The past week saw significant progress in casting two highly publicized films scheduled to debut in 2011. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo now has its Henrik Vanger; Sherlock Holmes 2 has gained both its Mycroft and its Moriarty.
Christopher Plummer will portray Henrick Vanger in the U.S. version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a film based on Stieg Larsson’s bestseller. Vanger, a millionaire industrialist who heads the Vanger dynasty, asks journalist Mikael Blomkvist, played by Daniel Craig, to solve the 40-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of his grandniece Harriet. Blomkvist then hires the tattooed young computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander, portrayed by Rooney Mara, to assist him in this quest.
Christopher Plummer, star of both stage and screen, is perhaps best known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965), in which he costarred with Julie Andrews. Plummer’s recent film roles include the voice of the villain in Disney/Pixar's Up (2009) and the Oscar-nominated role of Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). Plummer will appear next in Screen Gems' Priest, in which he plays Monsignor Orelas.
Sherlock Holmes 2, the sequel 2009 Sherlock Holmes film directed by Guy Ritchie, adds both Stephen Fry as Holmes' brother Mycroft and Jared Harris as Holmes’s arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty. Robert Downey Jr. continues as Sherlock Holmes, as does Jude Law as Dr. Watson. Noomi Rapace, who starred as Lisbeth Salander in the earlier Swedish film version of Larsson’s book, takes on the female lead role in Sherlock Holmes 2.
Stephen Fry comes to the role of Mycroft, Sherlock Holmes' brilliant but lazy brother, with a career that includes work as a comedian and writer as well as an actor. Fans of the television series Bones, based on the Temperance Brennan mystery series by Kathy Reichs, will recognize Fry as Dr. Gordon Wyatt, a role he played in five episodes from 2007- 2009. He also supplied the voice of the Cheshire Cat in the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland.
Jared Harris, son of the late Irish actor Richard Harris, reputedly won the role of Professor Moriarty against such potential competitors as Brad Pitt and Daniel Day-Lewis. Harris’s films include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Lady in the Water (2006) and Mr. Deeds( 2002). Recently he appeared as Lane Pryce in the television series Mad Men (2009-2010).
Both The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Sherlock Holmes 2 will premier in 2011. Sherlock Holmes 2 now has a December 16, 2011 release date. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo debuts less than a week later on December 21st.
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