I didn’t think that I’d be writing about Bond 23 and the Millenium trilogy at the same time but it turns out that Daniel Craig has signed on to play Mikael Blomkwist in the English remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Craig has time on his hands due to the troubles with getting the next installment in the Bond series off the ground. This casting decision has made me more optimistic toward this film. Craig has the right bearing and substance for this character. David Fincher is directing, and I’m hoping the style is more Zodiac than Fight Club. Nevertheless, the fact remains: this film doesn’t have to be remade.  For those who don’t know, despite the risk of becoming a hypocrite, I started raving about Stieg Larsson too. I say risk of hypocrisy because I know what it feels like, when you’ve been trying to get people onto something or someone for ages and they or it finally blows up, you get severely annoyed when everyone is raving about it, to you. It’s very likely I made it in before the cut, since the vast majority of people don’t read Hollywood trade papers or film blogs. Long story short, the original is fantastic, and up-to-date. It’s in no need of a redo, a reboot, or facelift. Nevertheless I understand how things work. The Norweigans get subtitles, the Germans get dubbing and the Americans get remakes. It’s not fair to single out Americans, as anglophones everywhere profit from the remake culture, but I still find it odd how a dubbed film, or most of them, doesn’t perform in the U.S. If it’s done well you hardly even notice – in Germany it’s unbelievable how well they synchronize. But given the way things are shaping up with this latest anglicization it looks to be worth the price of admission – just remember who told you about it first. But seriously if you are a fan of psychological thrillers or crime films do yourself a favour and watch the goddamn original.