The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is one of those books I've seen on airport bookshelves for months, and the kind of thing that you assume would be pulpy and entertaining, but not necessarily mind-blowing. I've learned, though, that my biased assumption was dead-wrong, of course, and the entire Millennium Trilogy by Swedish author Stieg Larsson is, in fact, excellent.

Now those of us too lazy to actually read the books ourselves will have the chance to find out-- Anne Thompson is reporting that Scott Rudin and Sony together have picked up the film rights, with potential plans to make movies of all three books-- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The GIrl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.

There's already a Swedish-language version of Tattoo, which hits U.S. theaters in March. Thompson points out rightly that it will be a challenge to cast, presumably with American or European actors speaking English in a film set in Sweden. Not to mention the fact that the lead female character, a young bisexual hacker detective, will require a pretty serious young actress in the part. It all sounds doable, though, and if Sony can do a proper adaptation of this popular book, they may just make up for The Da Vinci Code after all.