This short and sweet article outlines Music Box Films’ strategy for the U.S. release of the Millennium Trilogy films. Stay tuned for more from WSJ as writer and editor Christopher John Farley will publish a full interview with Noomi Rapace (the actress who plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish films) before The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo premiers in the states on March 19th.

Three Films Based on Stieg Larsson Books Due Out in U.S. This Year

by Christopher John Farley

American fans of  the novels of Swedish writer Stieg Larsson are eagerly awaiting the U.S. publication of the third, and possibly last, book in his ”Millennium” series, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Music Box Films, which is releasing a big-screen version of the first book in the series next month, says it plans to also issue film versions of the other two books in the U.S. this summer.

The movie adaptation of the first book, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” is due out March 19. Ed Arentz, managing director of Music Box Films, says the company tentatively plans to release in the U.S. movie adaptations of the series’ second book “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” in July and August respectively. All three films, which are in Swedish with English subtitles, have already been released in Europe.

Arentz says that “the second film is kind of a cliffhanger” — part of the reason why the company is planning to release the third film just a month later. The second and third films may also be released on video on demand and DVD around the same time, but plans are still being finalized, he said…

…Read the full article here