Is it an unauthorized leak, or is it a publicity-seeking plant?
The studio behind David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo isn't talking about the recently posted, pirated-looking, red-band trailer on YouTube.
But others are--and they're voicing their suspicions.
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"The only logical explanation is that it's intentional," Movie City News ' David Poland told us.
The likes of Salon concur, with the site's Drew Grant noting, "Sony has not taken down the ostensibly illegal video."
And, in a tweet, Movieline was even more blunt: "How do you know the 'Dragon Tattoo' trailer 'leak' is probably from Sony? Hint: It's in stereo."
The studio did not respond today to a request for comment. (And, for what it's worth, it doesn't appear to have objected to Deadline.com saying it "produced" the trailer.)
As Poland explained it, the intrigue dates back to last week when a rumor went around that a Dragon Tattoo teaser had debuted in Europe. The curious, if not impossible, thing was that the clip didn't show up here.
Then, on Saturday, it did.
The teaser, with all the pulsing music, motorcycles and in-your-face graphics you'd expect from Fincher, if not the freaky, international best-selling thriller novel upon which it's based, popped up courtesy a newly created YouTube account from a 36-year-old in the Netherlands who goes by the user name dobvlvstiuwir.
In the hacker spirit of Lisbeth Salander, the YouTube clip looks as if the trailer was hacked--videotaped on the sly off a screen. But from where?
Where, oh where, on Earth did the trailer screen?
"My guess is it's showing in the Cary Grant Theatre on the Sony lot," Poland says.
Then again, the trailer was attached to some prints of The Hangover Part II, and per the Hollywood Reporter, that's where Sony thinks the trailer got captured by a camcorder-carrying pirate.
Adding mystery to mystery, why is the trailer considered red-band worthy? What's so R-rated about it?
Well, if you look real close, around the 35-second mark, as Poland clued us in, Mara Rooney's right nipple makes a very brief cameo. ( Here's a direct link to the trailer --and remember, your sensitive eyes have been warned.)
If you're looking for a presumably nipple-free Dragon Tattoo preview, then you're in luck.
Sony's set to release the film's first official teaser trailer on Thursday.
Or should that be the film's second official teaser trailer?
WATCH: So, this would pretty much be the opposite of a red-band trailer