'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Standalone Series In The Works At Amazon
We haven't seen the last of Lisbeth Salander.
The skilled computer hacker, best known as the title character in Steig Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo novels and the subsequent movie adaptations, is going to be the subject of a standalone TV series at Amazon.
Variety reports that Amazon is developing a series centering on Lisbeth Salander, the hacker protagonist of the Millennium books. The outlet says that this show "will not be a sequel or continuation of the story from the books or the films into which they were adapted," but will instead put Salander "in today's world with a wholly new setting, new characters, and a new story." (The original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo novel took place in the early 2000s.)Andy Harries (The Queen, The Crown, Strike Back, Outlander) and Rob Bullock (The Night Manager, Origin) will executive produce the series, and Amazon Studios will produce with Sony Pictures Television. No writer is attached yet, so it's tough to judge how this standalone series could shake out. But for me, it's a promising sign that the decision has been made to center the show on Lisbeth herself and not try to adapt another of the novels, several of which were written by another writer after Larsson's death in 2004. Lisbeth, the world-class hacker with an avenging angel streak in her, is the big draw here, and it'll be interesting to see if Harries, Bullock, and this show's eventual writer can rejuvenate the public's interest in this character after the last movie flopped hard at the box office. (Just spitballing here, but maybe try to hire a female writer? This character has a traumatic backstory that could easily be fumbled in the wrong hands, and while it would be idiotic to suggest that it's impossible for men to write about a woman's experience, I'm just saying it probably wouldn't hurt to have a female perspective behind the scenes.)
The character was last played on the big screen by Claire Foy in Fede Álvarez's 2018 adaptation of The Girl in the Spider's Web, which cost $43 million to make but earned only $35 million worldwide. (Not great, Bob.) Previously, Lisbeth Salander had been played by Rooney Mara in David Fincher's 2011 adaptation of the first book, and, before that, by Noomi Rapace in her star-making role in the 2009 Swedish-language film trilogy. No actress has been specified for this iteration, although big name actresses like Natalie Portman and Alicia Vikander previously auditioned for the part in earlier movies, so it seems likely the role will attract lots of A-list attention this go-around, too.