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The Girl in the Spider's Web (film)

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The Girl in the Spider's Web
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFede Álvarez
Screenplay by
Based onThe Girl in the Spider's Web
by David Lagercrantz[a]
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyPedro Luque Briozzo
Edited byTatiana S. Riegel
Music byRoque Baños
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing[1]
Release dates
  • October 24, 2018 (2018-10-24) (Rome Film Festival)
  • October 26, 2018 (2018-10-26) (Sweden)
  • November 9, 2018 (2018-11-09) (United States and Canada)
  • November 21, 2018 (2018-11-21) (United Kingdom)
  • November 22, 2018 (2018-11-22) (Germany)
Running time
117 minutes[4]
Countries
  • Germany
  • Sweden
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$43 million[5]
Box office$35.2 million[6]

The Girl in the Spider's Web is a 2018 action thriller film[7][8] directed by Fede Álvarez, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jay Basu and Steven Knight, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by David Lagercrantz, which in turn was based on characters introduced in the Millennium book series by Stieg Larsson. The film acts as a soft reboot and sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). It stars Claire Foy in the role of Lisbeth Salander, and follows Salander as she battles against a mysterious notorious organization, the Spiders, who seek world dominance. Sverrir Gudnason, Lakeith Stanfield, Sylvia Hoeks, and Stephen Merchant appear in supporting roles.

The Girl in the Spider's Web had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival on October 24, 2018, and was released in Sweden on October 26, and in the United States on November 9, by Sony Pictures Releasing. A box-office disappointment, the film grossed only $35.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $43 million and received generally negative reviews from critics, although Foy's performance was praised.

Plot

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Two young sisters, Camilla and Lisbeth Salander, play chess at the home of their abusive father, crime lord Alexander Zalachenko. One day, when Zalachenko attempts to molest Camilla, Lisbeth tries to drag her away, to no avail. She eventually leaps from a balcony into a snowdrift and escapes, leaving Camilla behind.

Years later, in Stockholm, Sweden, computer programmer Frans Balder hires Lisbeth, now a vigilante hacker, to retrieve Firefall, a program he developed for the National Security Agency (NSA) that can access the world's nuclear codes. Balder believes it too dangerous to exist. Lisbeth retrieves Firefall from the NSA's servers, but cannot unlock it. NSA agent Edwin Needham tracks the unauthorized login to Stockholm and arrives there seeking Lisbeth and Firefall.

Mercenaries led by Jan Holtser steal the program from Lisbeth and attempt to kill her, though she survives. When she misses a scheduled rendezvous with Balder, he mistakenly believes Lisbeth kept Firefall for herself and contacts Gabrielle Grane, the deputy director of the Swedish Security Service (SÄPO). Grane moves Balder and his young son, August, to a safe house.

Lisbeth and her hacker friend, Plague, contact Lisbeth's former lover, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, for help identifying her assailants. Blomkvist learns that Holtser previously worked for Lisbeth's late father, Zalachenko, and is now affiliated with the "Spiders", an international crime syndicate. Lisbeth puts surveillance on Balder's safe house, and when it is attacked, she intervenes, attempting to protect Balder and August. She is intercepted by Holtser, who kills Balder, frames Lisbeth, and kidnaps August. Lisbeth pursues them and rescues August. She also learns that the Spiders' leader is Camilla, whom Lisbeth believed was dead. After years of physical and sexual abuse by Zalachenko, Camilla faked her suicide and went underground to form the Spiders.

Lisbeth takes August to another safe house, and confirms only he can unlock Firefall. Elsewhere, Needham locates Lisbeth's girlfriend, Sofia, and persuades her to arrange a meeting between them, intending to lure Lisbeth into a trap. Lisbeth evades Needham, who is later arrested by SÄPO. Lisbeth helps Needham escape in exchange for him escorting August to San Francisco to reunite him with his mother; she agrees to later give him Firefall.

