Meanwhile, Luc Besson's sci-fi which is set to start filming in 3 months has not yet been updated, but being a foreign production that will reportedly be done in EuropaCorp's new complex in Paris, IMDb may not be privy to the details.
As for Cleopatra, Deadline reports that the Dragon Tattoo sequels are moving forward although Fincher hasn't signed on yet. Its hard to imagine that they are a top priority for Sony -- or for Fincher -- given the box office results so far. The comments made to Nikke Finke lead me to think that the studio may bring in a different director who can make the sequels a bit less dark and more commercial. If he doesn't return for the sequels, Fincher should be done with House of Cards by the late Summer of early Fall and free to take on a new project. But Angelina may be busy with Maleficent at the time. If his Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues adaptation for Disney is ready to go he may opt to do that or he could start preproduction on Cleopatra with an eye on a 2013 start. Of course we have to bear in mind that other than his supporting role in 12 Years A Slave, we don't know what other films Brad has lined up that may affect Angelina's filming schedule.
Sony Going Ahead With ‘Dragon Tattoo’ Sequels Despite Underperforming Box Office
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures is not known for risky moves. So all through the holidays rival studio execs were predicting that Amy Pascal et al would not go forward with the 2nd and 3rd film installments of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling Millennium trilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest.
That opinion was based on the mediocre opening for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Sure its domestic debut was significantly behind M:I4 and Sherlock 2, but it’s R-rated and both of those are PG-13. Then overseas grosses, expected to be huge, began trickling in underwhelming. GWDT
opened only 3rd in the UK, and disappointing in Asia, and “not as good
as hoped for” in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. Now I’ve learned that
Sony Pictures is indeed going forward with The Girl Who Played With Fire already written by Steve Zaillian, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest which
Zaillian is penning. Studio chief Pascal and producer Scott Rudin have
not yet locked in David Fincher as director. But they’re looking to
start shooting #2 by the end of this year/beginning of next. Overseas,
Sony now expects GWDT to do over $200M — so $300M all in
globally. “And that’s a really good number,” the Sony exec told me
hopefully. But one mogul counters, “The surprising part is that Sony is
not waiting to see if the movie works overseas before going forward with
the sequels. I would have.”Right now Dragon Tattoo has amassed a $76.8M domestic cume and should get very close to $100M because it’s holding better than any other holiday movie. Sony and rival studios believe the movie’s box office was hurt by that long brutal rape scene not appropriate for a Christmas release. (“It’s a notch too dark for that window,” one studio chief tells me. Agrees a top Sony exec, “It was too cocky of us. We might think about that next time.”) Counting against GWDT was that the Hollywood version of the bestselling book had already been made into a Swedish film widely distributed beginning in 2009. Plus Zaillian and Fincher changed the first book’s ending. As for book #2, its challenge is that title character Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara) isn’t much in it. But Sony has changed that, too, and Zaillian’s script places her front and center again.
