Stellan Skarsgard In Talks To Join Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

While everyone speculates feverishly about who will play Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I've been wondering about the side characters, the Erika Bergers and Henrik Vangers of the book. They don't necessarily have to be played by big stars, but the smaller characters provide a nice texture to the central story of journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his hacker pal Salander.

Nothing seems to be official just yet, but Fincher may have at least found his Martin Vanger. According to Variety Stellan Skarsgard is in talks to join the film, telling them "I have met with [David] Fincher, I want to work with him, he wants to work with me." He also revealed that part of the film will be shot in studios in the U.S., particularly when "it becomes too dark" to shoot in Sweden, which is definitely not a production concern that ever would have occurred to me but is clearly dead-on.

It's hard to talk about the character of Martin Vanger without revealing too much-- he's a central part of the book's fascinating conclusion-- but it would be a great role for Skarsgard, who is generally great at making a splash in the background of movies. And given that he's one of the few Swedish actors with any name recognition in the States, it would have been pretty impossible for them not to include him at some point.