David Fincher‘s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo opens with a dark and oil-splattered title sequence. According to a WIRED magazine feature, the director hired Blur Studios to create the project.

In the video embedded above, you can see how they rendered the opening visuals. The title sequence references all three books in Stieg Larsson‘s Millennium trilogy; some of the pieces used in it include a pressed flower, wasps, hacking tools, Lisbeth Salander’s father and the dragon tattoo.

Here’s more from the article: “To get what Fincher wanted, Blur worked with the director to pick out general and specific moments in the trilogy that could be demonstrated visually…Blur ended up with 26 moments approved by Fincher, then composed them into 252 shots of 24 frames or fewer. Each piece was created electronically using 3ds Max, RealFlow (for the oily goo), Softimage and other software, as well as 3-D scans of principal actors Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig (to get their likenesses right).” (via Shelf Awareness)

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Would you consider Lisbeth Salander (a.k.a. the girl with the dragon tattoo) a superhero?

At New York Comic Con this year, a panel of veteran comic book writers and editors debated this topic; the panelists included Tom DeFalco (Marvel), Danny Fingeroth (Marvel), Paul Levitz (DC) , and Denny O’Neil (DC, Marvel). Psychologist Robin Rosenberg, editor of  The Psychology of Superheroes and The Psychology of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, acted as the moderator.

The panelists all agreed that the definition of a superhero is difficult to pin down. However, they discussed two particular qualities that many superheroes possess: a heroic role heroic and abilities that go beyond what humans are realistically capable of.

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A leaked version of the trailer for David Fincher‘s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo materialized on YouTube this week.

It has since been taken down (Mike Cane analyzed it shot by shot), but we’ve embedded the official trailer above–what do you think?

Read speculation about the leaked trailer’s origins here. According to Entertainment Weekly, the leaked trailer featured Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” in the background. We also saw glimpses of Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.

Eva Gabrielsson, the life-partner of the late Stieg Larsson, has written a memoir, but she also hopes to finish an incomplete Millennium series manuscript.

While no plot details have been revealed, The New York Post reports that Gabrielsson is promising fans a Lisbeth Salander story where she “little by little frees herself from her ghosts and her enemies.”

Gabrielsson explained that she wrote together with the late novelist, but she cannot finish the book without the “undisputed rights to his [Stieg's] work.” According to Knopf publicity director Paul Bogaards, Joakim and Erland Larsson still retain those rights and they have no intention of publishing this mysterious manuscript. (Via The Guardian)

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Actress Rooney Mara, star of David Fincher‘s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, graced the cover of W magazine’s February 2011 issue wearing her Lisbeth Salander gear. The eight-page article revealed some major changes in the upcoming film.

Here’s more from the article: “The script, which captures the novel’s bleak tone (its original Swedish title was Men Who Hate Women), was written by Academy Award winner Steven Zaillian, who wrote Schindler’s List, and it departs rather dramatically from the book. Blomkvist is less promiscuous, Salander is more aggressive, and, most notably, the ending—the resolution of the drama—has been completely changed.”

The article also outlined how Mara prepared for the role, training in motorcycle riding and kickboxing. While the body piercings are real, her back tattoo is temporary and features a M.C. Escher dragon.

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Despite a New York Daily News report that Scarlett Johansson was a “shoo-in” for the U.S. version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher has picked Rooney Mara to play Lisbeth Salander in the adaptation of Stieg Larsson‘s novel.

Deadline NY has the scoop: “Her deal includes an option for two sequels that will cover The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, the second and third books in the Millennium Trilogy by the late author Stieg Larsson.”

Mara co-stars in the upcoming Fincher film, The Social Network, and starred in a recent remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. In the original Swedish film Lisbeth Salander is played by Sweded actress, Noomi Rapace. For the U.S. version, Daniel Craig is confirmed as journalist, Mikael Blomkvist.

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