Director David Fincher of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fame and of course, the upcoming facebook movie The Social Network, has The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo lined up for release next year.  The film will drop on December 21, 2011.  The real news though is the idea that Fincher may indeed be a helmer for the entire trilogy of book to film adaptations from fallen author Stieg Larsson.  His posthumously published thriller/crime trilogy The Millennium Series has already seen foreign adaptation, so it’s a little curious to see Fincher possibly handling all three of these stateside.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, international version, has a global cume over $100 million, so it was no under the radar film.  The second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire has chalked up more than $50 million to this juncture. The final film in the original trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, has yet to see release but is soon to do so.  However, that has not stopped Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures Co-Chair hyping the possibility of Fincher handling the trilogy.  She had this to say in a recent sit down (via Comingsoon):

“We’re doing the book. That’s why we hired David Fincher. We’re going to really do this, in all their glory. Otherwise why do it? They’re very R-rated movies,” she said. “It’s the shock of what’s really going on underneath the surface of society. If you don’t actually make good on that, you haven’t told the story.”

She added that they are going to try to get the three movies out as fast as possible. “But, you know, we’ll have the first one next Christmas. And hopefully, the next two as quick as I can get them. We’re trying to figure that out now.”

Pascal said that they had not cast the lead actress yet. “No, we are going to do a global search on her. Every actress in the world wants it. It’s the greatest character for a girl since I-don’t-know-what.”

I guess if Fincher directs and the female role will be the hottest dame character in Hollywood, that would make for a potentially huge deal.  We’ll see how it all plays out.  Let me know if you’ve seen the original film, or if you have read the books and think Fincher could be the right man for the job.