The Spiders trick August by calling him from his father's cellphone, then track him to Lisbeth's safe house. Camilla and the Spiders take August to her base of operations, the sisters' childhood home. Grane hired the Spiders to retrieve Firefall for her and informed them of Balder's location. However, Camilla, having other plans, kills her.

Using a tracker hidden on August, Lisbeth, Blomkvist, Plague, and Needham locate him. Lisbeth breaks in to give Plague remote computer access to the building's surveillance system. She is caught and taken to where August is being held. Blomkvist is also captured. When Camilla threatens to torture him, Lisbeth tells August to trust her and to reveal the Firefall password. Camilla tries suffocating Lisbeth while describing Zalachenko's abuse.

Armed with a sniper rifle and remotely guided by Plague via computer, Needham fires through walls, eliminating Camilla's henchmen and saving August and Blomkvist. Camilla escapes with the laptop containing Firefall, and Lisbeth pursues her. Holtser, injected with a poison that induces blindness, stumbles onto a road and is fatally hit by Camilla's fleeing car. The vehicle crashes into trees. Camilla, injured, escapes into the nearby woods. Lisbeth pursues her to a clifftop, where Camilla asks why she never returned to rescue her; Lisbeth says that Camilla chose to remain with their father rather than escape with her. Camilla, heavily bleeding, drops the laptop and steps off the cliff before Lisbeth can stop her, apparently falling to her death.

Needham later attempts to access Firefall, only to discover that Lisbeth destroyed it. August is reunited with his mother in the United States. Blomkvist writes an investigative article about the Spider's Web to be published in Millennium, but then deletes it. Lisbeth destroys her childhood home and rides away on her motorcycle.

Cast

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Production

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See also: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011 film) and Dragon Tattoo (film series)

Development

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In November 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Sony Pictures Entertainment was planning to develop a new film series based on the Millennium novels, starting from the book The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz.[9] Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, who portrayed Salander and Blomkvist, respectively, in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, would not be back for the film. New actors would be cast, and David Fincher would also not return as director, though he later received an executive producer credit.[9] Steven Knight was announced to be in talks to adapt the novel, while the producers would be Scott Rudin, Amy Pascal, and Elizabeth Cantillon, along with Yellow Bird's Berna Levin, Søren Stærmose, and Ole Sondberg.[9] TheWrap reported that Alicia Vikander was being considered for the role of Salander.[10] However, while promoting Carol, Mara stated that she was still signed for the sequel: "As far as I know I'm doing it until someone tells me otherwise".[11] Tatiana Maslany, Jane Levy and Troian Bellisario were also linked to the project.

Casting

[edit]

In November 2016, Variety reported that Sony was in negotiations with Fede Álvarez to direct the film, with Eli Bush as an additional producer.[12] In March 2017, it was announced that the film would feature an entirely new cast, with production set to begin in September 2017.[13] In May 2017, it was reported that Claire Foy was the frontrunner to play Salander, and, in September 2017, Foy was officially cast in the film.[14][15] Sylvia Hoeks joined the cast in October 2017.[16] The rest of the cast was announced over the next five months.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

Filming

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Principal photography began in January 2018 in Berlin,[17][24] Leipzig Airport then moved to Hamburg February 2–4, for filming at the Kattwyk Bridge;[25] and ended in April 2018, in Stockholm.[26][27]

Music

[edit]

Composer Roque Baños was chosen to provide the score. The recording took place at the newly opened Synchron Stage Vienna in Austria.[28]

Release

[edit]

The Girl in the Spider's Web was released in the United States on November 9, 2018 by Sony.[22] It was originally scheduled for October 5, 2018, but was moved in March 2017.[13] The first trailer was released on June 7, 2018.[29] The film premiered at the Rome Film Festival on October 24, 2018.[30]

