After a long wait of anticipation, the announcement has finally been made of who will be playing Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's English language remake of the Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy starting with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" slated for a December 2011 release.

The choice of Rooney Mara, a relative unknown recently seen in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake and "Youth in Revolt," is a good one. It was also the most predicted choice as Mara is soon to appear in Fincher's "The Social Network." I'm trying to picture the actress with chopped black hair and wearing thick black makeup and lots of leather, and I think she could pull it off.



Comparing the two actresses, Rooney Mara (left) doesn't bear much resemblance to Noomi Rapace (right), who plays Lisbeth in the Swedish original, but no resemblance is required, however, as Mara can make the part entirely her own. The big question, though, is whether or not she has the acting chops to pull off the part, one that is quite dynamic and demanding both emotionally and physically. If she does make it work, then she's looking at a surefire breakout performance that is assuming Fincher's version of the films will be as big of a hit in America.



And with Daniel Craig (left) already announced to be playing the part of Mikael Blomkvist, who was played by Michael Nyqvist (right), I'm looking forward to him and Rooney Mara making a great team, one that will hopefully stand right there with the success of Nyqvist and Rapace.

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" (2010)

Actress Noomi Rapace returns in the lead role of Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl Who Played with Fire," the sequel to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" based off the novels by Stieg Larsson. Lisbeth still has the dragon tattoo covering her back but now her hair has grown out and she no longer wears a spiked choker, but she remains living in complete isolation from others hacking into computers to find out any outside information. In the second movie starring her we learn a little more about why she lives the way she does. She has a past where she indeed played with fire, dousing her father in gasoline after he abused Lisbeth's mother. She was labeled as socially incompetent as a child by cruel men, and her motivation for vengeance is still fueled by men's violence against women. This is still greatly Rapace's movie whose eerie beauty combined with her nearly feral intensity makes Lisbeth Salander into a character who, even more so here than in the first film, keeps us watching.

The sequel comes from a new set of filmmakers than the last, written by Jonas Frykberg and directed by Daniel Alfredson. The results, however, are more or less the same. This one does feel slightly less polished than its predecessor, though, and the cinematography has less room to breathe due to so much plot trying to be stuffed, which results in a much flatter look than before.

Lisbeth has just returned to Stockholm after having escaped abroad at the conclusion of the previous film. Meanwhile, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and the team at Millenium have just hired a young journalist who's working on a story that reveals a sex trafficking ring with the assistance from research done by his girlfriend who just published her thesis on the topic. Mikael later finds the two journalists shot and killed in their apartment, and Lisbeth is soon after framed for the murders. It is then a fight for Lisbeth's life as she and Blomkvist each try to prove her innocence and find the real killers.

It sounds simple enough, but there is a large supporting cast that gets confusing to follow. Characters who were present before make a return such as Erika Berger (Lena Endre) and the absolutely foul Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson) whose previous encounter with Lisbeth was anything but pleasant. New faces include a detective named Bublanski (Johan Kylen) along with Lisbeth's occasional lover, Miriam Wu (Yasmine Garbi). Lisbeth and Miriam share a rather questionably evocative sex scene together. Then there's the villain who cannot feel pain, a hulking blond man (Mikael Spreitz) who looks like he fell out of the latest Bond film and accidentally found his way into Larsson's cynical world.

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" carries a whole lot more suspense than the last along with quite a bit more blood. It backs down, however, on the social commentary while trying to flesh out all the narrative details making for a much more convoluted film than perhaps necessary. And, inevitably, being a middle piece to a trilogy it struggles to stand alone unlike the first feature. This one is obviously preparing for what will probably be an impressive conclusion, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," which has its U.S. release this October.

The chemistry between the leads played by Rapace and Michael Nyqvist remains miraculously strong and compelling even when they share only one scene together; they are otherwise connected only by cyberspace. The rumor mill keeps churning out who may be playing Lisbeth and Blomkvist in Fincher's U.S. remake of "Dragon Tattoo" with sights now set on Daniel Craig and Carey Mulligan. Let's hope they're ready to fill some big shoes.

My review of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" (2010)

Lisbeth Salander, played expertly by Noomi Rapace, is a 24-year-old genius computer hacker whose dragon tattoo covering the expanse of her back is actually the least interesting aspect of her. Her body is thin and covered with various other tattoos and piercings. She is muscular and curiously bisexual. She has short, jet black hair and dresses in all black, punk-like clothing with tight jeans and thick boots. She is also damaged from a violent and abusive background and seeks resolve from participating in the uncovering of a 40-year-old mystery rooted in bizarre violence against women. She is hard-hitting yet sympathetic, a conundrum and an endlessly compelling one. Watching Rapace's breakout performance here reminded me of watching Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" where nobody knows about this actor until they hit the masses with something like this. It's truly a gift watching her be the centerpiece of the Swedish film, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which will, in due time, become its own phenomenon.

The movie is based on the novel written by the Swedish novelist, Stieg Larsson, who tragically died in 2004 before he was able to witness the renowned success of his work. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, this film adaptation of Larsson's first novel has already become the highest grossing European film of 2009 and the highest grossing Swedish film of all time, and both for excellent reason. It is a stylish, tense and complex thriller that dwells almost exclusively on the sadism and perversity of modern society, which is what gave the book, and consequently the film even more so, its intense, graphic and deeply disturbing undertones. It's understandable then why the original title of the novel was "Men Who Hate Women" because there is a focus on horrific behavior committed by vile men. An extended rape scene seriously cuts to the core. And while the plot is of a traditional thriller layout with montages of investigation and searching, the process becomes much more about the people involved and the dark atmospheric mood.

A journalist named Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) writes for the magazine Millenium, and he published a scalding investigative piece that has him sentenced for time in prison from a libel charge. He has six months of freedom before then, however, and he gets approached by an elderly man named Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) because he needs the help of a resourceful, intelligent reporter. Vanger gives Blomkvist the task of digging up a 40-year-old case about the disappearance of his beloved niece, Harriet Vanger, who vanished off the island on a day when it was cut off from the mainland. This leaves members of the extensive Vanger family as the only suspects as they all inhabit the gloomy island of Hedeby together as if feeding off each other's rumored tendencies of corruption and greed. Henrik Vanger doesn't care for much of his family, especially his three brothers who had links to Nazism.

Salander gets involved in the case because she is the one who researched Blomkvist, and she hacks into his computer amidst his investigation. Needless to say, when they finally do collaborate as a team, she's already up to speed on all the details. Their journey in searching the history of the Vanger family leads them to meet an array of interesting characters with connections that start off simple and only get more involved and with every step of the way. Salander and Blomkvist have such an individually compelling chemistry that the mystery almost serves as merely a backdrop. These aren't the usual characters you'd find in your everyday action thriller. They are characters we want to learn more about even outside the context of the genre.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" feels like a three course meal, but clocking in at just over 2-1/2 hours, it feels about half that length. The density and texture of the novel is maintained as everything unfolds drenched in chilling details. It's the most richly satisfying film I've seen this year, and quite arguably the best film so far this year. And with two more adaptations of Larsson's remaining novels coming to America this summer, "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," that's something to look forward to because it gives us another chance to see these talented Swedish actors at work. The inevitable Hollywood remake in the works is rumored to star Kristen Stewart and be directed by David Fincher. In the meantime, do yourself a favor, and don't let subtitles scare you away.