Fans of the Millennium series of novels, originally created by Stieg Larsson though continued by David Lagercrantz in his 2015 book, might be slightly confused by The Girl in the Spider's Web. The fifth film to be created for vigilante Lisbeth Salander, Spider's Web introduces a new actress in the infamous part (The Crown's Claire Foy), though it has no real connectivity to David Fincher's take on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (as that starred Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig in the signature leads).
When CinemaBlend ventured to Berlin to visit the set of Fede Alvarez's upcoming adaptation of The Girl in the Spider's Web, we asked the director about his take on the material (there will be a greater emphasis on Lisbeth over Mikael Blomkvist in this movie), and how he planned to juggle the books that precede his story -- possibly even filling in a few character gaps about the elusive Lisbeth Salander. Alvarez explained to us:
There was [a] story in the book that I connect with, but there was a lot of freedom to interpret that and tell my own story. It's something that I wanted to do because ... I think there were a lot of elements of Lisbeth that you get to learn a lot more about her, and her life, and times with her father and all of those elements that made it into the second or third... Kind of our approach, with Jay Basu, my co-writer on this, it was like, 'Let's base the storyline on the main elements that happened in the fourth book, but let's take some of the emotional journeys that she goes through.' And even the kind of structure of the plot, there are things that happen in books two and three.So, for people who are familiar with the books, they will see little moments, and they will go 'That's straight out of the second book, and that moment of more like it's based on the third book.' There are little windows into those books as well. In a way, based on all of two, three and four in a way, but obviously most of the characters and all of that come from the fourth book.
There's something refreshing about entering into a franchise midstream, especially with a fresh set of ideas behind the camera (in Fede Alvarez) and a new Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) preparing to administer justice for the wronged. While Alvarez and his team are able to focus on the events of the fourth book in the series, The Girl in the Spider's Web can also pick and choose themes and moods from the previous three books that he feels either were underserved by the previous film adaptations, or that better help him form his unique spin on Lisbeth.
So far, Fede Alvarez's The Girl in the Spider's Web looks like this:
We learned a lot while on the Berlin set of The Girl in the Spider's Web, and will be bringing it to you in stages as we get closer to the release date. The movie, which co-stars Claire Foy, Sylvia Hoeks, Lakeith Stanfield and Vicky Krieps will be in theaters on November 9, and we will prep you for that release with several more stories to come. Lisbeth Salander is back. Say a prayer she isn't coming for you.
