Daniel Craig to star in the remake of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'?

The Wrap sure seems to think so:

One of the biggest roles in Hollywood is about to be taken off the table.

Daniel Craig is nearing a deal to take the lead role in a U.S. adaptation of the Swedish blockbuster trilogy, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," TheWrap has learned.

David Fincher will direct the crime thriller, based on a trilogy by the late Swedish novelist and journalist Stieg Larsson.

Actresses including Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan have expressed interest in playing Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker recruited by a journalist to find a woman who has been missing for 40 years. That part has not yet been cast, and other actresses including Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman have also expressed interest.

Craig would play journalist Mikael Blomkvist who is looking for the missing woman, Harriet Banger.

A Sony spokesman said, "We have not offered any roles to anyone nor are we negotiating with anyone."

While Brad Pitt has been reportedly considering the lead role, an individual close to the negotiations said that Craig was close to a deal. The James Bond star will fly out to Los Angeles on Friday to have dinner with Fincher, who's slated to direct the three-picture franchise for Sony.

The movie will shoot in October, and is slated for release in December 2011.

Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy," which includes "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played With Fire," and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest," has sold over 25 million copies around the world.

A Danish film adaptation of "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" was released last year and has been playing internationally.

Negotiations between Craig and Sony aren't entirely finished, but TheWrap was told he's extremely close to signing. Brad Pitt was also reportedly considering the role.

Craig begins shooting on Jon Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens" next week. "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" would be his next movie.

-He certainly works for me...thoughts?

Is David Fincher going to be helming the remake of '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'?

Well, The Hollywood Reporter seems to think so:

Captain Nemo and his Nautilus are surfacing again.

Months after deep-sixing a McG-helmed version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Disney is in negotiations with David Fincher to direct, and hot "Bourne Ultimatum" scribe Scott Z. Burns to write, a new take on the classic Jules Verne story.

The project came together after Fincher approached Disney's new production head Sean Bailey a few weeks into his job this winter. The Oscar-nominated helmer wanted to tackle a four-quadrant tentpole movie, somewhat of a departure from the dark, R-rated dramas such as "Fight Club" and "Zodiac" (or even "Curious Case of Benjamin Button") that he's done in the past.

The project was being developed under the radar as Bailey settled into his position under new studio topper Rich Ross, then gained steam in the past few days with Fincher and Burns entering talks for deals.

First published in 1869, the classic science fiction novel is in the public domain. But ever since Disney's Kirk Douglas-starring version was released in 1954, the studio and the Verne story -- about a group of men who encounter a vengeful scientific genius and his warlike submarine -- have been linked in the public's mind. Last year, Disney was fast-tracking a $150 million "Leagues" that would have served as an origin story for Nemo. But the project was the first of several to be sunk by Ross when he took over the studio from Dick Cook in the fall (ironically, given Fincher's involvement, the dark tone of the McG version was a concern for the new regime).

It's not surprising that Disney would revisit "Leagues." Ross has said his mandate is to make wide-appeal, pre-branded entertainment. And while plotlines are being kept submerged, the Fincher/Burns take on the material is described as being in the vein of "Star Wars" or "The Empire Strikes Back." It will aim to be visually dazzling.

Burns, who penned Steven Soderbergh's latest "Contagion" as well as "The Informant!," will begin writing immediately. That should give Fincher, who is in post on "The Social Network" for Sony, time to direct another movie (possibly "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," also for Sony, but his name has surfaced in connection with a host of projects) before jumping into "Leagues."

-Not the first project I'd associate Fincher with, but I think he could make it very interesting...thoughts?

David Fincher's remake of 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' still has no lead?

Apparently so, contridicting early reports that had Carey Mulligan winning the role from Kristen Stewart. Here's the story from Deadline:

Every hot young actress in Hollywood wants to play the lead in Sony Pictures' The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. But will David Fincher cast one of them -- or go with an unknown? This is the studio's next 3-film franchise based on Swedish author Stieg Larsson's bestselling Millennium trilogy. It begins with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (there's a very well-received Swedish version in theaters right now), and continues with The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. So what's described to me as "creme de la creme" of young actresses are calling Sony execs as well as producer Scott Rudin and asking if they "can come in for a meeting" about it.

Carey Mulligan, the Oscar nominee from The Education, actually phoned the pic's writer Steve Zallian and took him to lunch. (Reminds me of that bad joke about the ambitious actress and the writer.) Juno Oscar nominee Ellen Page wrote a heartfelt note to Rudin. (Her Hard Candy persona is perfect for the part.) Sony execs insist they're "nowhere near casting". But Mulligan, Page, Kristen Stewart, Mia Wasikowska, Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Thirlby, and Scarlett Johannsen are all circling.

