Film News: The Girl in the Spider's Web

Press release from MacLehose Press regarding a new Lisbeth Salander film with a new cast:

LISBETH SALANDER TO RETURN TO THE SCREEN

IN SONY PICTURES’ “THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB”

OCTOBER 5, 2018

FEDE ALVAREZ TO DIRECT ADAPTATION OF WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER

Production to Begin in September

Film to Feature a New Cast – Alvarez Meeting with Actresses to Play Lisbeth Salander

CULVER CITY, Calif., March 13, 2017 – Lisbeth Salander, the cult figure and title character of the acclaimed Millennium book series created by Stieg Larsson, will return to the screen in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, a first-time adaptation of the recent global bestseller written by David Lagercrantz.  Fede Alvarez, the director of 2016’s breakout thriller Don’t Breathe, will helm the project from a screenplay by Steven Knight and Fede Alvarez & Jay Basu. Scott Rudin, Søren Stærmose, Ole Søndberg, Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon, Eli Bush, and Berna Levin will produce; the executive producers are Anni Faurbye Fernandez, Line Winther Skyum Funch, Johannes Jensen, and David Fincher.

The new film will feature an entirely new cast, and the announcement marks the kickoff of a global search for an actress to portray in the iconic role of Lisbeth Salander.  The production will begin principal photography in September of this year with a release date scheduled for October 5, 2018.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web will be the first in the best-selling series to be produced into an English-language film in its initial adaptation.  The previous books in the series have been adapted into Swedish-language films, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a remake of the Swedish film.  It became a global hit for Columbia Pictures, taking in over $230 million worldwide.

The announcement was made today at the London Book Fair during a celebration for the fifth Millennium book launch, also by Lagercrantz.  Sony’s Columbia Pictures retains the rights to all future Millennium Series books.

Sanford Panitch, president of Columbia Pictures, said, “In all of contemporary literature, Lisbeth Salander is completely sui generis – probably one of the greatest female literary characters of all time in my view.  Modern punk defiance personified, she is unforgettable in every incarnation, truly one of the most compelling characters we’ve seen in recent years.  David Lagercrantz’s brilliant work in continuing this remarkable series honors Stieg Larsson’s masterpiece.   We at Sony are so honored to be part of this series with Yellowbird and why we’re so excited to be making an original film of The Girl in the Spider’s Web.  Fede Alvarez is the perfect choice to direct.  Fede is an amazing director with a unique vision of the world in particular his talent and skill in creating psychological intensity will bring Lisbeth Salander back into popular movie culture with a roar.”

Alvarez added, “I’m hugely excited and grateful for this opportunity.  Sony has become family to me and I can’t think of a more thrilling project to celebrate our relationship.  Lisbeth Salander is the kind of character any director dreams of bringing to life.  We’ve got a great script and now comes the most fun part – finding our Lisbeth.”

The Millennium Series is a worldwide bestseller, with the four books selling over 86 million copies since their debut.

MacLehose Press will publish Millennium V (title to be confirmed) on 7^th September, 2017.

Alternative Poster for TGWTDT

Today's Guardian supplement has a feature on alternative film posters, ones that tell the truth that have been created by The Shiznit, including Iron Lady, The Help and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo & Empire & Clothing

I've very recently read Mark Kermode's The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex in which he devotes a whole chapter (and there're only 6 so it's a good portion of the book) to the plight of films not in the English language and those usually dreadful, misguided English-language remakes. He also asks, when was the last time you saw a "foreign language" film gracing the front cover of a film magazine like Empire. In the book he can't think of an example however he may have discovered once since, I don't know. He also complained how his announcing the BAFTA (for Film Not In The English Language) for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was cut from the BBC's programme as though it was of little interest.

Compare these points with the current cover of Empire and its coverage of "the film event of the year".


Plus I don't know what Dr K will think of Julian Sands' involvement.

Thanks to Petrona for the Empire cover suggestion.

And...just in from the Guardian... H&M have a new clothing range inspired by Lisbeth Salander:

More Ways to Own the Millennium Trilogy

News of two new editions of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy have come my way this week. Firstly a press release from MacLehose/Quercus about this luxury edition which comes with a doodle:

MacLehose Press are delighted to announce that a special, leather and stud bound, one-off boxed set edition of the MILLENNIUM TRILOGY will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on the 15th Dec to help raise money for Stieg Larsson’s magazine, Expo.


