Well, it’s official, Daniel Craig has been confirmed by Deadline‘s Mike Fleming as the male lead in David Fincher’s domestic adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The deal reportedly also includes the two potential sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest, all of which are based on the late Stieg Larsson’s Swedish novels, which have already been adapted in their native tongue by directors Niels Arden Oplev and Daniel Alfredson. Those films were originally released in Sweden in 2009 and Music Box Films started releasing them in the States earlier this year with The Girl Who Played with Fire being the most recent on July 9.
Craig will play the role of Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who works with Lisbeth Salander, the film’s title character to solve a 40-year-old missing person case. The role of Blomkvist was played by Michael Nyqvist in the Swedish adaptations and not having read the books, but having seen both movies I can see the casting of Craig working just fine. However, the big question mark is who will play the man-hating hacker Lisbeth Salander.
According to the latest reports (via IndieWire and Showbiz 411) the list of candidates for the Salander role are down to five including New York born Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt), Australian actress Emily Browning (Sucker Punch), another Aussie in Sophie Lowe, French actress Lea Seydoux and one more name from down-under, the most unknown of the bunch, Sarah Snook.
These five remain after our most recent look at the list when we asked you to vote on who you think should be cast in the role. The results showed Ellen Page as the favorite and went through Carey Mulligan, Alison Lohman and Mia Wasikowska before Browning’s name came up as the first of the five names you see above based on your votes.
As for Seydoux, her name first appeared a couple of days later.
Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is currently set for a December 21, 2011 release.
