the third and final novel in the best-selling Millennium Trilogy[1][2] by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2007 and in English in the UK in October 2009.

The Swedish title literally means "The Air Castle That Was Blown Up." Luftslott ("air castle") is used in Swedish to designate a pipe dream. However a better English translation would be Exploding 'Castles in the Air'. The US and Canadian editions, published on 25 May 2010, change the English-language title to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, with "hornet" in the singular form.[3][4]

The novel is the sequel to The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Plot

Lisbeth Salander is flown to Sahlgrenska Hospital after being shot by her father, Alexander Zalachenko, and buried alive by her half-brother Ronald Neidermann, at the end of The Girl Who Played With Fire. After surgery, she is moved to an intensive care ward under guard, able to be visited only by police, doctors, nurses, and her lawyer, Annika Giannini (who is also Mikael Blomkvist's sister). Zalachenko, who was also critically injured during the confrontation with Lisbeth, is moved next door to her in the same hospital. Neidermann is on the run from the authorities after murdering a police officer, and car-jacking and kidnapping a woman during his escape from Blomkvist.

Evert Gullberg, the founder and former chief of "the Section", a secret division of Säpo that harbored and protected Zalachenko, asks former Section associate Frederik Clinton to be acting head of the Section and sets a plan in motion to deflect attention away from the Section by silencing Salander, Blomkvist and Zalachenko.

They first form a working alliance with the Prosecutor of Salander's case, Ekström. Dr. Peter Teleborian, a member of The Section and the psychiatrist that supervised Salander when she was previously institutionalized submits to Ekstrom a false psychiatric examination with the recommendation that she be institutionalized again, preferably without a trial.

Gullberg shoots Zalachenko dead at his hospital bed and then commits suicide. Section operatives also murder Gunnar Bjorck, Blomkvist's chief source of information about The Section and Zalachenko, burglarize and plant bugs in the offices of Millenium, and mug Annika Giannini. Undeterred by their actions, Blomkvist continues to investigate The Section to publish an expose on them and their crimes.

In an effort to counter The Section's actions against him, Blomkvist hires Dragan Armansky to handle counter surveillance and security for himself and his fellow Millennium employees. Dragan in turn, informs Säpo Constitutional Protection Director Torsten Edklinth. Edklinth, along with with his assistant Monica Figuerola, decides to begin a secret investigation into The Section. After she confirms many of the allegations, Edklinth contacts the Justice Minister and the Prime Minister to discuss what he considers to be a constitutional crisis. They approve a full-scale investigation by Constitutional Protection and invite Blomkvist to a confidential meeting in which they all agree to share information. Blomkvist is brought on as a special consultant to Edklinth's team. They concede that the investigation timing will be limited by Blomkvist's plan to publish the truth about Salander and the Section on the third day of her trial. Meanwhile, Figuerola and Blomkvist have an affair.

Erika Berger leaves Millennium to be editor-in-chief at Sweden's largest daily paper, the fictional Svenska Morgon-Posten. Shortly after she starts, Berger begins receiving sexually graphic emails and threats. With the help of Lisbeth, Berger's stalker is exposed as a fellow employee of Berger at the SMP, Peter Jacobson. However, Berger ultimately leaves the SMP and returns to Millennium.

On the eve of Salander's trial, The Section, desperate to silence Blomkvist once and for all and destroy his credibility, hire Serbian gangsters to murder him and Berger, while planting cocaine in his apartment. Figuerola and her fellow agents are able to intercept and foil their plans.

Meanwhile, Salander is transferred to prison to start her trial. With her friends from the Hacker Republic, Plague and Trinity, she works with Blomkvist to expose The Section while clearing her name, including exposing Teleborian as a pedophile.

On the third day of Salander's trial, Giannini systematically destroys Teleborian's testimony proving that the Section and Teleborian conspired to commit Salander at age 12 to protect Zalachenko, that her rights had been repeatedly violated, and that they were once again conspiring against her. During this time, Millennium's expose on The Section, Zalachenko and his abuses against Salander and her family, along with a book entitled "The Section" are released becoming the story of the year. The same day, multiple teams from Edklinth's unit arrest all members of The Section. Blomkvist and Edklinth testify and provide evidence proving that Teleborian's recent "psychiatric assessment" of Salander was false and that he was working with The Section to have her silenced. Teleborian is later arrested for the child pornography earlier found on his computer by Salander and her hacker friends. With the evidence and credibility of the prosecution shattered, Salander has all charges against her dropped.

As Zalachenko's daughter, Salander inherits all of his properties and wealth, but she refuses to take any of it. Suspicious about an abandoned factory in her father's estate, she goes there to investigate and finds two dead women and Niedermann, who had been hiding there from the police. Salander outwits Niedermann by nailing his feet to the ground with a nail gun. She leaves the warehouse and reports Niedermann's location to the head of the Svavelsjö Biker gang, who rushes over seeking their revenge against him. After the gang arrives, Salander alerts the police to the warehouse with Neidermann and the bikers; she then watches as police teams appear and enter the building, and leaves as the biker gang take their revenge on Neidermann. The police later arrest or kill the members of the biker gang.

Back at her apartment in Stockholm, Salander receives a visit from Blomkvist. The story, as well as the Millennium trilogy, ends with her reconciling with him, and allowing him in.

Characters

- Lisbeth Salander, tattooed computer hacker

- Mikael Blomkvist, journalist and publisher for Millennium magazine

- Erika Berger, editor of Millennium and the Svenske Morgon-Posten newspaper, friend and occasional lover of Blomkvist

- Alexander Zalachenko, former Soviet spy who defected to Sweden in 1976; Salander's father

- Ronald Niedermann, a German criminal who worked as enforcer for Zalachenko; Salander's half-brother

- Jan Bublanski, inspector in the Stockholm police force

- Richard Ekström, preliminary investigation leader on the Salander case and lead prosecutor in her trial

- Annika Giannini, Blomkvist's sister and Salander's attorney

- Evert Gullberg, former chief of the Section for Special Analysis ("the Section"), a secret division of Säpo (the Security Police).

