Rooney Mara Says Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Sequel is Dead

Many insiders were wondering how the recent departure of Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal would affect the long in-development sequel to David Fincher’s 2011 remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Now E! has scored an interview with Lisbeth Salander herself, Rooney Mara, who essentially says The Girl Who Played With Fire is dead as a doornail.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Mara said during an Oxfam benefit in New York. “I’m sad never to do it again, but it just doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards.”

David Fincher stated back in September, “I think because [Sony] already has spent millions of dollars on the rights and the script so it will result in something. The script that we now have [has] a huge potential, I can reveal as much as it is extremely different from the book.”

One aspect of his comments, which should not be brushed off lightly, is how much Sony already has invested in the property after having A-list scribes Steve Zaillian and Andrew Kevin Walker both take stabs at a follow-up. Fincher’s first film, which co-starred Daniel Craig as journalist Mikael Blomkvist, grossed a disappointing $233 million worldwide on a $90 million budget, despite the director’s intention to create a franchise for adults.

All three principals (Mara, Craig, Fincher) have publicly expressed their eagerness to come back, but behind-the-scenes Fincher seemed to be struggling to find focus, considering everything from shooting the second and third films back-to-back to eliminating the Blomkvist character entirely to avoid Craig’s budget-chewing salary.

It would not be hard to imagine Sony radically rebooting the series, possibly going the Bourne route and eschewing Stieg Larsson’s source material by creating original stories, or possibly building a TV series around bisexual hacker Salander.