The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo‘s U.S.-bred sequel has been in the works for over seven years, long after the first film’s lukewarm box-office success, which was a surprise, considering that nearly every avid U.S. reader inhaled Steig Larsson’s Millenium trilogy. Yet while the original Swedish set of three films starring Noomi Rapace found a willing U.S. audience on Netflix, folks didn’t seem too pumped up for a continuation of the version directed by David Fincher and starring Rooney Mara. That’s probably why the newer version of Lisbeth Salandar’s hacker-vigilante adventures completely skips the second two Larsson books and heads straight into author David Lagercranz’s picking-up of the story (after Larsson’s death) with The Girl In The Spider’s Web.
From the looks of the trailer, this was the right call to make. Director Fede Alvarez, a master of conjuring suspense as proven by Don’t Breathe, creates atmospheric tension aplenty with Claire Foy stepping into the gothy, take-no-bullsh*t shoes of Lisbeth Salander. She’s still hacking, this time while taking down a man who behaves very badly toward women.
Of course, this trailer is all about Lisbeth at the expense of revealing anything about the new Mikhail Blomkvist, who shall be played by Sverrir Gudnason. It also remains to be seen how closely the trailer follows Lagercranz’s book, which also weaves the tale of Lisbeth’s long-lost missing (twin!) sibling, Camilla, who’s fully entrenched within their father’s criminal network. Naturally, the two are completely at odds with each other. The movie’s IMDb page does reference an actor playing the child version of Camilla, and the trailer makes pointed mention of Lisbeth being haunted by her past. Yet for now, Sony is opting to highlight the film’s intense action, which is probably the wisest move.
The Girl In The Spider’s Web arrives in theaters on November 9.
