As the Swedish global hit opens stateside and the English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets under way, screenwriter Steve Zaillian plans to place tough, bisexual hacker/sleuth Lisbeth Salander front and center, recognizing that she’s the star of Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy. So who should play her?
Vote in poll on jump. And add any other ideas you may have in the comments. Personally, I hope Sony and producer Scott Rudin see the wisdom of setting the series in Sweden with European actors. No Americans, please! It won’t be authentic otherwise. Brits are Europeans. They could do it.
Salander: Kiera Knightly (but she may be too tall?) but has the face I envisioned and the demeanor
Blomkvist: Viggo Mortensen
Bjurman: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Asia Argento from the Vin Diesel movie XXX!!! tough good cool smart!!!
Noomi Rapace…
not cute not sexy looks way too old! remember people mistake Lisbeth as a child all the time!!!
Lisbeth – Ashley Greene(allice Cullen)
short thin (small chest in the first book) yet sexy
Mikael – Daniel Craig
Berger – Angelina Jollie, Demi Moore
Ellen Page. She’s played a dark role in Hard Candy, and needs to go to back to that, for fear of becoming a character actor, ie Juno
Natalie Portman is the only actress I can think of that might be able to pull this off. Salander has to look anorexic and childish but also able to be believed to be in her mid-twenties at the same time. Salander also has to be dark, and Portman can pull of dark – have ya seen Closer – she played flawlessly an incredibly dark character. Portman is also highly intelligent – she has a Harvard degree – and I don’t think many young actresses could pull off the genius that is Salander without it seeming contrived for the screen.
Scarlett is a little too curvey. Don’t overlook Evan Rachel Wood.
Don’t touch the movie!! It’s brilliant as it is! Noomi plays Lisbeth wth perfection! and the rest of the cast were amazing. No remake will ever be as good.. it will just have “american trash” stamped all over it.
There’s no one better as Salander than Noomi Rapace, so my vote goes for her.
Kristen Stewart very bad actress!Only Portman can play in this movie!
well i’m guessing the orignal actress won’t do it again, Fariuza Balk has the look but maybe she’s to old now, Ellen Page would be great how about Thora Birch or Christina Ricci
mmmm Anne your description of the requirements emphasise again my choice: Scarlett Johansson – believe me, she would be perfect: lose the blond hair and she would transform into everything needed and described in the novels – have another look at Lost in Translation…and for the role of Blomkvist, Daniel Craig. These two together, with the enormous following of the trilogy, would be box-office dynamite, and for those who throw up their hands in horror at the thought of Bond, please go back to his earlier roles, largely unseen in the USA, including, interestingly, Copenhagen [ok it’s Danish not Swedish but see his convincing European portrayal of the German Heisenberg]
I watched the third film yesterday. The remake of this trilogy has great potential. This is going to be the next franchise in the Bourne/Da Vince Code tradition. And since it’s done by Sony it’s going to be huge. It already is: the books have sold more copies than the Da Vinci Code in some countries.
The casting will be extremely important. The Salander character has so many facets it’s almost impossible to find an actress capable of doing what Noomi Rapace did in the original movies.
Imagine a different actress for the Kim Novak role in Vertigo. Impossible. The casting director does need a Hitchock’s eye for actresses for this role. I don’t think any of the aforementioned actresses would be right for the part.
I don’t see Ellen Page as a hacker. Kristen Stewart is too young (Salander is 26 in the second movie and 28 in the third) and no hacker either.
Nathalie Portman is a possibility, think of Closer/Hotel Chevalier. She’s very intelligent, but often too glamorous. Too beautiful shouldn’t be a problem, the real Noomi Rapace is quite pretty. Charlize Theron was quite beautiful before she became a Monster. Nathalie Portman could be right if she would be a little more like Diablo Cody.
I hope they’ll cast character actors for all of the other roles. I love character actors like they had in the Golden Age: Walter Brennan, Thelma Ritter, Thomas Mitchell, Charles Coburn, Beulah Bondi.
Stewarts too young. Is Keira Knightley seriously being considered for this role as well? She can pull off the waif, androgynous look easily enough.
Yeah, Kristen Stewart would be good in this. Or, if you want a European, try Johanna Wokalek (The Baader-Meinhof Gang.)
Of the American actresses, I think Ellen Page gets closest–she has to be tiny, young-looking 20ish, androgynous, physically athletic, damaged but very smart and strong. She’s a chameleon able to take on different guises–including glam/sexy–we have to believe her as a dedicated sleuth, lover, ruthless tracker and killer. Carey Mulligan seems too soft and waif-like, Natalie Portman and Evan Rachel Wood too beautiful, Scarlett Johansson, too sexy. Kristen Stewart can do anything. She has that ability to seem ordinary, to transform.
But as I said, I prefer the idea of a European unknown. I agree that a younger Franka Potente is the right direction.
Both Kristen Stewart and Katherine Moennig have a certain boyish alternative look, though they might look like an Avril Lavigne wannabe in an Exploited t-shirt and sneakers. They know how to smoke though, which is important, even good actors don’t seem to know how to act like a smoker.
I hope they don’t cast big stars for this movie. All of the faces of the original movies were fresh to me, which I liked. It’s one of the reasons I like watching HBO. Stars always inherit the roles they’ve played before. You can’t erase what you’ve seen before.
A cast of Europeans in a movie shot in Europe would be nice.
The first Millenium movie reminded me of The Bourne Identity (Franka Potente would be a good Lisbeth Salander if she’d been younger) which was partly shot on location in Europe. Kind of refreshing.
My all European alternative choices:
Alexandra Maria Lara (Der Untergang, Control)
Oksana Akinshina (Lilja 4-ever)
Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious basterds)
Carice van Houten (Black book, Valkyrie)
Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Frost/Nixon)
Carey Mulligan would be brilliant.
wasn’t carrey mulligan in the running too? she’d be great especially with the recent heat she’s getting after the oscar nom.
I think this role is tailor-made for Megan Fox. And I refuse to see any version unless she’s in it.
I’m not sure though…how about Evan Rachel Wood..?
Add Katie Jarvis of “Fishtank” to the list and I’ll vote
I havent seen the original, but how old is she meant to be?
I’d say Cecile de France. I’d love to see her in a role like this.
Actually, I love Kate Moenning, but already with a remake. Why must weu butcher things, let it be for once. Enjoy the Swedish, even if you have to read subtitles.
of course this brilliant trilogy must stay Swedish otherwise it is all meaningless – the third in the series, The Girl who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, is so relevant to the Swedish political scene etc…a perfect star would be SCARLETT JOHANSSON