The Swedish versions start arriving on UK cinema screens next March, but Sony are already putting the finishing touches to a deal for an English-language trilogy based on Stieg Larsson's mega-bestselling Millennium novels.
Larsson's three books The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest were published after the author's death, to massive sales, critical acclaim, and a good deal of rights litigation within the Larsson estate. It's the latter that's made movie negotiations complicated, but Sony, along with producer Scott Rudin, do now seem to be nearing a position where the American movie versions can move forward into production.
First to the screen will obviously be** The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo** (titled Men Who Hate Women in Swedish) which sets up the odd-couple sleuthing dynamic of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and countercuture hacker Lisbeth Salander (names, we'd guess, very likely to be changed). Part missing persons investigation, part locked-room mystery, part philosophical musing on morality, it ought to make for a seriously intelligent screen thriller in the right hands. (And yes, it's already made for a seriously intelligent screen thriller, but the emphasis here is very much on new adaptations of the novels - saying "remake" is verboten).
Rudin was behind **There Will Be Blood **and Revolutionary Road, so we're calling him a safe pair of hands. Steve Zaillian (Schindler's List, Gangs of New York) is up for the screenplay.
More news as we get it. The Swedish Dragon Tattoo is out here on March 12th.