Salander’s on her way in what director David Fincher’s touting as the “feel-bad movie of Christmas” -- his adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first book in author Stieg Larsson’s best-selling book trilogy (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's title translates in Swedish to “Men Who Hate Women”). In 2009 Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev released his own acclaimed adaption, with actress Noomi Rapace doing a spot-on impression of the unforgettable “Girl,” Lisbeth Salander -- a pale, pierced, tattooed, antisocial, cigarette-smoking genius with raven hair “as short as a fuse” who teams up with disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist to sort through the skeletons in a wealthy family’s closet and solve a 40-year-old mystery.

What should we expect then from Fincher’s Hollywood makeover? In interviews he’s described his vision of Lisbeth as the “goth Pippi Longstocking.” In a recent black-and-white movie poster pairing Daniel Craig (Fincher’s Blomkvist) and Rooney Mara (his Salander, formerly Mark Zuckerberg’s girlfriend in The Social Network), Mara could easily be mistaken for Rapace’s twin (as Salander). Her much sluttier … er, sexier twin. In the shadowy frame a menacing Craig protectively wraps his arm around the bare-chested Lisbeth with her pants suggestively unbuttoned just enough and the film’s release date conveniently masking her nipples. Her gaze is typically sullen yet vulnerable, yet the pose and the nudity somehow seem to undermine her toughness. True, both the book and film have their share of sizzling scenes, but sex isn’t what Salander or Larsson have seemed to be all about. But perhaps it’s what Fincher’s film is banking on to sell tickets (or so the poster might imply).

On the other hand, Fincher’s trailer forgoes overt eroticism for a fast and furious series of clips scored by Karen O. and Trent Reznor's indie spin on Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." If you’ve seen the Swedish film and/or read the book, you might be able to identify enough scenes to assume Fincher’s version will cover all the essential plot points. If you haven’t, well, you may still be enticed by the heart-pumping pace and beat. The trailer also repeatedly returns to the same tree-lined, snow-shrouded winter road, slowly advancing each time toward an ominous white mansion, an arresting image that calls to mind the entrancingly eerie Nordic noir style that has become the calling card of many dark, snowy Swedish flicks (think the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Let the Right One In).

Hopefully that means Fincher’s version will share the Swedish adaptation’s gorgeously chilling landscape, with a few Fincheresque updates aimed to appeal to American audiences’ sensibilities (i.e., actors with better teeth and less wrinkles, a trendier soundtrack, revved-up pace, and a slicker ambiance). Sort of the club remix of the Swedish film -- which, despite its lack of Hollywood luster, is a hard act to follow. Fingers crossed Fincher pulls it off.