It's been a few years since David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a film he and Sony had high hopes to be a massive hit worthy of the best-selling books. Things didn't exactly turn out as expected, and while the film did well it was very expensive and can hardly be deemed a success. It didn't help that Fincher fought with Sony on just about everything, including the hiring of Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. It's been obvious for some time that Fincher wouldn't return when or if there was a sequel, but now we know he won't be the only one staying away.
According to THR, Sony is officially moving forward on The Girl In the Spider's Web, which is based on the fourth book in the series, and the first not to be written by late author Stieg Larsson. They're skipping the next two stories in the vaunted Millennium series altogether, and the decision has been made to essentially pull a reboot that won't bring back Mara or co-star Daniel Craig. Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Burnt) has been hired to begin work on the screenplay. As for who could replace Mara in the role of bad ass hacker Lisbeth Salander, The Wrap has thrown Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) into the mix which would be quite the transformation for her.
So does this seem like a good idea? One of the big draws of the first film was its stars and the ultra-cool marketing campaign cooked up by Fincher. Without that Sony has an uphill climb on their hands.