- Frederik Clinton, acting chief of the Section

- Anders Jonasson, Salander's doctor at Sahlgrenska hospital

- Peter Teleborian, psychiatrist whose diagnosis was used to declare Salander incompetent originally (at the request of the Section)

- Torsten Edklinth, director of Constitutional Protection at Säpo, the branch charged with investigating crimes against Constitutional freedoms

- Monica Figuerola, operative at Constitutional Protection and Blomkvist's lover

Film adaptation

- See The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (film)

References

1. ^ "Bestselling fiction authors in the world for 2008". AbeBooks. 15 January 2009. http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/15/bestselling-fiction-authors-in-the-world-for-2008/. Retrieved 22 September 2009.

2. ^ "Inspector Norse: Why are Nordic detective novels so successful?". The Economist. 11 March 2010. http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660846. Retrieved 19 March 2010.

3. ^ "Amazon.com: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (9780307269997):…". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/030726999X. Retrieved 16 August 2010.

4. ^ "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: Amazon.ca: Stieg Larsson: Books". Amazon.ca. http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0670069035. Retrieved 23 September 2010.

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

v • d • e The Glass Key award

Mördare utan ansikte (1992) · Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne (1993) · Sub Rosa (1994) · Masken i spejlet (1995) · Nattsug (1996) · Se dig ikke tilbake! (1997) · Flaggermusmannen (1998) · Limes billede (1999) · Carambole (2000) · Saknad (2001) · Mýrin (2002) · Grafarþögn (2003) · Hjemsøkt (2004) · Odjuret (2005) · Män som hatar kvinnor (2006) · Ystävät kaukana (2007) · Luftslottet som sprängdes (2008) · Nattfåk (2009) · Flaskepost fra P (2010)

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (film)

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Kicked_the_Hornets'_Nest_(film) on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Plot

Cast

Release

Reception

Home media

References

External links

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Swedish release poster

Directed by

Daniel Alfredson

Produced by

Soren Staermose
Jon Mankell

Screenplay by

Ulf Rydberg
Jonas Frykberg

Story by

Stieg Larsson (Novel)

Starring

Noomi Rapace
Michael Nyqvist

Music by

Jacob Groth

Cinematography

Peter Mokrosinski

Editing by

Mattias Morheden

Distributed by

Zodiak Entertainment

Release date(s)

November 27, 2009 (Sweden)
October 29, 2010 (US)
November 26, 2010 (UK)

Running time

147 minutes

Country

Sweden
Denmark
Germany

Language

Swedish

Gross revenue

$39,475,100[1]

Preceded by

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes, literally The Air Castle That Exploded in English) is a 2009 Swedish thriller film directed by Daniel Alfredson. It is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the third and final entry in his Millennium Trilogy.

Lisbeth Salander is hospitalized after the meeting with her father, and later put on trial. Mikael Blomkvist takes on the task of proving she is innocent as he continues to uncover the reasons why Lisbeth has been treated so harshly by the Swedish authorities.

Plot

Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is airlifted to a hospital in Gothenburg. Surgeons remove bullets from her shoulder, hip, and head, where her father, Alexander Zalachenko, shot her. In the hospital, she meets Dr. Jonasson (Askel Morisse), who cares for her throughout her stay, preventing anyone except her lawyer from visiting. Niedermann (Micke Spreitz) is a fugitive, wanted for killing a police officer. A man named Evert Gullberg (Hans Alfredson) meets with his former colleague of 35 years, Fredrik Clinton (Lennart Hjulström); the two decide that they must silence Zalachenko and Lisbeth.

Zalachenko (Georgi Staykov) is still alive, in a hospital room down the hall from Lisbeth. He is met by a member of the "Section", a group within the Secret Police, to decide how to conceal his existence. Zalachenko puts all the blame on Niedermann, and threatens that if he were to be convicted, he would spill everything to the police and media.

Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) asks his sister, Annika (Annika Hallin), to be Lisbeth's lawyer, as she is accused of attempted murder. Gullberg arrives at the hospital at the same time as Annika, passing right by her. He then tells Zalachenko that they will not help him, before shooting him in the head. Annika saves Lisbeth by barricading the door to Lisbeth's room, preventing Evert from killing her too, and he shoots himself. Afterward, police are soon put outside Lisbeth's room, and Fredrik visits the Section headquarters to confirm that Evert shot Zalachenko, stating that he had chosen to do a final job because he was dying of liver cancer. Fredrik visits Dr. Peter Teleborian (Anders Ahlbom), and explains his plan to punish her for trying to kill Zalachenko by having her committed to St. Stephen's mental hospital again. Teleborian tries to meet with Lisbeth to conduct a psychological evaluation, but Dr. Jonasson denies him entry and insists he make the necessary official requests.

Mikael and Annika lose both copies of the Björck investigation files, files needed to prove that Lisbeth was in fact being punished by corrupt men of law, as they were stolen under orders from Fredrik. Mikael then calls Milton Security in desperation. Meanwhile, a representative from the Section speaks to the Prosecutor, Ekström, stating that if Zalachenko's secrets were to come out in the case, relations with foreign countries and Sapo's secret contacts would be ruined, and that there are many useful background facts about the case, including her previously attempted patricide, that would help convict her.

The Millennium team work to find out more about the Section, but find it difficult since many of the politicians and Sapo workers would have leaked information about it in their autobiographies. Mikael then decides to uncover more information on Gullberg to find out more about the Section. Mikael tells Jonasson the conspiracy against Lisbeth. He finds it unlikely, but Mikael assures Jonasson that it is true. Mikael then convinces him to sneak in her internet phone. Upon receiving her phone, Lisbeth immediately contacts Plague to see if he can find information on Teleborian, and then tells Mikael that Annika has permission to use a video of Nils Bjurman — her former guardian and one of the people whe is accused of murdering — raping her. At the office the next day, Christer finds out that Gullberg and a man named Hans von Rotting visited the Prime Minister in 1976. Mikael decides to visit one of the secretaries, Bang Janeryd, and shows him the files. He says he had no idea what Zalachenko was doing, and that he wants nothing to do with the trial. Mikael forces him to either have his involvement revealed or tell Mikael what he knows and become a confidential source. He confirms that Gullberg and Rotting had visited the Prime Minister, as well as Fredrik Clinton. He tells Mikael that Zalachenko had cooperated with them and gave them invaluable information, and that everything was to be top secret at the time.

