Cult Millennium crime trilogy to be shot in Stockholm: film commission

A Hollywood version of the cult Millennium crime trilogy by late Swedish author Stieg Larsson will be at least partially shot in Stockholm, the Stockholm Film Commission said Wednesday.

"The outdoor scenes at least will be shot in Stockholm," commission chairman Anders Ekgren told AFP, adding that the shoot was scheduled to begin in October.

"How many of the indoor scenes will be shot here is not clear yet," he added.

The Yellowbird production company behind the popular Swedish feature-length screen version of the books meanwhile refused to confirm that the new film shoot would take place in the Swedish capital.

"The first version of the script won't be out until the end of May or June at some point. Before that it is hard to say where the shoot will take place," Yellowbird chief executive Mikael Wallen told AFP.

He said Steve Zaillian, who among other things won an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Schindler's List", is writing the script for the films, which are being co-produced by Sony's Columbia Pictures and Yellowbird.

The main producer is Scott Rudin, known for his work on the Hollywood hits "Revolutionary Road", "The Hours" and "No Country for Old Men", Wallen said, adding that it had yet to be decided who would direct and act in the movie.

Swedish media has speculated that David Fincher, behind such films as "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Fight Club", "Seven and The Game", will direct the film, but Wallen insisted that "that is just a rumour."

The Millennium trilogy has become a phenomenon in Sweden and abroad, translated into more than 30 languages.

By the end of last year, more than 20 million copies had been sold in Europe alone, raking in 130 million kronor (12.5 million euros, 18.3 million dollars), according to Swedish news agency TT.

Larsson's books depict a dark and violent Sweden brimming with state and family secrets, and follow the lives of Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative reporter, and Lisbeth Salander, a feisty rebel hacker-turned-detective.

Larsson, who worked as a journalist in Stockholm before writing the books, did not live to enjoy their sensational success; he died in November 2004 of a heart attack, aged 50, a year before the first book was published.