Sony didn't do quite as well as they hoped on David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It still managed about $230M, although they were angling for $300M. Partially due to that rather wide gap we've seen them take a measured approach to any sequels, with the most recent update saying 2014 might be just the right time. Fincher will apparently return, and the same goes for Rooney Mara who will have even more to do as the stories shift to Lisbeth Salander's past. But what about Daniel Craig? Well, that's not quite so certain anymore.
THR says Craig is seeking a pay raise, which Sony obviously doesn't want to do since these are expensive enough and aren't all that lucrative. If push comes to shove, the possibility has been put out there of them taking the nuclear option and writing his character, Mikael Blomkvist, out of the films completely. Steve Zaillian has already written the script for The Girl Who Played with Fire, which obviously includes Blomkvist, so he'd have to be commissioned to draft another one. That would be pricey in and of itself, not to mention the damage done to the franchise without Craig's starpower. Plus, Zaillian's got enough on his plate putting together HBO's Criminal Justice with James Gandolfini. It just doesn't seem like a viable option.
This is all probably just some negotiating tactic, anyway, and nothing will come of it. At this point I'm not completely convinced we'll see a 'Dragon Tattoo' sequel. Fincher will be busy for awhile developing House of Cards' second season, while he's also got the recently announced Gone Girl and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea percolating. Craig has that whole James Bond thing to fall back on, too, with the next one likely to begin production later this year.