Plague contacts Lisbeth, and tells her that he did not find anything on Teleborian's work computer. She then suggests that he hack into his personal computer. He will do it, regardless of the difficulty. Later, a woman named Monica Figuerola of the police asks Mikael to meet with her and her boss Torsten Edklinth. They say that there is in fact an underground crime group that is involved with the government, and that Torsten's meeting with the Prime Minister resulted in a full investigation. They also inform Mikael that they need time to identify those involved, and that he must print the magazine after the investigation is over, because if not, it will be put in jeopardy. They are also aware of the torture Lisbeth was subjected to. Mikael then gives them a few of the names of those involved.

Lisbeth starts working on an autobiography to tell her story to Mikael. She continues to have nightmares of memories about her time at St. Stephen's, her father and half-brother, and of her rape by Bjurman. When she wakes up, Niedermann is outside of her window, and aims at her with a gun, but she moves out of his view before he shoots. Mikael continues his story, and then follows Teleborian, with Christer's help. They also follow the Section member he is meeting with, which leads to a flat that Fredrik Clinton had been to four hours before. Lisbeth finishes her autobiography and sends it to Mikael, and Jonasson informs Lisbeth he can stall no longer and she will be taken away in a couple of days. Jonasson is surprised that she is not worried about the trial. Mikael finishes his story as well.

Sonny, of the motorcycle gang from the previous film, is informed that he was searched, but found clean, and that his friend had sent Niedermann to hide out in his home. There, he finds his brother dead and his girlfriend tied, gagged, and apparently assaulted. She tells him that Niedermann was the culprit, and Sonny vows revenge. Fredrik, in dialysis, is given a copy of Lisbeth's autobiography, and is told that none of it can be proven. Meanwhile, Erika has been receiving anonymous, violently pornographic hate mail, which causes an uproar in the office. Lisbeth is interrogated by the prosecutor, and says nothing. Annika is later given Lisbeth's computer and the DVD, which she watches. Niedermann breaks into an abandoned warehouse, and kills a witness, a random biker. Erika has been receiving more hate mail, as she and the whole office is being spied on by the Section. Teleborian meets with Lisbeth, and again remains silent.

Erika's bedroom window has been smashed, and she, in desperation, has called Milton Security. Mikael meets up with the owner, and is informed of this, and that someone had broken into his apartment and smuggled cocaine and cash there. The owner concludes that they are trying to frame him, since they cannot hurt the newspaper. The police find that Jonas (the Section member Teleborian had met with) had met up with the Nikolic brothers, sharpshooters in the Bosnian War and the ones who are pursuing the members of Millennium. Mikael decides to meet with Erika at a restaurant names "Samir's Gryta". The police try to warn Mikael that they will attempt to kill them there, but Mikael had left his phone at the office. They call the restaurant, and Mikael, in an attempt to answer the phone, runs into one of the brothers, who pulls out a gun. Mikael fends him off as the police hurry towards the restaurant. Figuerola arrives with the police and recognizes the other brother waiting in a car outside the restaurant, and arrests them both. The Section is dismayed when they find that the two brothers had failed their job.

At court, Lisbeth enters with piercings, a mohawk hairstyle, black makeup, and dark clothing. As the court procession proceeds, Mikael decides to print the magazine. Mikael visits Erika, who is being monitored by police, to say that he had gone against her decision to not print the magazine. Teleborian heads into court, stating that her autobiography is merely the product of Lisbeth's supposed paranoid delusions. Annika lashes back by demolishing Teleborian's credibility, where he states that she was restrained at St. Stephen's for a few days, when in reality, she had been restrained for 381 days. She uses Lisbeth's word and files from the hospital to prove this. The judge does not accept old files as proof against Teleborian's credibility. Afterward, Plague follows Teleborian up to his hotel. From the lobby he is able to use wireless internet to hack Teleborian's computer, and catches him looking at child pornography. Plague makes a full copy of the computer, which he soon gives to Mikael, who passes on the information to Annika and the police. In court, Annika shows the video proving Bjurman raped Lisbeth, and showing her statements were completely true.

As Annika presents her case, the police arrest the people involved with the Section and seize their place of operation. She proves that Teleborian had confined Lisbeth to an institution as punishment for setting her father on fire, and that he wants to detain Lisbeth at St. Stephen's once more. Annika calls Mikael to the stand and states that Teleborian had written his psychiatric opinions before he had even been allowed to interview Lisbeth. Then Annika calls Edklinth to the stand, and he states that the opinions were formulated in cooperation with Jonas Sandberg, using his computer as proof. Teleborian is left speechless. Edklinth tells Teleborian he is to be arrested, on charges of possessing over 9,000 items of child pornography, and his computer seized as evidence. After Teleborian is arrested, the court then decides that Lisbeth has no further need to been detained in custody.

The Millennium workers celebrate their victory, with Erika returning. Lisbeth is encouraged by Annika to check the property she has inherited from Zala and is led to the warehouse where Niedermann was hiding. Niedermann attempts to trap her in the warehouse and kill her, but she is too fast for him. Lisbeth uses a nail gun to trap Niedermann, nailing him to the floor. She considers nailing him in the head but runs out of nails. Upon leaving, Lisabeth instead phones Sonny and tells the bikers where to find Niedermann, and then she calls the police after the bikers arrive.

Lisbeth returns home, Mikael briefly visits her to tell that the motorcycle gang killed Niedermann and were arrested soon after. They then have a brief, strained conversation, in which she thanks him for everything, and agrees to stay in touch as he is about to leave.

