With the paperback of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, part three of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, published today, the announcement that David Fincher has confirmed that he's directing the US version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a timely one.
He was rumoured to be "circling the project" a couple of weeks ago, but The Playlist have the scoop that the English-language Dragon Tattoo will be Fincher's next film, following his Facebook founding story The Social Network.
The news that he also had his eye on the Bobby Fischer Chess drama Pawn Sacrifice seems not to have been entirely accurate: the official line is that he "met with the producers to help them out", but never entered the running to direct. The status of Heavy Metal is unclear, but as a portmanteau with multiple directors (James Cameron, Zack Snyder and Gore Verbinski among them, according to news from last summer), Fincher's involvement or otherwise is presumably not a deal-breaker.
Dragon Tattoo US-style is being produced by Scott Rudin, with Steve Zaillian currently attacking the screenplay. So with a director locked in, the next big focus will be the casting of the series' hacker savant protagonist Lisbeth Salander (nobody's talking about Mikael Blomkvist yet). Carey Mulligan's name was bandied about recently, but Fincher is apparently keen to find an unknown. Shooting is pencilled in for September, so somebody's big break is just around the corner...