David Fincher is reportedly circling the English language adaptation of the first installment in Stieg Larsson’s best-selling “Millenium” series, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”
Already adapted into an award-winning Swedish language trilogy, the English-language version is being produced by Scott Rudin at Sony with Steve Zaillian (“Schindler’s List,” “American Gangster”) adapting. Its development seems to be making progress with the studio also reportedly having Carey Mulligan on top of its wishlist for the role of Lisbeth Salander, a socially-awkward, computer hacking genius. Though no deals have been made yet, Sony is apparently very happy with the work Fincher has done on “The Social Network,” itself an adaptation of a Ben Mezrich book.
Fincher has already ventured into crime-thrillers, of course, with “Se7en” and “Zodiac” but had previously shown an interest in returning to the genre with an adaptation of “Torso” that had Matt Damon, Casey Affleck and Rachel McAdams attached. Whether Larsson’s worldwide literary hits are the re-entry point into the genre Fincher was after remains to be seen.
The project, which is loaded with franchise potential, is predicted to spark a lot of interest. The lead male role of womanizing journalist Mikael Blomkvist has also been linked to George Clooney though that seems to be more internet-casting than anything substantial. Having said that, we’d take a Fincher-Clooney-Mulligan project any day of the week.
Niels Arden Oplev’s Swedish-language take on “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” meanwhile hits theaters March 19th.