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.

You may have seen the Old Spice Guy video. Now, he has competition, from a library promo video.

Earlier, the Old Spice Guy tried his hand at promoting libraries. Nice try, but we’d rather look at the New Guy.
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The New Spice Guy video appears on Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library web site, as well as on YouTube, where it’s received over 1.3 million hits since it was posted last week. It was made by the library’s multimedia production crew (here’s hoping they don’t get hired away). You can see more HBLL Productions on their YouTube channel,  A BYU’s news release says that the New Spice Guy is Stephen Jones, a senior studying psychology and president of BYU’s stand-up comedy club.

Here’s hoping The New Spice Guy signals the end of lame library videos

Now, let’s work on ending lame book trailers.

On the Today Show, Matt Lauer takes Daniel Silva to task about his book, The Rembrandt Affair, which was released yesterday. Silva says the book’s villain was inspired by Bernie Madoff.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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: 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, Aibilene’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

A profile of London hedge fund manager and “contrarian thinker” Hugh Hendry in the NYT’‘s “Global Business” section mentions that he is inspired by a novel from 1932, A Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan. In the book, five people are given the opportunity to see one year into the future.

According to the NYT, “Hendry says it taught him to envision the future without neglecting what happened leading up to it, a mistake many investors make, he said.”

Even though the  book isn’t mentioned until the end of the piece, it caused a bump in sales on Amazon, to #158 from #434,928 yesterday.

The Gap In The Curtain John Buchan Retail Price: $14.95 Paperback: 236 pages Publisher: House of Stratus – (2008-09-23) ISBN / EAN: 1842327674 / 9781842327678

Amazon, facing Wall Street’s concern about competition from the iPad (the stock is down 16% in the last three months), announced yesterday that sales of ebooks are outstripping sales of hardcovers. In the last three months, for every 100 hardcovers, Amazon sold 143 books in Kindle format. In the last month, the rate has increased to 180 ebooks to 100 hardcovers.

This is significant news, if not the “tipping point” that Amazon claims (as of May, according to the AAP, ebook sales are 8.48% of trade sales; adult hardcovers are 43.2%).

Amazon doesn’t reveal actual numbers, just comparisons, so it’s important to remember a couple of things;

Ebooks are being compared to hardcovers, but paperbacks are still the strongest sales category for Amazon

In June, Amazon lowered the price of the Kindle, tripling sales of the device. All those new Kindle owners did what anyone with a new toy does; they bought software to go with the hardware.

For information on actual sales, we have to turn to estimates. NPR’s Morning Edition quotes an analyst at Forrester Research who says there may be 6 million devices in the market right now, most of them Kindles and that by the end of the year, the total may be close to 11 million.

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.

It seems strange that a mystery reviewer would denigrate plot. Isn’t plot a particularly important element of the genre?

In the Washington Post, reviewer Patrick Anderson faults the thriller Still Missing by Chevy Stevens for not having interesting characters, calling it “blatantly commercial” and complaining, “The strength of the novel lies not in its characters or insights but in a shrewdly calculated, suspenseful plot that uncorks one surprise after another.”

After a strong review from Janet Maslin in the NYT two weeks ago, the book rose to #35 on Amazon; it is now at #106.

Still Missing has been a favorite on our Galley Chat sessions. One of our regulars says it’s one of the most memorable titles so far this year. Several libraries are showing heavy holds.

Still Missing Chevy Stevens Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 352 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-07-06) ISBN / EAN: 0312595670 / 9780312595678

Brilliance Audio UNABR

8 CD’s; 9781441843203; $79.97
MP3-CD; 9781441843227; $39.97

Dennis Lehane heartily endorses debut noir novel Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto in Sunday’s NYT Book Review. Although he thinks Pizzolatto makes some missteps in the opening chapters — he’s “too self-conscious about [the genre’s] structural baggage” —  he resolves that quickly and then,

…settles into the book he wants to write, an often incandescent fever dream of low-rent, unbearable beauty…in its authenticity and fearless humanism, [Galveston] recalls only the finest examples of the form: Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past and David Goodis’s Down There, Carl Franklin’s One False Move and James Ellroy’s Black Dahlia.

Both the PW and Booklist reviews were strong; Kirkus found it “An unsatisfying split-personality novel redeemed by some terrific dialogue.” Most libraries are showing holds on light ordering.

Pizzolatto published a story collection, Between Here and the Yellow Sea, in 2006.

Galveston: A Novel Nic Pizzolatto Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2010-06-15) ISBN / EAN: 1439166641 / 9781439166642

Tantor Audio; Read by Michael Kramer; UNABR; Simultaneous

Trade; 9781400117567; 6 Audio CDs; $29.99
Library; 9781400147564; 6 Audio CDs; $71.99
MP3; 9781400167562; 1 MP3-CD; $19.99

The NYT Book Review throws a curve ball this week by putting Citrus County by John Brandon on the cover. Daniel Handler (aka Lemon Snicket) calls it,

…a great story in great prose, a story that keeps you turning pages even as you want to slow to savor them, full of characters who are real because they are so unlikely. “Citrus County” subverts countless expectations to conform to our expectations of a very good book.

Kirkus had a different take, “If Flannery O’Connor wrote Holden Caulfield as a child-snatcher, this is the mess she would make.” Publishers Weekly was much more laudatory, “Brandon’s dry wit, dark imagination, and surprisingly big heart combine to reveal a Florida that, despite (or because of) being more Ted Bundy than Disney World, is absolutely worth visiting.”

Libraries ordered it in very small quantities.

Citrus County John Brandon Retail Price: $22.00 Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: McSweeney’s – (2010-07-06) ISBN / EAN: 1934781533 / 9781934781531

The author is also interviewed in the NYT‘s book blog, “Paper Cuts.”

Last month, NPR asked their listeners to nominate the most “pulse-quickening, suspenseful novels ever written.” They ended up with 600 titles. Then they asked a panel of writers and critics to winnow it down. Below are the resulting 182 novels, which they invite you to vote on (or, you can just have fun using it to test your readers advisory knowledge).

Winners will be announced on Aug 2.

NPR’s Killer Thrillers Poll – Vote For 10