Cast

- Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist

- Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander

- Tehilla Blad as young Lisbeth Salander

- Lena Endre as Erika Berger – editor of Millennium

- Annika Hallin as Annika Giannini – a lawyer and sister of Mikael Blomkvist

- Sofia Ledarp as Malin Eriksson

- Jacob Ericksson as Christer Malm – photographer of Millennium

- Georgi Staykov as Alexander Zalachenko "Zala"

- Askel Morisse as Dr. Jonasson

- Niklas Hjulström as Prosecutor Ekström

- Micke Spreitz as Ronald Niedermann

- Anders Ahlbom as Dr. Peter Teleborian

- Hans Alfredson as Evert Gullberg – former head of "The Section"

- Lennart Hjulström as Fredrik Clinton – former head of "The Section" after Gullberg

- Per Oscarsson as Holger Palmgren

- Michalis Koutsogiannakis as Dragan

- Mirja Turestedt as Monica Figuerola

- Johan Kylén as Police Inspector Jan Bublanski

Release

The film was released in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark on 29 November 2009, and in Finland and Iceland in January 2010.[2] The film was subsequently released in European countries throughout the spring and summer of 2010. The film opened the Scottsdale (Arizona) International Film Festival on 1 October 2010,[3] and was screened on 13 October 2010 at the Mill Valley (California) Film Festival;[4] the film then had a limited release in U.S. and Canadian theaters beginning 29 October 2010.[2]

Reception

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 50% based on 108 reviews, with an average score of 5.8/10. The critical consensus is: "Slow and mostly devoid of the stellar chemistry between its two leads, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest is a disappointingly uneven conclusion to the Millennium trilogy."[5]

Home media

The DVD and Blu-ray are expected for release January 4, 2011.

References

1. ^ "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2010)". Box Office Mojo. 2010-12-07. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hornetsnest.htm. Retrieved 2010-12-07.

2. ^ [a] [b] Release dates for "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" IMDB. Accessed 27 October 2010.

3. ^ 10/1-5: Scottsdale International Film Festival The Arizona Republic, AZCentral.com. Accessed 25 September 2010.

4. ^ Swedish films at the Mill Valley Film Festival Accessed 27 October 2010.

5. ^ "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-girl-who-kicked-the-hornets-nest/. Retrieved 2010-11-05.

External links

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest at the Internet Movie Database

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest at the Swedish Film Database

- Read more about Hornet's Nest and other Stieg books (English)

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

v • d • e

Cinema of Sweden

Films A-Z • Films by year: Pre 1930 • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Actors • Directors • Cinematographers • Composers • Editors • Producers • Screenwriters

Lisbeth Salander

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbeth_Salander on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Profile

In film

See also

References

External links

Lisbeth Salander
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Lisbeth Salander

Millennium Trilogy character

First appearance

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Created by

Stieg Larsson

Portrayed by

Noomi Rapace
Rooney Mara

Information

Aliases

Wasp
Hacker Republic

Gender

Female

Occupation

Computer hacker

Family

Agneta Sophia Salander (mother)
Alexander Zalachenko (father)
Camilla Salander (twin sister)
Ronald Niedermann (half-brother)

Nationality

Swedish

Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. She is the heroine of Larsson's award-winning Millennium Trilogy,[1] first appearing in the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (original title in Swedish: Män som hatar kvinnor, or "Men Who Hate Women"). She is also featured in The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Swedish: Luftslottet som sprängdes, or "The Air Castle That Exploded"), the second and third installments of the author's bestselling series.

Profile

Larsson stated in interviews that he based the character of Lisbeth Salander on what he imagined Pippi Longstocking would have been like as an adult.[2] In the trilogy, Salander has the name "V.Kulla" displayed on the door of her apartment on the Svartensgatan in Stockholm, Sweden. "V. Kulla" is an abbreviation of "Villa Villekulla", the name of Pippi Longstocking's house.[3] Like Longstocking, Salander has red hair, which she dyes black. Upon her first appearance in the series, she is described as "a pale, anorexic young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows. She had a wasp tattoo about an inch long on her neck, a tattooed loop around the biceps of her left arm and another around her left ankle. On those occasions when she had been wearing a tank top, [it could be seen] that she had a dragon tattoo on her left shoulder blade."[4]

Salander was born April 30, 1978 to Agneta Sophia Salander Née Sjölander. Lisbeth has a twin sister named Camilla, from whom she's estranged. Salander's father is Alexander Zalachenko, a Soviet GRU agent, who defected to Sweden in the 1960s and was granted asylum and protection by SÄPO, the Swedish Security Service. Zalachenko subjected Lisbeth's mother to frequent, vicious beatings but, because of his SÄPO connections, this abuse was ignored by the government. Following a particularly savage beating that left her mother with permanent brain damage, 12-year-old Lisbeth retaliated against her father by setting him on fire, having thrown a gasoline-filled milk carton into his car along with a lit matchstick. Zalachenko was severely injured, but survived the attack. Zalachenko's handlers in the SÄPO, fearing this event would lead to their exposure and recriminations for harboring a violent, psychopathic Soviet spy, decided it best to silence Lisbeth by declaring her legally insane and sending her away to St. Stefan's Children's Psychiatric Hospital, a locked-down mental health facility in Uppsala. While there, she was placed under the direct surveillance of the head psychologist, Dr. Peter Teleborian, a paedophile who kept her forcibly restrained for two years as a way to vent his repressed sexual desire for her.

After spending her formative years at St. Stefan's, she was released under the condition that she is legally incompetent and therefore must have a legal guardian to supervise her affairs. By the time of her introduction in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Nils Bjurman has become her new legal guardian, after her previous one, Holger Palmgren, has been incapacitated by a stroke. Bjurman reveals himself to be a sadist who forces her to perform oral sex on him in exchange for money from her own trust fund, which he controls. He eventually rapes her, unaware that she was taping his actions with a hidden camera. She exacts her revenge on him for the rape a few days later by incapacitating and torturing him with a taser and tattooing "I am a sadistic pig, a pervert and a rapist" on his stomach; she then forces him to watch the recording of the rape and threatens to make it public unless he arranges for her to have permanent control over her money. He complies, but seeks revenge in the second novel by calling her father, Zalachenko, asking him to find her, locate the recording, and then kill her.

