Sony developing The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo TV series reboot for Amazon

As the old expression goes, “When one reboot fails, another reboot opens”. Or was that doors? Either way, I’m sticking to this one as it now applies to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (and my fingers are far too painfully frozen to retype sentences this morning) which is coming back as TV series on Amazon, completely unconnected from the previous film adaptations.

Late author Stieg Larsson’s Millenium book trilogy was originally adapted for the screen in his native Swedish language with Noomi Rapace starring as goth hacker Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. And because this is how Hollywood works whenever a foreign language film makes a big impact, Sony and David Fincher gave the first film the English-language remake treatment in 2011 with Rooney Mara in the lead.

While that film was well received by critics, it’s box office earnings were just so-so, prompting Sony to hem and haw for ages about finishing up the trilogy. Eventually, they decided to go the reboot/sequel route with The Girl in the Spider’s Web, adapting the fourth novel in the franchise written by David Lagercrantz after Larsson’s death and casting Claire Foy as Lisbeth. This time there was nothing so-so about the box office. It bombed massively earning just $35.2 million worldwide off a $43 million budget (which you can probably double for advertising).

So as Variety reports, Lisbeth Salander is going to try out a whole new format on the small screen with Sony teaming up with Amazon. This new version though, while still titled The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, will not adapt or continue any existing stories from the films or books, including Lagercrantz’s last two novels, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye and The Girl Who Lived Twice. Instead, the TV series will take the character of Lisbeth Salander and “place her in today’s world with a wholly new setting, new characters, and a new story”. Seeing as how the Millennium stories are already contemporary and tackle modern issues, you can make of that description what you will.

This is still very early in development though with no writer attached and no casting done yet. The only names associated with the production thus far is Left Bank Pictures’ Andy Harries who will executive produce. Harries previous productions include The Crown, Strike Back, and The Night Manager. Hopefully, he and Amazon have some better and more consistent results with bringing – and keeping – Lisbeth Salander’s adventures on screen. At least the TV format will suit the character with her tracking down and bringing to justice men who abuse and exploit women. Just don’t turn it into a weekly procedural where Lisbeth gets some snappy young partner or something. Please, Sony and Amazon, I beg you!