Reception

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Box office

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The Girl in the Spider's Web worldwide gross was $35 million, against a production budget of $43 million.[6] Having failed to recover its production budget, it emerged a box-office bomb.[31]

In the United States and Canada, The Girl in the Spider's Web was released alongside The Grinch and Overlord, and was projected to gross $10–15 million from 2,929 theaters in its opening weekend.[32] It made $3 million on its first day, including $635,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $8 million, down from the $12.8 million opening of the first film and finishing fifth at the box office.[33] The film fell 68% in its second weekend to $2.8 million, finishing ninth.[34]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of 239 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Girl in the Spider's Web focuses on the action elements of its source material for a less complex – and only sporadically effective – franchise reboot."[35] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[36] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 75% positive score.[33]

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times was critical of Alvarez's action filmmaking touch-ups being "a bummer, at times risible" and giving the story "a wash of murky hues and murkier narrative developments".[37] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an overall C grade, calling it "a disappointingly safe, by-the-numbers action-thriller" that will be "a letdown for fans who once embraced Salander's bold queerness and bleak nihilism."[38] Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com commended Alvarez for staging the action scenes in a "slick and efficient manner," but criticized the overall film for having a "genuinely terrible story" with "ham-handed storytelling" and reducing Lisbeth Salander to a "nondescript female action hero" with dialed down characteristics.[39] Greg Cwik of Slant Magazine heavily panned Alvarez's film for using a "slick but lifeless aesthetic" that rips off David Fincher's Seven and "suffers from a compulsion to be capital-C cool" with its overly stylistic touches, concluding with: "From its aping of Fincher's style to its purloining of clichés from so many James Bond films and action thrillers before it, The Girl in the Spider's Web is simply chasing the ghosts of other films."[40]

Many critics praised Foy for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander.[41] Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Foy did a "respectable job" as the character,[42] while Will Gompertz of BBC.com said she did a "reasonable job in a limited role" that does not go beyond "being a cartoonishly two-dimensional action hero".[43] Brian Truitt of USA Today said, "To her credit, Foy gives her a default cold demeanor and businesslike drive that is nicely upended later on when things do get personal."[44] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers called her "killer good" in the role for "supplying the nuance and grace notes that the too-busy script leaves out."[45] Katie Rife of The A.V. Club wrote that Foy gave an "interesting performance" that "splits the difference between [Rooney] Mara's mannered interpretation of the character and [Noomi] Rapace's more vulnerable work in the role".[46] Kate Erbland of IndieWire felt that Foy gave "the best on-screen depiction of Lisbeth yet," saying she makes her "more human" than the previous incarnations and delivers "a heroine not only worth cheering for, but one worth loving and even understanding."[47]

Notes

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  1. ^ Characters introduced in Millennium series by Stieg Larsson

