Speaking at Comic-Con for his producing role in the upcoming animated feature “The Goon,” David Fincher has provided a few updates on his gestating adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s uber-popular Millenium Series starting with the first installment, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”
Despite consistently being described as an “Americanization” of the tale, Fincher revealed to MTV that his Steve Zaillian-scripted adaptation will in fact remain faithful to the novel’s native setting of “Stockholm [and] Uppsala. In the north, you have to. What, are you going to put it in Seattle?” the helmer joked. “Seattle noir?”
The Daily Beast further reports that the race for the role of female lead, Lisabeth Salander, has now dwindled down to four with Emily Browning out. That would leave the quartet of his “The Social Network” star Rooney Mara, Australians Sarah Snook (Julia Leigh’s upcoming sex-drama “Sleeping Beauty” ironically starring Browning) and Sophie Lowe (“Blame”) as well as French thespian Lea Seydoux (“Robin Hood,” “Inglourious Basterds”).
Fincher looks to make a deliberate effort to avoid discussing the casting for Salander with MTV though the remaining four contenders apparently screen-tested for Fincher as recently as last Thursday after surviving a cut that saw known actresses over the age of 24 and taller than 5’5″ ruled out. Interestingly, the report also notes that one time contender Ellen Page was told to “keep working on her Swedish accent” during the casting process.
As for rumors of a back to back shoot including the Millenium series sequels, “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest”? “No, there’s no plans for [shooting back to back] right now. You’ve got to know that people want to see a sequel to before you can make a sequel.”
Whatever happens, the project should start coming together in the near future following in the shadow of Daniel Craig who was just confirmed as Fincher’s lead Mikael Blomkvist. Lensing begins this fall for a December 21st, 2011 release.
