Sony's been playing will they, won't they with a sequel to 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for years, but the project may finally be making some progress. Variety reports that the studio is eyeing Don't Breathe and Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez to take on the long-brewing follow-up, The Girl in the Spider's Web. The report also states that Rooney Mara is expected to return as the gifted hacker and inquiring mind, Lizbeth Salander.

Based on the new novel by David Lagercrantz, who took over the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels after series creator Stieg Larson died in 2004, The Girl in the Spider's Web comes from a script Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) penned with prolific producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men). The novel follows Salander through another investigative team-up with Mikael Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig in the first film) when they uncover a web of government spies and cyber criminals with deadly stakes.

Sony was, at one point, planning to adapt Larson's final two books in his original trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl in the Hornet's Nest, into a single second film before focusing on The Girl in the Spider's Web. The first film was directed by David Fincher, but his involvement in the sequel faded out quite a while ago.

Alvarez is coming off the breakout success of his Screen Gems horror film Don't Breathe, which grossed more than $88 million domestically over the summer, on a reported $9.9 million budget, making it an even bigger success than his feature film debut, Evil Dead (which grossed $54 million on $17 million budget and had a brand name going for it). Basically, he's made a whole bunch of money for Sony, so it makes sense that they'd want him at the helm of one of their bigger franchises. Alvarez is also currently developing an adaptation of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips‘ beloved comics series Incognito for the studio along with 10 Cloverfield Lane writer Daniel Casey.