Rooney Mara lands lead opposite Daniel Craig in Dragon Tattoo

Little-known American actress Rooney Mara has landed the lead role opposite Daniel Craig in Hollywood’s version of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Columbia Pictures said Monday.

Mara, 25, will play Lisbeth Salander — the smart but anti-social pixie-haired hacker and investigator — in the sought-after role that reportedly saw the likes of Ellen Page, Natalie Portman and Carey Mulligan as possible contenders.

Mara, the sister of actress Kate Mara, appeared in the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street and had small parts in TV dramas ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Craig, 42, who is best known as the most recent incarnation of James Bond, will play journalist and amateur sleuth Mikael Blomkvist in the movie, which director David Fincher starts shooting in Sweden next month for a release date of December 2011.

Craig and Mara will also appear in U.S. movie versions of Larsson’s two sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

That tight schedule could mess up Craig’s plans to don the 007 tuxedo again, despite his success in Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008), his two Bond films that pulled in $1.1 billion (U.S.) in worldwide box office.

“It’s out of my hands,” the British actor said during a break from shooting on the New Mexico set of Cowboys & Aliens last week. “I’m ready and willing, and if I get the call, I’ll be there.”

It’s not clear when or even if that call will come. A fiscal crisis at MGM — the studio is $4 billion in debt — has suspended the cinema spy’s licence to kill, and there may be some discord among the current creative team about the direction of the next film, which would be the 23rd in the storied franchise.

The question is whether an especially long delay might prompt the franchise decision-makers to go for a new, younger Bond and a new story cycle, much as Sony is doing with a total restart of its Spider-Man franchise.

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Tags: Actor, Actress, American, american actress, British, columbia pictures, drama, Mexico, Sweden