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Film releases". Variety Insight. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
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  3. ^ a b https://onesearch.library.wwu.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=01ALLIANCE_WWU:WWU_NOPAC&search_scope=DN_and_CI&tab=Summit_Plus_Articles&docid=alma9992713407101453&lang=en&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&isFrbr=true&query=creator,exact,Summit%20Entertainment,AND&mode=advanced&facet=creator,exact,Summit%20Entertainment&offset=0 [bare URL]
  4. ^ "The Girl in the Spider's Web". Regal Entertainment Group. Archived from the original on October 7, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018.
  5. ^ Peele, Anna (October 17, 2018). "New 'Girl': Claire Foy Opens Up on Politics, Fears and Her Dark Journey From The Queen to Lisbeth Salander". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 26, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2018.
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  17. ^ a b Kroll, Justin (November 17, 2017). "Dragon Tattoo Sequel Taps The Square Star Claes Bang as Villain". Variety. Archived from the original on June 15, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  18. ^ Kroll, Justin (November 29, 2017). "Mindhunter's Cameron Britton Joins Dragon Tattoo Sequel". Variety. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
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  20. ^ "'Get Out' Actor Lakeith Stanfield Joins 'Girl in the Spider's Web'". The Hollywood Reporter. January 4, 2018. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  21. ^ Vlessing, Etan (February 6, 2018). "Stephen Merchant Joins 'Dragon Tattoo' Sequel 'Girl in the Spider's Web'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  22. ^ a b Kroll, Justin (February 8, 2018). "'Phantom Thread' Star Vicky Krieps Joins 'Dragon Tattoo' Sequel (Exclusive)". Variety. Archived from the original on February 11, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
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  25. ^ "Lisbeth Salander – Dreh im Hamburger Hafen". Archived from the original on January 14, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
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  27. ^ Flint, Hanna (April 16, 2018). "Claire Foy reveals Lisbeth Salander hair transformation as 'The Girl in the Spider's Web' wraps". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on May 1, 2018. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
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  29. ^ Evans, Greg (June 7, 2018). "'The Girl In The Spider's Web' Trailer: First Look At Claire Foy's Lisbeth Salander Of The Stieg Larsson Series". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 7, 2018.
  30. ^ "Rome Film Festival: 'Girl in the Spider's Web' World Premiere Among Full Lineup Highlights". The Hollywood Reporter. October 5, 2018. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
  31. ^ Clark, Travis (December 29, 2018). "13 of the biggest movie flops of 2018 that failed dramatically at the box office". Business Insider. Archived from the original on February 10, 2019. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  32. ^ Rubin, Rebecca (November 6, 2018). "'The Grinch' to Steal Box Office Crown With $55 Million-Plus Debut". Variety. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  33. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 11, 2018). "'The Grinch' Who Stole Business: Dr. Seuss Pic Opening To $66M As 'Overlord' & 'Spider's Web' Wither – Sunday Update". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  34. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (November 18, 2018). "'Crimes Of Grindelwald' Falls Short Stateside With $62M+ Debut, WB Celebrates Global Win As 'Fantastic Beasts' Series Hits $1B-Plus". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  35. ^ "The Girl in the Spider's Web". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 14, 2024. Edit this at Wikidata
  36. ^ "The Girl in the Spider's Web". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  37. ^ Dargis, Manohla (November 7, 2018). "'The Girl in the Spider's Web' Review: Lisbeth Salander, Blunted in Tooth and Claw". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  38. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (November 7, 2018). "In The Girl in the Spider's Web, Claire Foy's Lisbeth Salander is just another ho-hum heroine". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  39. ^ Sobczynski, Peter (November 9, 2018). "The Girl in the Spider's Web". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on July 19, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  40. ^ Cwik, Greg (November 6, 2018). "Review: The Girl in the Spider's Web". Slant Magazine. Archived from the original on November 20, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  41. ^ Geisinger, Gabriella (November 5, 2018). "The Girl in the Spider's Web reviews: What do critics say about new Dragon Tattoo film?". Daily Express. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  42. ^ Young, Deborah (October 24, 2018). "'The Girl in the Spider's Web' Review | Rome 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  43. ^ Gompertz, Will (November 24, 2018). "Will Gompertz reviews The Girl in the Spider's Web starring Claire Foy". BBC.com. Archived from the original on February 7, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  44. ^ Truitt, Brian (November 6, 2018). "'Girl in the Spider's Web' mires Claire Foy in familiarity (review)". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  45. ^ Travers, Peter (November 7, 2018). "'The Girl in the Spider's Web' Review: Claire Foy Is Ready to Kick Your Ass". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  46. ^ Rife, Katie (November 6, 2018). "The Girl In The Spider's Web pits Lisbeth Salander against multiple foes—and the franchise machine". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on March 10, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  47. ^ Erbland, Kate (October 24, 2018). "'The Girl in the Spider's Web' Review: Claire Foy Is the Best Lisbeth Salander Yet in a Sequel Too Muddled to Leave Its Own Mark". IndieWire. Archived from the original on July 31, 2021. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
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