First Look At Rooney Mara In Fincher's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Mara vs Rapace. Let the debate begin now.

With David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo now well under way - and be clear that this is a fresh adaptation of the novel rather than a straight remake of the Swedish film version, with apparently significant alterations made along the way - the director has overseen a photo shoot of star Rooney Mara in character as Lisbeth Salander for a lengthy profile piece in the current issue of W magazine. And, yeah, she seems to have the look and the attitude.

Though W is not what I'd call a regular read this piece on Fincher is interesting stuff, the range of questions going far wider than just Dragon Tattoo. The piece confirms that Die Antwoord's Yo-Landi Visser was, indeed, in active consideration for the part and that Fincher made his final decision after putting the short list of actresses through the most difficult test possible. With minimal lead time he made them use the infamous rape scene as their audition. Says Fincher about the audition, "We had five or six girls audition with the rape scene. The girls had to kick a dildo up his ass. That's Salander's big scene, and we had to see if they could do it."

Apparently fans worried about a sanitized version of the story need not worry.