In adulthood, Salander becomes a covert researcher. She is a black hat or "cracker" — a computer hacker who passes computer security passwords without authorization. Under the username "Wasp", she becomes a prominent figure in the international hacker community, known as the "Hacker Republic". She also uses her computer skills as a means to earn a living, doing investigative work for a security firm. She also has an eidetic memory, yet another asset to her skill as an investigator.

In the first novel, she meets Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist, when her boss gives her the task of investigating him for Henrik Vanger, a billionaire CEO who had hired Blomkvist to solve the disappearance of his grandniece, Harriet. She is soon working with Blomkvist in investigating Harriet's disappearance, eventually discovering that the girl had been involved in a series of murders dating back decades. She saves Blomkvist from Harriet's brother Martin Vanger, revealed to be the serial killer they are pursuing, and helps him uncover damning information about his archrival, Erik Wennerstrom, from whom she steals several billion kronor. During the ordeal, she and Blomkvist become lovers.

Over the course of the three novels, she takes on corrupt policemen, sadistic lawyers, ethically-bankrupt businessmen, organized crime bosses, depraved doctors, corrupt bureaucrats, Nazi sympathizers, and her own half-brother, a murderous German with superhuman strength, born with a condition that makes him unable to feel pain.[5] Due to her past, she is particularly hostile to men who abuse women and takes special interest in exposing and punishing those men. This is both representative of Larsson's personal views and a major theme throughout the entire trilogy of novels.[6]

In the second and third novels, Salander becomes a suspect in the brutal murders of Bjurman and two journalists working with Blomkvist; the murders are eventually revealed to have been orchestrated by Zalachenko and his SÄPO handlers as a plot to silence her by having her permanently institutionalized. While she is on the run, the Swedish media publishes several lurid, sensationalistic stories about her, characterizing her as everything from a schizophrenic sociopath to a lesbian Satanist. After she is severely wounded during a confrontation with Zalachenko, she is put on trial, and is unexpectedly exonerated thanks to expert legal manuevering by Blomkvist's sister, Annika. At the end of the third novel, her tormentors are exposed and arrested after Blomkvist publishes a stinging expose on her case, and she is finally free to get on with her life.

Salander is also bisexual.[7] Her girlfriend, Miriam Wu, is a kickboxer. Salander is portrayed as extremely antisocial; she has extreme difficulty trusting anyone as a result of her traumatic childhood, and will often cut off all contact with someone should they get too close. In the first novel, she has sex with Blomkvist and they begin an affair, though she is hesitant about actually expressing love for him. She is always the one who initiates the sexual contact; she will not let him do so. He ultimately becomes her champion, fighting for her innocence when she is accused of murder in the second novel and goes to trial in the third.

In film

In the Swedish film trilogy she is played by Noomi Rapace and as a child by Tehilla Blad. She will be portrayed by Rooney Mara in David Fincher's 2011 adaptation.[8]

See also

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

- The Girl Who Played with Fire

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

References

1. ^ "The Millennium Trilogy: Understanding Lisbeth Salander". ArticlesBase. 23 September 2010. http://www.articlesbase.com/book-reviews-articles/the-millennium-trilogy-understanding-lisbeth-salander-3323523.html. Retrieved 26 September 2010.

2. ^ "Lisbeth Salander alias Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren". 20 January 2009. http://my.opera.com/dortejakobsen/blog/lisbeth-salander-alias-pippi-longstocking. Retrieved 27 September 2010.

3. ^ "Lisbeth's new apartment". http://www.stieglarsson.com/millennium-stockholm-map/lisbeths-new-apartment-1280977. Retrieved 29 October 2010.

4. ^ Larsson, Stieg (2005). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Norstedts Förlag. ISBN 978-0-307-47347-9.

5. ^ "The Girl Who Deserves To Escape Her Author". Slate.com. 24 May 2010. http://www.slate.com/id/2254638/. Retrieved 28 September 2010.

6. ^ "Lisbeth Salander, the Girl Who Rocked the Mystery-Action Genre". Politics Daily. 10 July 2010. http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/08/lisbeth-salander-the-girl-who-rocked-the-mystery-action-genre/. Retrieved 29 October 2010.

7. ^ "Stieg Larsson, Lisbeth Salander, and The Millennium Trilogy". AfterEllen.com. 22 September 2009. http://www.afterellen.com/books/2009/9/larsson/. Retrieved 25 September 2010.

8. ^ "Rooney Mara is the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'". CNN. 16 August 2010. http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/16/rooney-mara-is-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/. Retrieved 14 September 2010.

External links

- www.larssontrilogy.com from Quercus, publishers of Stieg Larsson (English)

- The official Millennium site of Nordstedt Publishing (Swedish)

- The Girl Who Played with Fire (English)

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (film)

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Played_with_Fire_(film) on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Plot

Cast

Production

Reception

Critical response

Box office

References

External links

The Girl Who Played with Fire (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Swedish film poster

Directed by

Daniel Alfredson

Produced by

Soren Staermose
Jon Mankell

Screenplay by

Ulf Ryberg

Story by

Stieg Larsson

Starring

Noomi Rapace
Michael Nyqvist

Music by

Jacob Groth

Cinematography

Peter Mokrosinski

Editing by

Mattias Morheden

Distributed by

Zodiak Entertainment (Sweden)
Music Box Films (US)
Momentum Pictures (UK)

Release date(s)

September 18, 2009 (Sweden)
July 9, 2010 (US)
August 27, 2010 (UK)

Running time

129 minutes

Country

Sweden
Denmark
Germany

Language

Swedish
Italian
French

Gross revenue

$66,840,475[1]

Preceded by

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Followed by

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish: Flickan som lekte med elden) is a 2009 Swedish drama film directed by Daniel Alfredson. It is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by the late Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson, the second in his "Millennium Trilogy".