The problem is that director David Fincher "is not sure if he wants to go with an actress of any note or go with an unknown," an insider tells me. "David's process is very specific and private. He's looking for authenticity and a degree of fierceness and believeability capable of delivering the intensity that the part on the page calls for." I hear Sony execs think the bestseller itself is such a phenom, and the material so exciting, that the twentysomething female lead doesn't need a name. On the other hand, they think the male lead does require a star, and the studio is waiting for an answer from Brad Pitt.

-I think all the actresses are excellent and could do a great job, but I don't know that I have a favorite...do you? Thoughts?

Carey Mulligan to star in David Fincher's remake of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'?

Well, according to Cinematical, she's won the role (which was supposedly down to her or Kristen Stewart). Here's the story:

Forget the sweet schoolgirl who gossips with her girlfriends and dreams of great romance in gay "Par-ee." Recent Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan is heading for the body art. The Times Online reports that the An Education star is "set" to headline the English remake of the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (They say she won a thumbs up from director David Fincher, but the final decision/agreement has not been made.)

Mulligan has been itching to grab the role for a while now, saying last month: "I am obsessed with those books. I would love to do them. I am not going to lie about that. I would love to play Lisbeth Salander." The Times notes that she not only won the thumbs up from Fincher, but also the family of the late author who penned the series, Stieg Larsson. Should she sign on the dotted line, she's said to earn approximately £10m for three films, playing a body-modded computer hacker who helps a journalist solve a decades-old disappearance. (The locale might be moved to Canada, seen as a sort of "compromise" for American audiences.) *

While I was intrigued by Peter's idea of a rougher Veronica Mars on the big screen, I'm itching to see how Mulligan balances darker fare with the sweet. If she hits this out of the ballpark like she did An Education, I imagine she'll be unstoppable.

-I think either Mulligan or Stewart would have worked, but I'm a fan of them both...thoughts

David Fincher adds another project to his slate!

New York Magazine has the story:

Earlier today it was reported that David Fincher was planning an anthology remake of Heavy Metal, but Vulture also hears that Fincher is circling a movie adaptation of the late Stieg Larsson’s best-selling mystery The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Scott Rudin is producing at Sony, with screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, American Gangster) adapting the novel. Though a deal hasn’t been made, insiders tell us that Sony brass are delighted with the work Fincher has done on The Social Network, the Aaron Sorkin adaptation of Ben Mezrich's book about Facebook's founders. Meanwhile, the Larsson project has Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan on its wish list, although nearly every other A-list actress in town is Googling "Asperger's" and calling her agent in an effort to land the role of Lisbeth Salander, the lead character with "hair as short as a fuse" whose genius for computer hacking is matched only by her social awkwardness. The added lure to this role is that it’s a potential franchise, with three novels in Larsson’s series.

-Thoughts?

Does the Spider-Man reboot already have a frontrunner to sit in the director's chair?

Perhaps so, and while the names Wes Anderson, James Cameron, and David Fincher have been thrown around, the person most likely to take the reigns may raise an eyebrow or two. Here's what Deadline Hollywood has to say:

Marc Webb, the (500) Days Of Summer director, has climbed to the top of the Sony Pictures' list to rebirth the Spider-Man franchise. While the studio has a wish list of star directors like James Cameron, David Fincher, and Wes Anderson, the emergence of Webb as director comes as a huge surprise. But Mike Fleming's sources tell him Webb met about the Spidey reboot with the pic's producers and executives looking to get the picture into production later this year for a Summer 2012 release. Why will the pic take so long? Because it's likely to be shot in 3-D, and Sony Pictures plans to make an announcement about that "at the appropriate time".

Though he has the perfect name for the job, Webb has no prior superhero experience. Then again, neither did Sam Raimi. And Chris Nolan was the director of Memento when he signed on for Batman Begins. Webb is also a newbie if Sony greenlights 3-D. But among directors, almost all would be.

What has Sony execs excited is the fact that (500) Days of Summer introduced a director with a grasp of how to depict the way young people think and feel. This is critical because the Jamie Vanderbilt script covers the formative years of a high school-aged Peter Parker, and that POV is as important as the action sequences. Especially after Sony and Sam Raimi retired the original Spidey franchise because they realized the film would have been same old/same old at a huge budget. Injecting new blood with an up-and-coming director is a bold stroke. Too bad Webb’s (500) Days star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is too old to play the high school-aged wall crawler. He’d be perfect.

-I think Webb could be a terrific choice, but that's just me...thoughts?