It’s funny how cyclical film news can be. Despite having already been shot down, rumors of Natalie Portman’s potential involvement with David Fincher’s adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” have again surfaced.
EW reported that Portman was back in the race for the lead female character of Lisbeth Salander, a role which has seen a vigorous casting process that — last we heard — had dwindled down after much drama to Rooney Mara and Emily Browning. EW goes on to claim that the studio is apparently unhappy with Fincher’s desire to cast a unknown (something we’ve heard as well), causing Portman and even Evan Rachel Wood to be entered into consideration. But it sounds like that simply isn’t the case.
Anne Thompson went right to the film’s producer, Scott Rudin, who shot down the report, while other unnamed sources told her Portman and Wood wouldn’t even qualify for the film’s “under 24 and no taller than 5’5” requirement for the ideal candidate. Perhaps further clarification of the mistake is the EW claim that Portman was rumored to have been already offered the role; something the actress strenuously denied when she told us herself at Comic-Con that she has “not been approached at all, so any of that is pure rumor.”
The candidates for Lisbeth Salander are now reported to be down to four: American actress Rooney Mara who has a role in Fincher’s “The Social Network, up-and-coming Australians Sarah Snook and Sophie Lowe and French native Lea Seydoux, all of whom were a part of the line up for Fincher’s screen test last weekend. Ellen Page, who was originally reported to be too well known for the part, apparently still has an outside shot “if she nails the accent.” Evidently Emily Browning (who was already said to have exited the casting frame) is no longer in consideration.You’ve really got to love this back and forth.
Whatever transpires, it’s been a lengthy, overly-publicized debacle and whoever ends up winning the role will join Daniel Craig, Robin Wright and Stellan Skarsgaard in the film which will shoot this fall, after Fincher’s much-anticipated Facebook film “The Social Network” is unveiled.