The books are still flying out of the bookstores, and the Swedish film trilogy has just begun its UK release. But lest we forget, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, has also caught Hollywood's attention.
After some difficult rights negotiations with the still-in-flux Larsson estate, Sony inked a deal for the English-language versions late last year, with Scott Rudin producing and Steve Zaillian having a crack at the first screenplay. And now, according to NY Magazine's Vulture, David Fincher is circling the project. Having delighted the Sony brass with his Facebook founders story The Social Network, it sounds as if Dragon Tattoo is his for the asking.
Also mentioned in Vulture's piece, connected to the heroine role of snarky Asperger's hacker genius Lisbeth Salander is current hot ticket Carey Mulligan, said to be top of the producers' wish list (although it's pointed out that practically every young actress in Hollywood and the UK would kill for the role).
Like Let Me In, this sounds at the moment like a bit of a redundant exercise, following so hot on the heels of a lauded and widely seen original version. But the source material is super-strong, and the involvement of Fincher, back on the crime territory he made his own with **Seven **and Zodiac, makes this something to look out for regardless.
The Swedish The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Niels Arden Oplev and starring Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace, is out now (click here for Empire's five star review). The paperback of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is published in the UK on April 1st.
But that's not the only project he's got vying for his attention. According to Variety, the busy director is also attached to Sony’s press drama Pawn Sacrifice.
Charting the life of American chess champ and cultural icon Bobby Fischer, Pawn will follow the period up to his historic world championship victory against Boris Spassky.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s also word that he’s still trying to get his new, CG-flavoured version of sexy/violent sci-fi ‘toon Heavy Metal back up and running. Kindly make up your own "chess pawn or 'toon porn?" joke here.