Sky has found its new lead stars for its upcoming television adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium book series, recasting the iconic roles previously played on the big screen by Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.
According to Deadline, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo and rising star Viola Prettejohn will star as investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and hacker Lisbeth Salander.
Oyelowo, known for Selma and Silo, will play Blomkvist, while Prettejohn, who has appeared in The Crown and The Witcher, will take on the role of Salander. The two characters previously appeared on the big screen in David Fincher’s 2011 adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, with Craig playing Blomkvist and Mara playing Salander.
The new series comes from Left Bank Pictures in association with Sony Pictures Television. Steve Lightfoot and Angela LaManna serve as head writers and executive producers, working with executive producer Amanda Coe.
Reinaldo Marcus Green will direct and executive produce the series. Oyelowo will also executive produce alongside Amy Pascal and Scott Rudin.
How will The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series differ from David Fincher’s film?
Sky’s adaptation will take a different approach from Fincher’s movie as it expands the story into an eight-episode television series set in the present day. The original novels were set during the early 2000s, but the new version will update the story for a modern audience.
That change gives room for the series to explore issues involving current cybersecurity threats, financial crime, and digital surveillance. The central mystery will remain the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a young woman who vanished decades earlier from her family’s isolated island in Sweden.
Blomkvist and Salander will investigate the case together, bringing the journalist’s reporting skills and Salander’s hacking abilities into the search for answers.
Political storylines, character histories, and additional subplots can be developed across multiple episodes rather than being compressed into a single movie.
With Oyelowo and Prettejohn secured in the lead roles, production on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo begins in October in Lithuania.
Originally reported on ComingSoon.
