08/01/2010

Yellow Bird – producers of the successful Millennium trilogy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Niels Arden Oplev
interview: Søren Stærmose
film profile], The Girl Who Played with Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – have signed with Sony Pictures Entertainment to make a US version of the series based on Stieg Larsson’s best-selling crime novels.

According to producer Søren Stærmose, the English-language films will not be a remake of the Swedish films but a new interpretation of Larsson’s books. Negotiations are underway to choose the US scriptwriter who will bring to US audiences the stories of journalist Mikael Blomqvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander. The US Millennium films will be produced by Scott Rubin with Sweden’s Ole Sondberg and Stærmose.

The first film of the original trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will be released theatrically in the US in March through Music Box Films.

Stærmose told Cineuropa that the whole Millennium experience in 2009 has been “simply incredible” for him and Swedish production company Yellow Bird. The last film, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, is still among the top five in the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish charts after six weeks on general release through Nordisk Film.

“In 2010, we will have releases nearly every month all over the world for the three films,” noted the producer. “After that, we have an extended high-quality TV series, with approximately two hours of new original material. You will be introduced to more strong women, who are needed to fight the ‘machos’, which should be a dying breed…”.