David Fincher might still be trying to decide which young actress should nab the plum role of Lisbeth Salander opposite Daniel Craig’s Blomkvist in his Sweden-set/English-language remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it appears he’s moving a little quicker to fill the other roles, with Stellan Skarsgard in talk to play Martin Vanger.
Martin is, of course, one of the sprawling Vanger family led by patriarch Henrik, who hires Blomkvist and Salander to investigate a 40-year-old mystery about a missing girl. Deep, dark secrets are revealed and (mild spoiler alert!) Marty will play a part in revealing them.
Skarsgard, last seen in Angels & Demons, seems like the perfect choice given his acting cred and the fact that he’s actually Swedish (even if that makes us worry he’ll make Daniel Craig sound like he’s just faking the accent).
"I have met Fincher, I want to work with him, and he wants to work with me. I have had a concrete offer and now we are in negotiations," Skarsgard tells Variety. "The contract is for the period September to March, but I don't know yet when I am supposed to start my part of the film. Most of it is to be shot in Stockholm, but some studio work will be done in the U.S. I think there might be some location work there as well, when it becomes too dark to shoot here."
And according to Deadline, Skarsgard is not the only actor now meeting with Fincher about a role. Robin Wright is considering the part of Erika Berger, publisher of investigative journalism magazine Millennium and the friend/occasional lover to Blomkvist.
Steven Zaillian has written and is still polishing the script, and has also reportedly been asked by the producers to start work on adapting Stieg Larsson’s follow-up novel The Girl who Played With Fire. It's worth noting that all the actors are pondering deals that will include options to keep them on for the complete trilogy, should the other two films come to pass.