The film follows Lisbeth Salander returning to Sweden after spending a year abroad. Having returned, she falls under suspicion for having committed the murder of a journalist and his girlfriend as well as her guardian Nils Bjurman. Mikael Blomkvist has to do what he can to find her before the authorities do.

Plot

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Lisbeth Salander is in the Caribbean meeting with her accountant to discuss her investments, and to finalize her purchase of an apartment in Stockholm. On returning to Sweden, Salander reconnects with Miriam Wu and offers her free use of her previous apartment in return for forwarding her mail. Wu gives her a cigarette case as a belated birthday gift. Salander visits Dragan Armanskij, her former employer, and is shocked to learn her former guardian Holger Palmgren survived his stroke and is in recovery. Salander visits him in the hospice and shares a tender moment. She confronts her new guardian Bjurman and, threatening him with his own gun, warns him not to attempt to remove the tattoo marking him as a rapist and a sadistic pig.

Millennium magazine welcomes Dag Svensson (Hans Christian Thulin), a new journalist who is writing an expose on prostitution and human trafficking in Sweden. Dag’s girlfriend, Mia Johansson, is writing a thesis on sex trafficking for her doctorate. Dag is nearly finished with the story and is tracking down loose ends and confronting those who will be exposed by the article. Blomkvist arrives at their apartment late at night to collect photographs for the article but finds them shot dead. The gun used is tracked to Bjurman who is also dead. Salander is the prime suspect, as her fingerprints are on the gun.

Bublanski, the police officer leading the investigation, tells Blomkvist they have no need for him to play private detective and he should stay out of it. Salander tells Blomkvist she did not kill Dag and Mia. She tells Blomkvist he needs to find the mysterious "Zala".

In an effort to find Salander, Blomkvist contacts her boxing trainer and friend, Paolo Roberto. While he does not know where Salander is, he does know Miriam, who also trained with them, and promises to pay her a visit to ask her what she knows to help Salander. That night, after not finding Miriam at her apartment, Paolo walks back to his car only to see her being taken away by strongman Niedermann. Paolo follows Niedermann's car to a deserted barn in the woods where he hears him beat Miriam and question her about Salander's whereabouts. Paolo comes in to rescue her but Niedermann incapacitates him. Paolo and Miriam barely escape as Niedermann sets the barn aflame.

News breaks of the attack and Paolo gives his account to the police. Knowing now that he is Salander's friend, Miriam calls Blomkvist to the hospital to give him keys that Salander dropped accidentally while visiting her the night before to apologize for getting her involved. Without giving anything away, Salander confirms the police sketch of Niedermann with Miriam and then disappears. After reading her mail, Blomkvist is able to find Salander's apartment but triggers the alarm when he lets himself in. Salander turns off the alarm remotely, allowing him to enter before returning to her own efforts to find Niedermann by watching his post office box. She sees someone check the post box and follows them to a small house near Gosseberga.

Researching through the material in her apartment Blomkvist finds a video of Bjurman raping Salander. Later, he receives an e-mail from her saying Thank you for being my friend. He realizes that she intends to set out alone to find the man who framed her, and that she senses that she may not survive.

In the offices of Millennium magazine, Paolo explains he tracked down Niedermann and learned that he has congenital analgesia: Niedermann is unable to feel pain. They trace Niedermann to a company owned by "Karl Axel Bodin". Blomkvist has Erika Berger make copies of the documents including the 1993 police report and forwards the originals to Bublanski, and sets out to find Salander. Salander enters the house, but Niedermann is ready and knocks her out. She awakens to see her father Zalachenko, an old man who walks with a stick and is still scarred by the burns she inflicted as a child. The house had full surveillance and they knew she was coming. He dismisses her mother as a whore and belittles her rape at the hands of Bjurman. He reveals that Niedermann is her half-brother. Niedermann killed Bjurman to prevent him from revealing any of Zalachenko's secrets. Zalachenko is confident he will not be caught, since being an invalid means the idea of his involvement in the murders lacks plausibility.

They lead Salander to a shallow grave in the woods. She tells him the police will find him soon and all that he has said has been published online. He sees through her bluff and shoots her as she attempts to escape and buries her body. Left for dead, Salander digs her way out using her cigarette case. Hidden in the woodshed, she surprises Zalachenko with an axe to the head. Salander scares Niedermann off with the help of Zalachenko's gun, just as Blomkvist finds them. Ambulances and police arrive to take away Salander and a still living Zalachenko.

Cast

- Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist

- Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander

- Tehilla Blad as young Lisbeth Salander

- Lena Endre as Erika Berger

- Peter Andersson as Nils Erik Bjurman

- Per Oscarsson as Holger Palmgren

- Sofia Ledarp as Malin Eriksson

- Yasmine Garbi as Miriam Wu

- Georgi Staykov as "Zala"

- Annika Hallin as Annika Giannini

- Tanja Lorentzon as Sonja Modig

- Paolo Roberto as Himself

- Johan Kylén as Jan Bublanski

- Magnus Krepper as Hans Faste

- Ralph Carlsson as Gunnar Björk

- Micke Spreitz as Ronald Niedermann

- Anders Ahlbom as Doctor Peter Teleborian

Production

Daniel Alfredson takes over from Niels Arden Oplev who directed the first part of the Millennium Trilogy.

