The Roundup III

Rooney Mara is 'The Girl'
With the announcement of Rooney Mara being cast as Lisbeth Salander in director David Fincher's 2011 adaptation of the worldwide bestseller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," the major casting choices in the first film of the expected trilogy are complete. Joining Mara will be Daniel Craig as journalist Mikael Blomkvist, Robin Wright as Erika Berger and Stellan Skarsgard as Martin Vanger.
So, who is Rooney Mara, you may ask? Good question, as she's largely an unknown in the public eye. Or at least she was until now. Her biggest role to date has been one of the leads in this year's remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street." And no, she wasn't Freddy Krueger.
She has a supporting role in Fincher's upcoming film about Facebook's beginnings, called "The Social Network." That likely gave her a boost in the casting process, which Fincher had insisted the role should go to a lesser known name.
Regardless of the casting decisions, which seem good, Mara will be hard pressed to top Noomi Rapace's exceptional performance in the Swedish version of the film. That film (which is now out on DVD and Blu-ray and worth seeing, if you can stomach the sordid material) is quite good overall and will be a challenge for Fincher to top. I'd be rather skeptical of his chances, if not for his body of work, which includes very good films dealing with just this kind of subject matter ("Zodiac," "Se7en"). Plus, the screenwriter is Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian, who has adapted screenplays for "Schindler's List" and "A Civil Action," among others.
Incidentally, the second Swedish film in the trilogy, "The Girl Who Played with Fire," is now out in selected cities and will be on DVD and Blu-ray in late October.



Ladies, Marilyn Manson is back on market
For what is apparently the third time, rock star (and I use that term loosely) Marilyn Manson and actress Evan Rachel Wood have broken up, according to People magazine. The two had actually been engaged since January, but now it looks like the wedding of the year (just behind Chelsea Clinton's nuptials) is off.
But on the positive side, Manson is once again untethered in the dating world for all those looking to hook up with a weirdly ugly musician who has long since faded from the popular music scene.