Sony Pictures has announced that they have cast the lead role of Lisbeth Salander in the US remake of the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo … and the part has been won by Rooney Mara! Mara is the younger sister of Kate Mara (who starred in Brokeback Mountain) and was seen most recently this year in the updated remake of the 80′s classic horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street. Here is what she looks like along with the full press release issued by Sony about her casting in Dragon Tattoo:

Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara have been cast in the lead roles of Columbia Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy under the direction of David Fincher. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – the first film of the series, which also includes The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – begins shooting next month in Sweden. The screenplay is written by Steve Zaillian and the film is being produced by Scott Rudin, Cean Chaffin, Ole Sondberg and Søren Stærmose. Mikael Wallen and Anni Fernandez are executive producers. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is set for worldwide release December 21, 2011 … The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson has been published in 44 countries and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide thus far. In the U.S. alone, the series has sold over 10 million copies, and the sales were recently calculated at the remarkable rate of one book per second … n describing the scale of Larsson’s achievement, The Economist said: “Stieg Larsson’s vivid characters, the depth of the detail across the three books, the powerfully imaginative plot, and the sheer verve of the writing make the trilogy a masterpiece of its genre.” Michiko Kakutani, of The New York Times, described the Lisbeth character: “Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s fierce pixie of a heroine, is one of the most original characters in a thriller to come along in a while – a gamin, Audrey Hepburn look-alike but with tattoos and piercings, the take-no-prisoners attitude of Lara Croft and the cool, unsentimental intellect of Mr. Spock. She is the vulnerable victim turned vigilante; a willfully antisocial girl . . . who has proved herself to be as incandescently proficient as any video game warrior.” The three novels have all become #1 worldwide bestsellers, an achievement unrivaled in trade book publishing.

And there you have it … THE most coveted female role in Hollywood right now goes to the relatively unknown Rooney Mara. It should be noted that Mara is featured in the David Fincher directed film The Social Network, due out this Fall, so it should come as no big surprise that Fincher (who is also directing the Dragon Tattoo Trilogy remakes) decided to cast Mara in the lead Dragon Tattoo role. It remains to be seen if Rooney Mara has the chops to bring the role of Lisbeth Salander to life … she’s got a LOT to measure up to. We shall see if she is up to the task.

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