Reception

Critical response

The film received positive reviews from critics, although some noted it a step down from its predecessor. According to review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "fresh" rating of 69% based on 144 reviews, with an average score of 6.2/10. The critical consensus is: "Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist remain extraordinarily well-suited to their roles, but the second installment in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy doesn't pack quite as much punch as the first."[2]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half out of four stars, describing the film as a step down from The Girl With the Dragon Tatttoo but only because the first film was so "fresh and unexpected".[3] A. O. Scott of the New York Times praised Rapace's performance, stating, "tiny and agile, her steely rage showing now and then the tiniest crack of vulnerability, belongs to another dimension altogether. She makes this movie good enough, but also makes you wish it were much better."[4] Lisa Kennedy of the Denver Post describes Lisbeth Salandar as "worth the trouble" and having a "cold stare" the like of which has not been since "Clint was roaming the Italian hillsides." She notes the film uses the linked themes of bureaucratic corruption and misogyny where the previous film uses the themes of fascism and woman-hating. The review contrasts the violence against women and heroism of "Fire" with the violence of "The Killer Inside Me," complaining that the latter gives into the worst impulses, noting that only the former story "works" as some redemption is provided through revenge.[5]

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune says the film is much the same as the first despite the new director (Daniel Alfredson) and screenwriter (Jonas Frykberg), and is likely to please those who enjoyed the first film. He notes Rapace generated considerable and well-earned attention for the first film and remains the chief asset, and works well with Michael Nyqvist who he suggests is a more sincere, Swedish version of Larry Hagman. Although he says Rapace and Nyqvist could not be better in their roles he feels that for the film to work better as cinematic pulp fiction, there needs to be acknowledgment of the middle ground between the righteous heroes and the evil villains.[6]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine gives the film 3 out 4 stars.[7]

Rick Groen of the Globe and Mail describes the film as "Tepid and downright confusing" for those who have not read the books, although he suspects there are few who have not, and describes the plot as "already thick on the page, often seems impenetrable here". Although he concedes the plot generates some suspense, he complains it more often results in confusion but hopes the next film in the trilogy will bring greater clarity.[8]

Box office

Before being released in the United States the film had already earned $51,259,526 at the international box office.[1]

During its first week of release in the United States, it grossed $904,998, being released in three times as many theaters as the first film and grossing three times as much.[1]

As of October 12, 2010 the film has grossed $7,476,301 in the US and a worldwide gross of $62,215,353.[1]

References

1. ^ [a] [b] [c] [d] "The Girl Who Played with Fire (2010)". Box Office Mojo. 2010-12-07. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=girlwhoplayedwithfire.htm. Retrieved 2010-12-07.

2. ^ "The Girl Who Played with Fire". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/girl_who_played_with_fire/. Retrieved 2010-07-09.

1. 3. ^ Roger Ebert. "The Girl Who Played with Fire". Chicago Sun Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100707/REVIEWS/100709983.

4. ^ A. O. Scott (July 9, 2010). "Even in the Rising Heat, She Stays Pretty Cool". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/movies/09girl.html. Retrieved 2010-07-21.

2. 5. ^ Lisa Kennedy (07/09/2010). "Movie reviews: "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Killer Inside Me"". Denver Post. http://www.denverpost.com/moviereviews/ci_15460786.

3. 6. ^ July 8, 2010 Michael Phillips Girl Who Played With Fire review http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sc-mov-0707-girl-who-played-with-fire20100708,0,4442582.column Chicago Tribune

4. 7. ^ July 07, 2010 5:45 PM EDT Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine The Girl Who Played With Fire http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/17388/153385 Video review: Peter Travers reviews The Girl Who Played With Fire in his weekly video series, "At the Movies With Peter Travers."

5. 8. ^ Rick Groen. "The Girl Who Played with Fire: Less poetic, more confusing". Globe and Mail (Canada). http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/the-girl-who-played-with-fire-less-poetic-more-confusing/article1633199/. "Gone is the first film’s director, replaced by the prosaic Daniel Alfredson, who starts things off by swarming us with a perplexing array of characters."

External links

- The Girl Who Played with Fire at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

v • d • e

Cinema of Sweden

Films A-Z • Films by year: Pre 1930 • 1930s • 1940s • 1950s • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Actors • Directors • Cinematographers • Composers • Editors • Producers • Screenwriters

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film)

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_the_Dragon_Tattoo_(2011_film) on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Cast

Casting

Production

Release

See also

References

External links

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Directed by

David Fincher

Produced by

David Fincher
Scott Rudin

Screenplay by

Steven Zaillian

Based on

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Starring

Daniel Craig
Rooney Mara
Robin Wright Penn
Stellan Skarsgård
Joely Richardson

Cinematography

Fredrik Bäckar

Editing by

Kirk Baxter
Angus Wall

Studio

Relativity Media
BBC Films

Distributed by

Columbia Pictures (US)
Optimum Releasing (UK)

Release date(s)

December 21, 2011 (2011-12-21)

Country

United States
Sweden
United Kingdom

Language

English

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an upcoming American film adaptation of the novel of the same name (orig. Män som hatar kvinnor) by the late Swedish author/journalist Stieg Larsson, the first book in his Millennium Trilogy, directed by David Fincher.[1][2]

Cast

- Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

- Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist

- Robin Wright as Erika Berger

- Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger

- Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger

- Steven Berkoff

- David Dencik

- Joely Richardson as Harriet Vanger

- Peter Carlberg

Casting

George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Brad Pitt were interested in playing the central role of Mikael Blomkvist, but Daniel Craig was in more serious talks for the lead in June.[3] On 26 July 2010, it was confirmed that Craig would play the lead.[4] Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, praising Zaillian's screenplay, is allegedly to be cast as Martin Vanger, head of the Vanger corporation after meeting with David Fincher in Stockholm to discuss the production of the film.[5][6] Robin Wright will play Erika Berger.[7] After much speculation surrounding the casting of Lisbeth Salander, Rooney Mara landed the role in August 2010.[8][9] On 30 September 2010, it was announced that Christopher Plummer will play Henrik Vanger.[10] On October 7, 2010 it was reported that Joely Richardson, Steven Berkoff, and David Dencik will be joining the cast.[11]

Production

Shooting began in Sweden in September 2010.[12]

Release

The film is expected to be released on December 21, 2011.[13]

See also

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - An earlier Swedish film adaptation.

References

1. ^ "Daniel Craig to star in US Dragon Tattoo remake". BBC News. 27 July 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10777494. Retrieved 21 August 2010.

2. ^ "Little-known actress Mara wins Dragon Tattoo role". BBC News. 17 August 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10996552. Retrieved 21 August 2010.

3. ^ Leins, Jeff (6 June 2010). "Daniel Craig to Lead Fincher’s ‘Dragon Tattoo?’". News in Film. http://www.newsinfilm.com/2010/06/06/daniel-craig-to-lead-finchers-dragon-tattoo/. Retrieved 6 June 2010.

