Sony Moving Forward with Two Sequels to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Posted 01.09.12 by BrentJS
Director David Fincher recently said that he feels no "need" to make sequels to his new movie in theaters, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and in the wake of the movie's soft opening there has been much speculation about whether Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures would even move forward with their plans for a sequel. Now, Deadline has learned from anonymous Sony execs that the studios are not only moving forward with The Girl Who Played with Fire, but also with the second sequel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, both of which will be written by Dragon Tattoo scribe Steven Zaillian (American Gangster).
Apparently, the Sony execs who spoke with Deadline are blaming the Christmas release of Dragon Tattoo for its lackluster box office performance, rather than the quality of the movie itself, with one studio head saying that it was "a notch too dark for that window," and another saying that it was "cocky" of Sony to release the movie at Christmas given its dark subject matter and that the studio "might think about that next time." Sony is also hoping that international sales will help boost the domestic gross, with the stuido predicting Dragon Tattoo will haul in $200 million to $300 million globally.
Fincher is not yet locked in to direct the first sequel, which could go into production by the end of this year or the beginning of next year. However, he said last month that he "would be happy for everyone involved" if there was a sequel and, if he is hired back, he would like to shoot both sequels concurrently because the second and third books in the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson "Millenium" trilogy "are very much one story" and it would be "crazy" from a logistical standpoint to shoot them separately. Fincher also said that, even though actress Rooney Mara's time spent making Dragon Tattoo was "incredibly draining, unproductive, and [a] bad experience" for the neophyte actress, he feels confident that she would be "good to go" without him, should he not return.
The cast of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo includes Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger, Robin Wright as Erika Berger, Embeth Davidtz as Annika Blomkvist, and Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger. It is currently in theaters nationwide.