When it was announced last week that David Fincher was looking to direct Gone Girl, a lot of people wondered if this meant that he would not be involved in the sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Based on the movie’s lukewarm reception at the box office, Sony seemed unsure if they still wanted to remake the rest of the trilogy. There was talk that they were looking to cut costs wherever possible, and some thought that would mean losing David Fincher as a director. However, Fincher has an option in his contract saying that he will get a payout for The Girl Who Played with Fire even if he doesn’t direct it, which means they wouldn’t be saving money at all. Now this week it has come to light that Sony is contemplating kicking Daniel Craig to the curb instead, possibly by writing Mikael Blomkvist out of the sequels altogether. But would this decision upset fans or hurt the box office potential of a sequel?

According to THR, the biggest thing holding up The Girl Who Played with Fire is not David Fincher but rather Daniel Craig. He is reportedly asking for more money in the wake of the overwhelming success of Skyfall, which made over $1 billion worldwide. This is why they are thinking about rewriting the movie to concentrate only on Lisbeth Salander (who is clearly the focus of the second book anyway). The problem is that a rewrite could be expensive as well.

It seems likely that Craig’s contract will not allow them to simply replace him with another actor. However, it’s hard to say if Daniel Craig would be worth the extra money he is demanding as his movies outside of the Bond franchise have not done particularly well. Rooney Mara is not quite a household name, but you’d think that these movies should sell based on the success of the books alone. Either way, this all puts Sony in a difficult situation. Do you think they should still do a U.S. sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Do you care if Daniel Craig is involved or not?

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