Sony has sunk a lot of money into the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" franchise: the studio must pull the trigger on a potential sequel or just let it die. To recap: David Fincher‘s R-rated thriller did decent but not spectacular box office, making it harder for Sony to just greenlight a sequel. Fincher and producer Scott Rudin commanded big upfront fees and A-list screenwriter Steven Zaillian was also paid quite well for several drafts of ‘Dragon Tatoo’ and “The Girl Who Played With Fire.” Toss in executive arguments and a high price tag before anyone even arrived on set, and you have a sequel that went nowhere as well as a money pit. And far as Rooney Mara, i.e. Lisbeth Salander, is concerned, she doesn’t hold out hope for reprising the character. But hey, if "Need For Speed" can get a sequel, anything can happen.
THR reports that Sony is considering combining "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest" into one movie, and may film the recently announced non-Stieg Larsson penned, but officially sanctioned fourth novel in the series "The Girl In The Spider’s Web." The catch? No Fincher. Given the studio and the director haven’t exactly seen eye-to-eye on the series throughout, that’s hardly a surprise.
But why does Sony want to go through all this hassle? For one thing, ‘Spider’s Web,’ due on bookshelves on September 1st, will put the series back in the cultural conversation. Secondly, Sony has the rights, and the studio is probably thinking it would be a missed opportunity to not strike while the opportunity presents itself again, and it will have a nice little ‘Dragon Tattoo’ trilogy. But producer Amy Pascal isn’t keen on the idea, and it’s not clear if Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara would be involved, which would be a bit odd.
But clearly, Sony is trying to figure out a way to continue the series, which has a legion of fans and at least one book and probably more coming. Thoughts? Let us know below.
Denise Mina graphic novel adaptation of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet Nest is available to buy July 28, 2015
Tomas Alfredson might work.
The only reason Sony\’s pursuing this right now is because people are very excited for the 4th book. The biggest problem with Sony and other studios is that, they think that they really know what people want to see. They seem super sure about it lol. That\’s their biggest misconception. They were just proven wrong when fans reactions to the 4th book was great, showing that the love for Lisbeth never went down. And if Fincher is brought back (Which he should), he would do a way better job than he did with the first one. The script I hear is very solid (the one problem I had with the DT, and Andrew Kevin Walker wrote it I hear), and I know he won\’t make the same mistake of releasing it in the winter, which to me is the real reason why DT didn\’t make the amount of money everyone expected it to make. If these loophole are covered the second one will be solid. But now that they want to ditch the one solid script, and club the 2nd and 3rd book, I don’t really feel optimistic about this one. What they should do is, bring in Fincher to at least oversee it, and have Rooney and Daniel back. Then that would be the second best thing to do.
i really don\’t think the material is worthy of an A-list director – which Fincher is and Fukunaga will soon be. i also don\’t see why this story was so expensive to tell. talk about bloated hollywood budgeting. make the sequel(s) for a modest budget with mara and craig, and watch it return a healthy profit.
the only other director i could see doing this is cary fukunaga. but honestly, the idea of making the sequels without fincher sounds awful
@brent – totally agree.
This might sound like I\’m crazy, but David Fincher has become a lot more popular over time. Gone Girl grossed over $160 million domestic and I think $300 million plus worldwide. People like the guy more and more as time goes by. Maybe if Sony keeps him as director, sure the movie will be expensive, but I think people will go see it because of his name more so now than ever.
plenty of gifted filmmakers out there who can make something worthwhile from the two books. then again, i thought Fincher\’s adaptation was the weakest of his films to date besides strong performances from Mara and Skarsgard.
To me this is sad news, considering that I can\’t really see how the films would work without Fincher at the helm. Having loved his "Dragon Tattoo" and read the rest of the series, I can say it was almost tailor made for a filmmaker like him, and I know many feel the same. Still, Sony will do what they need to and I can\’t imagine they\’d let their money just go to waste. It will simply be sad to see the series continue without David Fincher.