4. ^ Fleming, Mike (26 July 2010). "Daniel Craig Closes Deal For 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'". Deadline.com. http://www.deadline.com/2010/07/daniel-craig-closes-deal-for-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/. Retrieved 27 July 2010.

5. ^ Borenstein, Ida (5 August 2010). "Skarsgård erbjuden roll i nya Millennium" (in Swedish). Aftonbladet. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/film/article7574948.ab. Retrieved 12 August 2010.

6. ^ "'Dragon Tattoo' Finds a Vanger in Stellan Skarsgard". Internet Movie Database. 5 August 2010. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni3649089/. Retrieved 30 September 2010.

7. ^ Hartmann, Margaret (6 August 2010). "Robin Wright Joins Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". Jezebel. http://jezebel.com/5606275/robin-wright-joins-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo. Retrieved 30 September 2010.

8. ^ Kaufman, Amy (16 August 2010). "Rooney Mara will be 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'". Los Angeles Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/08/casting-rooney-mara-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo.html. Retrieved 16 August 2010.

9. ^ Kilday, Gregg; Kit, Borys (16 August 2010). "How Rooney Mara became 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'". The Hollywood Reporter. http://heatvision.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/08/how-rooney-mara-became-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo.html. Retrieved 16 August 2010. [dead link]

10. ^ "Plummer klar för Millennium-filmen" (in Swedish). Svenska Dagbladet. 30 September 2010. http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/nyheter/plummer-klar-for-millennium-filmen_5427369.svd. Retrieved 30 September 2010.

11. ^ Joely Richardson, Steven Berkoff and David Dencik Added to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

12. ^ http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/10/08/finchers_dragon_tattoo_cast_so_far/

13. ^ "Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Coming Dec. 2011". July 21, 2010. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=68099. Retrieved October 17, 2010.

External links

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Films directed by David Fincher

1990s

Alien 3 (1992) • Seven (1995) • The Game (1997) • Fight Club (1999)

2000s

Panic Room (2002) • Zodiac (2007) • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

2010s

The Social Network (2010) • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)

This article about a thriller film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e

Mikael Blomkvist

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. It uses material retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikael_Blomkvist on 2010-12-09.

CONTENTS

Profile

In film

See also

References

Mikael Blomkvist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

Mikael Blomkvist

Millennium Trilogy character

First appearance

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Created by

Stieg Larsson

Portrayed by

Michael Nyqvist
Daniel Craig

Information

Gender

Male

Occupation

Journalist

Nationality

Swedish

Mikael Blomkvist is a fictional character created by writer Stieg Larsson who appears a main character Millennium Trilogy along with Lisbeth Salander.

Profile

Larsson stated in interviews that he based many characters, including that of Lisbeth Salander, on characters from Astrid Lindgren novels. [1] For example, Salander throughout the three books sarcastically calls Blomkvist by the diminutive nickname "Kalle Blomkvist," referencing a boy detective who appears in several of Lindgren's novels. This nickname applies because Mikael's first notable journalistic story was uncovering the hideout location of a notorious gang of bank robbers dubbed by the press as the Bear Gang.

Blomkvist is an investigative journalist and co-owner of the monthly magazine Millennium based out of Stockholm, Sweden. At the start of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he loses a libel case involving damaging allegations about billionaire Swedish industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Facing jail time and professional disgrace, Blomkvist steps down from his position on the magazine's board of directors. At the same time, he is offered a freelance assignment by Henrik Vanger, the former CEO of Vanger Enterprises and patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family, to help him solve the cold case of his great-niece, Harriet Vanger, who has been missing for over 40 years and presumed dead. Blomkvist reluctantly accepts the case in exchange for valuable information Vanger claims to have that would help him in his case against Wennerström.

During this time, Blomkvist meets and begins to work with Salander, who Vanger had hired prior to investigate Blomkvist while considering him for the job. The two would form an important relationship which each of their skill-sets proving invaluable in solving the Vanger case. At the end of the first novel, Salander saves Blomkvist's life from Vagner's great-nephew Martin, Harriet's brother and a serial killer who had been preying on women throughout Sweden for decades. When Vanger's information about Wennerström proves to be useless, Salander uses her hacking skills to get sensitive information about Wennerström that was much more incriminating than what Blomkvist had in the past. With the information uncovered by Salander, Blomkvist publishes an exposé article and book that ruins Wennerström, clears his own name, and propels him and his Millennium newspaper to one of the most respected and profitable in Sweden. Forever in gratitude to Salander, Blomkvist becomes her most loyal advocate, fighting for her innocence — mostly against her wishes — when she is later accused of murder.

Blomkvist is divorced with one daughter and throughout the trilogy has many lovers, including a brief affair with Lisbeth Salander. However, he breaks off the affair with Lisbeth after finding her too withdrawn and remains in an open relationship with the married Erika Berger, who co-owns the Millenium Magazine with him. Upon learning this, Salander abruptly cuts off all contact with him, although they ultimately reconcile after he fights for her innocence when she is accused of murder in the second and third novels.

According to the author, "Mikael Blomkvist is a graduate of the School of Journalism and had much of his professional life dedicated to revealing and report suspicious transactions, specifically in the field of banking and business," writes Larsson in the first volume of the trilogy. "It will give the typical image of guardian of the moral, incorruptible, facing the business world. And as such quite frequently invite you to comment on various issues in television."

In film

In the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels, Blomkvist is played by Michael Nyqvist.

Daniel Craig has been cast as Blomkvist in David Fincher's adaptation of the book.

See also

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

- The Girl Who Played with Fire.

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.

References

1. ^ "Lisbeth Salander alias Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren". 20 January 2009. http://my.opera.com/dortejakobsen/blog/lisbeth-salander-alias-pippi-longstocking. Retrieved 27 September 2010.

v • d • e The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Novels

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Films

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) · The Girl Who Played with Fire · The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest · The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Characters

Mikael Blomkvist · Lisbeth Salander

Other media

Millennium (2010)