Speculation is rampant on who will play The Girl With the Dragon Tatto in the American version of the movies based on the Stieg Larsson trilogy.

In the UK, the tabloids are writing that Emma Watson (who has had some experience with a book series brought to the movies; she played Hermione in the Harry Potter films) has “hacked off” her hair to audition for the role.

The CBS Early Show reported on the “hot buzz” yesterday, mentioning Natalie Portman and Ellen Page (Juno, Inception), but holding out the idea that an unknown would be more interesting.

One of the early front-runners, Cary Mulligan, is no longer a candidate; some speculate that director David Fincher found her too “clean cut.”

Daniel Craig will play the lead, Mikael Blomkvist. Robin Wright is reportedly in negotiations to play Erika Berger, Blomkvist’s love interest.

On Friday, ABC’s Nightline interviewed Larsson’s real-life partner, the woman he lived with for 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson.

Meanwhile, critic Maureen Corrigan spoke about other Nordic mysteries on NPR’s Fresh Air last night, propelling titles by the writing team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo up the Amazon sales rankings.

Those wonderful folks who brought you the Twilight movies may now be bringing you Babar. According to the movie news site, Deadline, Twilight producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey have sealed a deal to produce a series that combines live-action and animation.

Heading to the both the Toronto and Venice film festivals in September, is the film version of Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version, starring Paul Giamatti. No theater dates yet; it’s waiting to find a US distributor.

The book has a big following in Italy, where the editor of one of the newspapers fell in love with it in 2001 and began running daily stories featuring it, according to a Canadian Broadcasting story:

Because of that, the book’s Paris scenes have been changed to Rome for the film.

The cast also includes Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, and Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight).

Don’t be alarmed — the trailer may be preceded by a promo foranother movie.

USA Today reports that Steven Spielberg begins shooting the movie of the children’s book War Horse this week.

Release date is scheduled for August 2011.

Spielberg is also finishing up The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, starring Daniel Craig, scheduled for Dec. 23, 2011.

War Horse Michael Morpurgo Retail Price: $16.99 Hardcover: 176 pages Publisher: Scholastic Press – (2007-04-01) ISBN / EAN: 0439796636 / 9780439796637

One of the titles on the Booker long list, Skippy Dies, is being adapted as a movie script by Neil Jordan, who also plans to direct, reports the movie news site, Deadline. The book, which the Telegraph called a “… glorious comedy” has been a strong seller in the UK. It arrives here at the end of the month.

Skippy Dies: A Novel Paul Murray Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 672 pages Publisher: Faber & Faber – (2010-08-31) ISBN / EAN: 0865479437 / 9780865479432

Halle Berry has signed to star in Shoe Addicts Anonymous, a movie based on the bestseller by Beth Harbison (St. Martins, 2007), according to the movie news site Deadline. It will be directed by Paul Weiland (Made of Honor). No shooting dates have been announced, but Deadline says it will begin before Berry opens on Broadway in The Mountaintop this Fall.

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Hugo Cabret, the live-action 3-D movie directed by Martin Scorcese and currently shooting in London, has added Emily Mortimer (Shutter Island) and Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) to the cast that includes Jude Law, Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen, according to TheWrap. Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) plays Hugo. Based on the Caldecott award winning The invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick (Scholastic, 2007), the movie is currently scheduled to open on Dec. 9, 2011.

With her new movie, Salt, hitting theaters this weekend, it seems Angelina Jolie is all over the newsstands.

But, will she be all over the movie Cleopatra, based on the forthcoming bio by Stacy Schiff (Little, Brown, Nov)?

Perhaps the oddly similar poses on the covers of that bio and the forthcoming Jolie bio by Andrew Morton (St. Martin’s, Aug) are prophetic?

Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider blog asked Jolie about the rumors. She replied,

I would be honored. I’m fascinated by her. I love history, and I love that part of the world, but we haven’t gotten the script yet so we we’ll see if there is something that’s good enough, and then we’ll try to make it. I’m not sure I could top Elizabeth Taylor. I don’t know that anybody could be better [playing Cleopatra] than Elizabeth Taylor. I love her. She’s always been one of my favorites.

Meanwhile, the UK Telegraph claims Jolie is also in the running to play Elizabeth Taylor in a movie based on the bio, Furious Love, which they say Mike Nicholls wants to direct. Seems unlikely, but then, he did have experience directing the real Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf. Liz Smith called the story, which also appeared on ETOnline, “curious” in her column on WowoWow yesterday.

Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century Sam Kashner, Nancy Schoenberger Retail Price: $27.99 Hardcover: 512 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-06-01) ISBN / EAN: 006156284X / 9780061562846

The English-language film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has just been scheduled for release on December 21, 2011, reports the movie news site Deadline, which also comments, “…with the Swedish film version having made $100+M worldwide so far this year, many quarters are predicting that Sony Pictures will screw up the Hollywood version.”

The leads have not yet been cast, but “the studio continues talking with Daniel Craig to play publisher Mikael Blomkvist” and several actresses are rumored to be in the running for the role of Lisbeth Salander:

• Carey Mulligan (An Education and Never Let Me Go, scheduled for 9/15/10; it is based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro)

• Ellen Page (Inception, Juno)

• Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland)

• Emily Browning (Sucker Punch, scheduled for March 25, 2011)

• Sara Snook (Sleeping Beauty, scheduled for release in Australia in 2011)

• Rooney Mara (The Social Network, coming Oct 1, based on the book Accidental Billionaires, by Ben Mezrich; it is directed by David Fincher, who will also direct Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)

• Sophie Lowe (Blame, Australia; no release date set for the US)

Noomi Rapace, who has been praised for her work in the Swedish-language version, is not in the running. She has made it clear in interviews that she does not want to revisit the character. Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson have all been rumored for the part, too, but they are not included in Deadline’s list.

