While director David Fincherâs The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is far from a box office bomb, the feature film adaptation of Stieg Larssonâs bestselling crime novel hasnât exactly broken records. The $90 million pic has grossed a little over $60 million domestically since its release on December 20th, but given the widespread popularity of Larssonâs book series many believed the film would be performing better. While Sony has been planning on adapting all three books in Larssonâs Millennium series from the start, Dragon Tattooâs box office performance had me wondering if their plan would be altered. My question was given an answer today, with the news that Sony is still moving forward with an adaptation of The Girl Who Played with Fire. Hit the jump for more.Speaking with EW, a Sony rep had this to say regarding the sequel:
â[Dragon Tattoo] continues to do strong business and nothing has changed with respect to development of the next book.â
The rep went on to say that âdevelopment continuesâ with screenwriter Steven Zaillianâs adaptation of The Girl Who Played with Fire. Zaillian, who wrote Dragon Tattoo, was tapped to start working on the sequel well before Fincherâs film hit theaters. Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig are already locked to return for both sequels, but Fincher has yet to decide whether heâll be back. The director recently opined that, if he were to return, it would be prudent to film both The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornetâs Nest back-to-back. Given that Dragon Tattoo isnât necessarily a box office smash, itâll be interesting to see if Sony gives the go-ahead for both sequels or if they simply greenlight Fire for the time-being. Whatever the case, I wouldnât be surprised if the budget for the follow-up is reigned in a bit.
Reviews for Dragon Tattoo werenât terrible, but the general consensus for Fincherâs take was more lukewarm than rapturous. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and still donât really understand some of the vitriol spewed its way; I found the story lacking (as did most), but really liked the character work with Mara and Craig. Regardless, the box office run of Dragon Tattoo is far from over and international grosses are sure to play a factor in the handling of the sequels. Hopefully weâll hear more soon, especially regarding Fincherâs involvement.