The Boxed set includes the letter of rejection from the Joint Committee of Colleges of Journalism in Stockholm to applicant 493 [Stieg Larsson] and features a charming doodle by Stieg Larsson on the back of the letter.

Part of the letter is visible in this recent Guardian article.

You can read the whole Sotherby's press release (pdf) on the Euro Crime website.

The second bit of news comes from Publishers Weekly regarding graphic novel versions of the three books:

Working in conjunction with the estate of Stieg Larsson and the Hedlund Literary Agency, DC Entertainment and its Vertigo imprint will adapt Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy novels—the books have sold more than 60 million copies— into a series of graphic novels. Each book in the trilogy will be adapted into two graphic novel volumes available in print and digital formats. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel volumes will be released in 2012 and graphic adaptations of The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nests will be released in 2014.

Dan DiDio, copublisher of DC Entertaiment, parent company of DC Comics/Vertigo, said, “The intricate characters and stories Larsson created in the Millennium Trilogy are a perfect match for the graphic novel format, where we can bring Lisbeth Salander to life in entirely new, visually compelling ways.”

“Stieg always liked comics and it will be exciting to see the unforgettable characters he created come to life on the comics page,” said Joakim Larsson, younger brother of the journalist and novelist, who died in 2004.

And finally, here's the jacket of the US-film-tie-in edition which will be available from 27 October, the film is out 26 December:

The Girl Who Played With Fire - US opening

The UK is being pipped to the post by the US in the race to release the film of The Girl Who Played With Fire. The UK release date is set for 27th August but many places in the US will be showing it from the 9th July. You can see the locations on the official website.

Here are the respective posters, any thoughts?

US Poster

UK Poster

and here's the UK official website.

The Girl Who Played With Fire - UK Trailer

The official UK trailer for The Girl Who Played With Fire has been released. I'm so looking forward to seeing this when it's released on 27 August:

Teaser Poster for The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played With Fire film is due to be released in the UK on 27 August. A teaser poster was released recently at LoveFilm:





There are 7 more stills from TGWPWF at Blogomatic3000.

UK release dates for Millennium films

Quercus have sent out a press release today with the eagerly awaited dates for the release of the films The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest:

STIEG LARSSON’S MILLENNIUM TRILOGY RETURNS

TO IGNITE UK CINEMAS THIS AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE – In cinemas 27 August

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS’ NEST – In cinemas 26 November

Hot on the heels of the successful UK theatrical release of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in March, Lisbeth Salander will return to cinemas in THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE on 27 August.

Can't wait to see them though tackling Hornets' must have been a challenge!

DVD release date for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be released on DVD on 12 July. RRP is £19.99. Play.com is listing it at £12.99 at the moment. Will you be buying it? I think I will be unless the film is re-shown when The Girl who played with Fire is released.

Film 2010 reviews The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Jonathan Ross gives his verdict on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at 17 minutes into his programme. This link should take you straight there.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film - UK trailer

You can see the English language trailer for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film due to be released 12 March at the end of the current edition of Film 2010. It's 28 minutes in but this link should take you straight there. Or with an annoying voice-over at the beginning, it can also be found on the Yahoo! Movies site.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film - UK release

The UK release date for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is 12 March and Empire Magazine also has dates for the next two films:

The Girl Who Played With Fire on September 10 and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest on November 5.

I got a chance to see the UK premiere in August (my review is here) and I plan to see it again when it's on general release.

Premiere: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (film)

Thanks to publishers Quercus, yesterday, Maxine (Petrona) and I, with some familiar faces from crime fiction reviewing joined several hundred horror fans to watch the English-subtitled premiere of Millennium I: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Film 4 Frightfest in Leicester Square.

An excellent job has been made of getting to the heart of the book, cutting out some of the romantic subplots and making the most of its two main characters Mikael Blomkvist and Lizbeth Salander.

What's left is a taught thriller/who-dunnit with the pair working together to find out what happened to Harriet Vanger who disappeared, thought killed, over 40 years ago. Though long, the story never drags and the performances are superb.

The locations matched well with my visualisation from reading the book with one exception - the size of the bridge that isolates the island. In the film it's huge and I had imagined a little humpback bridge!

I'd be interested to hear what people who haven't read the book already thought about it. The audience seemed to enjoy the film and were rooting for Salander in a couple of the more horrific scenes where she takes her revenge.

The trailer can be found here on IMDB.

More on the series of films can be found on the production company, Yellow Bird's page.

The film will be released in the UK next Spring.

Also, read the Euro Crime review of the book, here.