The film of The Exra Man, based on the book by Jonathan Ames debuted in NYC last night. The movie stars Kevin Klein, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly and Katie Holmes and opens on July 30th.

In an unusual move, it is also available now on Pay per View or On Demand.

We recently updated all our movie listings, including Upcoming Movies — with Tie-ins; check it out for new titles and related tie-ins.

Official Movie Site: TheExtraManMovie.com

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The Extra Man: A Novel Jonathan Ames Retail Price: $15.00 Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-07-13) ISBN / EAN: 1439196494 / 9781439196496

Jonathan Ames is also the creator of the HBO series  Bored to Death, about a writer turned private detective who happens to also be named Jonathan Ames. It begins its second season on September 20.

Bored to Death: A Noir-otic Story Jonathan Ames Retail Price: $9.99 Paperback: 38 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-10-06) ISBN / EAN: 1439184372 / 9781439184370

The movie Beastly, based on the YA novel by Alex Flinn has been moved from its original opening date of July 30th to March 18th, to make room for another teen movie  Charlie St. Cloud, is based on The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, by Ben Sherwood.

Here’s a wonderful twist; the leads of each movie, Zac Efron in St. Cloud and Venessa Hudgens in Beastly, are romantically involved.

Why the move? Even a source as knowledgeable as MTV expresses surprise, saying, “…the inner workings of the film business are a mystery to most of those on the outside looking in. Sometimes, even the individuals closest to the projects are left in the dark.”

The book business is also left in the dark, with a movie tie-in of Beastly on the shelves and no movie to tie in to.

Beastly Movie Tie-in Edition Alex Flinn Retail Price: $8.99 Paperback: 336 pages Publisher: HarperTeen – (2010-07-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061963283 / 9780061963285

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Charlie St. Cloud: A Novel Ben Sherwood Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Bantam – (2010-06-22) ISBN / EAN: 0553584022 / 9780553584028

Back in March, People magazine speculated on a dream cast for the movie of The Help. Now that the movie is shooting in Greenwood, Mississippi, People has to admit that none of their choices made it.

Comparisons, below.  When we will see the results of the casting? So far, nothing more definite than “sometime next year.”

Role: Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan — Old Miss grad who returns home to Jackson, Miss. in the ’60’s and decides to enlist the local maids in writing a book that reveals what they really think of their employers.
People pick: Claire Danes
Role went to: Emma Stone.
Recently appeared in: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Role: Aibileen; the first maid to join the project. A strong and wise woman who has raised 17 of the local community’s children.
People pick: Oprah Winfrey
Role went to: Viola Davis
Known for: Received Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Doubt (2006)

Role: Hilly Holbrook, the local mean girl and Skeeter’s nemesis
People pick: Anne Hathaway
Role went to: Bryce Dallas Howard
Recently played: the villainous vampire Victoria in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2006)

Role: Minny, Abilene’s good friend. Unable to hold her tongue, and, as a result, a job as a maid, she winds up working on the sly for Jackson newcomer Celia Foote, who is desperate to make her husband think she can cook and clean.
People pick: Mo’Nique
Role went to: Octavia Spencer
Recently appeared in: the TV series Ugly Betty

Role: Celia Foote
People pick: Scarlett Johansson
Role went to: Jessica Chastain
Recently appeared in: several TV series and a bit part in the recent Winter’s Bone

If you enjoy speculation on who should play whom in upcoming movies, check out the movie blog The Wrap’s predictions of which actors would be convincing in the roles of John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards and Rielle Hunter (Meg Ryan??) in the film of The Politician.

Heavy promotion is beginning for the Starz networks 8-part series based on Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth, which begins Friday, July 23rd. The cast includes Ian McShane (Waleran) and Donald Sutherland (Bartholomew).

Official Web Site: Starz.com.Pillars

Tie in:

The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett Retail Price: $7.99 Mass Market Paperback: 983 pages Publisher: Signet – (1990-07-09) ISBN / EAN: 0451166892 / 9780451166890

Opening today is the second Swedish language movie based on Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

The first movie in the series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, was one of this year’s highest-grossing independent films, according to Variety, despite a limited opening. Although it was released on DVD this week, it is still playing in many theaters and is continues to roll out to more.

Reviews are divided, but all of them attest to the power of actress Noomi Rapace, who plays the girl of the title.

A.O Scott, NY Times — “The satisfactions it offers are those of above-average serial television…”
Betsy Sharkey, L.A. Times — “Excellent”
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly — B+

An American version of the series is in the works. While Carey Mulligan (An Education), Kristen Stewart, Natalie Portman, and Scarlett Johansson have all been rumored as the choice to play Lisbeth Sander, no decision has been announced yet. It was recently announced that Daniel Craig, the latest James Bond, will play Mikael Blomkvist.

The third Swedish language movie in the series is likely to be released here in the Fall.

In case, like me,  you’ve been doing double-takes about the movie, The Kids Are All Right, opening this Friday; it is NOT based on the book of the same title that came out in September.

The movie is about a lesbian couple who take their kids to meet their biological father. It is based on an original screenplay.

The book is a memoir, written by four siblings, who were left on their own after the deaths of both parents.

There is one small movie connection, however; indie actress Parker Posey reviews the book on Amazon’s web site.

As far as we know, Kevin Bacon has nothing to do with either the book or the movie.

The Kids Are All Right: A Memoir Diana Welch, Liz Welch, Amanda Welch, Dan Welch Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: Harmony – (2009-09-29) ISBN / EAN: 0307396045 / 9780307396044