In Stockholm, journalist Mikael Blomkvist is recovering from the legal and professional fallout of a libel suit brought against him by businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström.

By December, two major developments occurred for the project: Steven Zaillian, who had recently completed the script for Moneyball (2011), became the screenwriter, while producer Scott Rudin finalized a partnership allocating full copyrights to Sony.

[12] David Fincher, who was requested with partner Ceán Chaffin by Sony executives to read the novel,[10][13] was astounded by the Millennium series' size and success.

As they began to read, the duo noticed that it had a tendency to take "readers on a lot of side trips"—"from detailed explanations of surveillance techniques to angry attacks on corrupt Swedish industrialists," professed The Hollywood Reporter's Gregg Kilday.

"[14] Zaillian discussed many of the themes in Larsson's Millennium series with Fincher, taking the pair deeper into the novel's darker subjects, such as the psychological dissimilarities between rapists and murderers.

"[15] Daniel Craig competed with George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Viggo Mortensen and Brad Pitt as candidates for the role of Mikael Blomkvist.

[10][17] Given the uncertainty surrounding Skyfall following Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's bankruptcy, Sony Pictures Entertainment and DreamWorks worked out a schedule and Craig agreed to take the part.

"[6] Casting of Lisbeth Salander was complicated by the raft of prominent candidates such as Emily Browning, Eva Green, Anne Hathaway, Scarlett Johansson, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Lawrence, Carey Mulligan, Elliot Page, Natalie Portman, Léa Seydoux, Vanessa Hudgens, Sophie Lowe, Sarah Snook, Kristen Stewart, Olivia Thirlby, Mia Wasikowska, Emma Watson, Evan Rachel Wood and Yolandi Visser; Lowe, Rooney Mara, Seydoux, and Snook were the final four candidates.

[6][10] Fincher, while fond of the actress' youthful appearance,[23] found it difficult at first to mold her to match Salander's antisocial demeanor, which was a vast contrast from her earlier role as the personable Erica Albright.

[24][25] In addition to her transgressive appearance, which was described as a "mash-up of brazen Seventies punk and spooky Eighties goth with a dash of S&M temptress" by Lynn Hirschberg of W,[24] Mara participated in a formal screening and was filmed by Fincher on a subway in Los Angeles in an effort to persuade the executives of Sony Pictures that she was a credible choice.

To portray Larsson's vision of Sweden, and the interaction of light on its landscape, Fincher cooperated with an artistic team that included cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and production designer Donald Graham Burt.

[citation needed] In one sequence the character Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgård) plays the song "Orinoco Flow" by Enya before beginning his torture of Mikael Blomkvist.

Fincher recruited Reznor and Ross to produce the score; aside from their successful collaboration on The Social Network, the duo had worked together on albums from Nine Inch Nails' later discography.

[40] Akin to his efforts in The Social Network, Reznor experiments with acoustics and blends them with elements of electronic music, resulting in a forbidding atmosphere.

"We composed music we felt might belong," stated the Nine Inch Nails lead vocalist, "and then we'd run it by Fincher, to see where his head's at and he responded positively.

Trish Summerville, the costume designer of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo collaborated with the clothing brand H&M to release a Lisbeth Salander inspired collection which was announced on October 27, 2011.

[46] A screening for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo took place on November 28, 2011, as part of a critics-only event hosted by the New York Film Critics Circle.

[58][59] A press statement from the Central Board of Film Certification stated: "Sony Pictures will not be releasing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in India.

[58] Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the film in a DVD and Blu-ray disc combo pack in the United States on March 20, 2012.

The site's critics consensus states, "Brutal yet captivating, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the result of David Fincher working at his lurid best with total role commitment from star Rooney Mara.

[67] David Denby of The New Yorker asserted that the austere, but captivating installment presented a "glancing, chilled view" of a world where succinct moments of loyalty coexisted with constant trials of betrayal.

[85] To USA Today columnist Claudia Puig, Fincher captures the "menace and grim despair in the frosty Scandinavian landscape" by carefully approaching its most gruesome features.

[86] In his three-and-a-half star review, Chris Knight of the National Post argued that it epitomized a so-called "paradoxical position" that was both "immensely enjoyable and completely unnecessary".

[88] The film took two and a half stars from Rolling Stone commentator Peter Travers, who concluded: "Fincher's Girl is gloriously rendered but too impersonal to leave a mark.

"[89] A. O. Scott, writing for The New York Times, admired the moments of "brilliantly orchestrated" anxiety and confusion, but felt that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was vulnerable to the "lumbering proceduralism" that he saw in its literary counterpart, as evident with the "long stretches of drab, hackneyed exposition that flatten the atmosphere".

[90] The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern praised Cronenweth's cinematography, which he thought provided for glossy alterations in the film's darkness; "Stockholm glitters in nighttime exteriors, and its subway shines in a spectacular spasm of action involving a backpack.

[93] Her "hypnotic" portrayal was noted by Justin Chang of Variety,[94] as well as Salon critic Andrew O'Hehir, who wrote, "Rooney Mara is a revelation as Lisbeth Salander, the damaged, aggressive computer geek and feminist revenge angel, playing the character as far more feral and vulnerable than Noomi Rapace’s borderline-stereotype sexpot Goth girl.

[99][100] The former wrote, "The director follows up the excellent Social Network with another tour de force, injecting the murder mystery that introduces us to outcast hacker Lisbeth Salander [...] and embattled journalist [...] with style, intensity and relentless suspense.

"[129] There was an announced release date of 2013 for a film version of The Girl Who Played with Fire, although by August 2012 it was delayed due to changes being done to the script, being written by Steven Zaillian.

[133][134] By November 2015, it was announced that Sony was proceeding with an adaptation of The Girl in the Spider's Web, a 2015 novel by David Lagercrantz that was a continuation of the original Millennium trilogy after series creator Stieg Larsson died in 2004.