The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series has had a bit of a bumpy ride over on this side of the pond. Though the trilogy was a huge hit overseas when it was adapted for the big screen, it didn’t find the same success back in 2011 when David Fincher remade it.
As you surely know by now, the movie under-performed at the box office and the follow-up (at that time thought to be The Girl Who Played with Fire) spiralled down into development hell. Further problems behind the scenes with the various filmmakers and producers complicated the process even more and all hope seemed to be lost for a sequel.
Fast-forward to 6 months ago, when we learned that Sony had scrapped Played With Fire and instead chose to reboot the property, with director Fede Alvarez in charge and the fourth installment in the book series, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, acting as the source material. Set to hit theatres in 2018, rumors have been flying around for a while now as to who may take over for Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, with actresses like Scarlett Johanasson and Natalie Portman said to be in the running. Turns out though that neither of them were able to make it work and now, Claire Foy as emerged as the frontrunner.
The star of Netflix’s The Crown, Foy has yet to make her big break as far as film goes but is definitely a talented individual who could probably manage to slip into a role like this. It’s not a done deal just yet, though, as apparently, Rogue One‘s Felicity Jones is also waiting in the wings, should Foy not be able to sign on for some reason – be it scheduling or something else. From the sounds of it though, the actress is more or less locked in and we can expect an official announcement from the studio shortly.
That’s all well and good, but it does beg the question: does anyone even care about this franchise anymore? 2011 was a long time ago and if Lisbeth Salander failed to light up the box office back then, what makes Sony think that she’ll be able to do so now? Furthermore, the original book trilogy ended in 2007, with Spider’s Web surfacing several years later in 2015 to mixed reviews. So again, we have to wonder why the studio’s even bothering pushing on with this property. If they had the original team of Fincher, Mara and Daniel Craig back in place we might be able to understand, but at this stage, a reboot just seems unnecessary.
What do you think, though? Is The Girl in the Spider’s Web a good idea? If so, do you want to see Claire Foy in the lead? Let us know in the usual place.
