Dragon Tattoo
Logo
Based on	Characters created byStieg Larsson
Starring	Rooney Mara Claire Foy (various actors)
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	2011–present
Countries	Sweden, United States, United Kingdom, Germany
Language	English
Budget	$133 million (Total 2 films)[1]
Box office	$266.8 million (Total 2 films)

TheDragon Tattoo film series^[2][3] consists of films based on theMillennium book series, which were written byStieg Larsson andDavid Lagercrantz. The plot centers aroundLisbeth Salander, anasocial computer hacker, andMikael Blomkvist, aninvestigative journalist and publisher of a magazine calledMillennium, as they investigate criminal injustices.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an adaption ofthe first novel in the series, was released in 2011. It was written bySteven Zaillian and directed byDavid Fincher, withDaniel Craig andRooney Mara starring as Blomkvist and Salander. Along withDragon Tattoo, Fincher and Zaillian signed a two-picture deal to adaptThe Girl Who Played with Fire, andThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.^[4]

The Girl in the Spider's Web, an adaption ofthe first novel in the second trilogy was released in 2018. The film was marketed as arelaunch of the franchise and featured a different cast, but was chronologically a sequel to Fincher's film. It is directed byFede Álvarez, and starsClaire Foy as Salander andSverrir Gudnason as Blomkvist.^[5]

A disgraced journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch's niece who has been missing for forty years. He is aided by the young computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara). As they work together in the investigation, Blomkvist and Salander uncover immense corruption beyond anything anyone could have anticipated.

Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) and Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) once again teamup, this time to become involved in a conspiracy of spies, cybercriminals, and corrupt government officials, and discover the deception runs closer than they understand, with familiar ties to the pair.

In May 2020, astandalone television series adapting a Lisbeth Salander story separate from theMillennium book series was announced as being in development. Andy Harries will serve as executive producer, while the show will be a joint-venture production betweenSony Pictures Television,Amazon Studios, and Left Bank Pictures.^[6] By October 2023, Veena Sud joined the production asshowrunner withAmazon MGM Studios also involved in its development.^[7]

The success of Stieg Larsson's novel created Hollywood interest in adapting the book, as became apparent in 2009, when Lynton and Pascal pursued the idea of developing an "American" version unrelated to theSwedish film adaptation released that year. By December, two major developments occurred for the project:Steven Zaillian became the screenwriter, while producerScott Rudin finalized a partnership allocating full copyrights to Sony. Zaillian, who was unfamiliar with the novel, got a copy from Rudin. The screenwriter recalled, "They sent it to me and said, 'We want to do this. We will think of it as one thing for now. It's possible that it can be two and three, but let's concentrate on this one.'"^[8]

Fincher, who was requested with partner Cean Chaffin by Sony executives to read the novel,^[9]was astounded by the series' size and success. Fincher stated: "The ballistic, ripping-yarn thriller aspect of it is kind of a red herring in a weird way. It is the thing that throws Salander and Blomkvist together, but it is their relationship you keep coming back to. I was just wondering what 350 pages Zaillian would get rid of." Because Zaillian was already cultivating the screenplay, the director avoided interfering. Once the script was completed Fincher was comfortable that "they were headed in the same direction". The writing process lasted approximately six months, including three months reviewing the script, creating notes and analyzing the novel.^[8] Given the book's sizable length, Zaillian deleted elements to match Fincher's desired running time.^[8] Even so, Zaillan took significant departures from the book.^[10] Zaillian stated that during the writing process, the production team intended to stay close to the source material though there would be differences.^[10] The production team decided early in the development process that they would not stray away from the novel's darker themes, planning instead to delve deeper into them. Instead of the typicalthree-act structure, they chose afive-act structure, with Fincher comparing the plot to "a lot of TVcop dramas."^[11]

Yellow Bird andMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer partnered withColumbia Pictures to produce the film withDaniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist andRooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.^[12]

In November 2015,The Hollywood Reporter announced thatSony Pictures Entertainment was planning to develop a new film series based on theMillennium novels, starting with an adaptation ofThe Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz.^[13] In the same announcement, it was confirmed thatRooney Mara andDaniel Craig, nor Fincher would return to the series.^[13]Steven Knight was announced in early negotiations to develop the adaptation, while the producers would beScott Rudin,Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon, Berna Levin, Søren Stærmose, and Ole Sondberg.^[13]

By November 2016, Sony had entered negotiations withFede Álvarez to direct the film, withEli Bush slated to act as an additional producer.^[14] In March 2017, it was announced that the film would feature an entirely new cast as the director wanted to be able to create his own interpretation of the source material. Production set to begin in September 2017. In September 2017, Foy was officially cast in the starring role.^[15][16] By October,Sylvia Hoeks joined the cast as Camilla Salander.^[17] The rest of the cast was announced over the next five months.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]}

Principal photography began in January 2018 inBerlin,^[18][25] and ended in April 2018, inStockholm.^[26][27] The film is a quasi-reboot featuring a different cast, but still framed as a sequel to Fincher's film. It is directed byFede Álvarez, and starsClaire Foy as Salander andSverrir Gudnason as Blomkvist.^[5]

Along withThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fincher and Zaillian signed a two-picture deal to adaptThe Girl Who Played with Fire andThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, which would possibly have been shot back to back. In January 2012, it was announced that Sony was "moving forward" with the adaptations ofThe Girl Who Played with Fire andThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.^[4] Zaillian wrote the original screenplays, but Sony brought inAndrew Kevin Walker to revise them. The studio had hoped to have the same people involved in the sequels as in the first film, with Fincher directing and Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara starring, but due to delays, the projects fell through.^[4][28]

• Film series introduced in 2011
• Sony Pictures franchises
• Columbia Pictures franchises
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer franchises
• Dragon Tattoo Stories (film series)

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox film with nonstandard dates
• Wikipedia articles containing placeholders